ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: N4KG
Operator(s): N4KG
Station: N4KG
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: ALA
Operating Time (hrs): 13
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 567 Sections = 79 Countries = 17 Total Score = 116,640
Club: Alabama Contest Group
Comments:
My original goal was to see how my New Reverse-Fed Elevated GP antenna performed
compared with my resurrected Inverted L in the woods with a 130 ft tower and
3L15 on top in-between them. I started by spotting and calling barefoot to see
how well I could do with 100w. I was very impressed with the performance of the
Elevated GP with only 2 radials at 10 ft !
Several years ago I finally discovered that the Tall Tower was acting as a
Parasitic Reflector with about 10 dB F/B between 2 different 160M verticals.
My new GP consists of 95 ft of R45 supporting a 2L40 to which I added 2
Elevated Radials (at 150 and 330 degrees) 10 ft above ground.
Basically, I had 2 elements aimed at ZL and ZS with a broad front lobe (160
degrees) and a rear lobe suppressed by 6 to 12 dB depending on exactly where
the reflector was tuned. I found that the Best Way to see the difference in
received signal strengths was to turn the receiver AGC OFF. The differences
became immediately obvious by ear and were almost always apparent except to the
North where both antennas were working off the side.
I had NO intention of making a serious effort but the DXer in me started
tracking sections and DX worked (yes, I resorted to keying the amplifier on a
few DX stations whose pileups were too big to break barefoot).
Friday night's propagation was mostly domestic with strong DX signals only from
the Caribbean. CS2C was the only European heard or worked and the W6's were
weak and late in coming through.
Saturday night had much better propagation to Europe and the Western regions.
I picked up KH6, KP3, WL7E, VE1,4,5,7 and VY1AAA along with most of the missing
sections except NNY (heard NJ9C give NNY) but Never Heard LAX or San Francisco
or VO1HT even though I saw him spotted a few times. I concluded that no one in
LA or SF has a back yard big enough to support a 160M antenna :-(
I was actually able to run several Europeans even without RX antennas. I just
said "QRN - repeat call" and was finally able to work a few (DLs F
ON).
Tom N4KG in North Alabama
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