Stew Perry Topband Challenge
Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Point Arena, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 72 Total Score = 305
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Rig: Flex-3000, 100 watts
Loc: CM88eu
Antenna: None
Well, OK, I did get some RF to leave the premises...
Since my antenna only covers 10-80, I hadn't planned on working this contest.
But the rules were refreshingly interesting, so on Sunday I put the radio on
160 to listen to whatever I might be able to hear of the action. Since I saw a
surprising number of stations on the panadapter display, I wondered -- can
anybody hear me? So I answered a CQ from the strongest station, and he came
back to me!
Tried a few more, and more, and a few hours later I had 72 stations in the log,
including Hawaii to the west, Alaska to north, Ontario to east, and Mexico south
- all stations with good ears. There were of course lots of stations that
couldn't hear me, even in the clear, but many more that could. I found I could
work about 75% of stations I could hear. Didn't hear any EU, Caribbean, or SA.
I probably didn't stay up late enough to pick up anything further west, like
JA.
Since I'm not ever on 160, I don't know what are typical conditions, but the
band seemed pretty quiet - baseline noise about S3, with the strongest signals
up at 30+S9. Felt like 80m. I did have some problems with rain noise though -
the downpours on the roof made the shack roar at times. Activating the
headphones took care of that.
This was a nice contest. It seemed less frenetic than the usual battles, and
code speeds mostly down in the 22-25 wpm range. Finding new stations by
listening made it more of a radio contest than a computer/internet one.
Congratulations to the BARC for setting a nice stage.
Thanks to the people who pulled my weak signal out. I'm LP, so you get extra
points. Maybe the contest team will decide that an LP station with no antenna
is at least as hard to work as a QRP, and award you even more!
By the way, the RF to/from the rig travels about 150 feet through coax to an
MFJ tuner mounted on the ground directly below the feedpoint of an 80m Carolina
Windom up about 35 feet. At the rig, the SWR was about 1.3:1, so the MFJ was
doing a good job. Somehow some RF was managing to get radiated from
something.
Fun contest. Maybe next year I'll try it with an antenna!
73,
/Jack
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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