CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: AA4VT
Operator(s): AA4VT AA4V W4GE NZ4CW
Station: AA4VT
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: SC
Operating Time (hrs): 38:48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 30 7 8
80: 184 18 53
40: 320 27 77
20: 781 27 101
15: 482 26 89
10: 105 13 31
------------------------------
Total: 1902 118 359 Total Score = 2,411,712
Club: Carolina DX Association
Comments:
For the past four years Steve, AA4V; Rick W4GE; Gay, N4SF; and Dave AA4VT; have
travelled as group to various islands outside the US to work the CQ WW DX SSB
contest. This year, fate made us stay home in the USA. Naturally, we chose the
location to be one of our own ham shacks with the largest tower and beam.
A high-power Multi/2 station is a huge endeavor for a 1/4-acre lot in suburban
Charleston, SC. Luckily, one of us had the smarts to figure out how to put two
1500W stations together in a 10x12 foot ham shack, all under computer control,
such that interference was minimal across all six bands of interest. Wow! Hats
off to our resident engineer, Dave, AA4VT. Not only that, we learned that all
this power could be had in a Covid safe, comfortable, air-conditioned setting,
complete with running water, plenty of electricity, and easy chairs in which to
rest between shifts! Hurray for Dave!!
We also learned to love his tower and SteppIR DB36 at 75 feet with 3 elements on
40m and 4 elements for 20-10m with that quick 180-degree pattern reverse
setting. At 40 feet, there was a Hy-Gain TH-6DXX with its own Ring rotor for
20-10m. 160M was done by shunt feeding the 72-foot tower (91 feet to the top of
the mast), using the beams as top-loading and matched by an automated remote
antenna tuner custom programmed by AA4VT. We had to build just one antenna: an
80m, a 1/4 wave vertical which was a piece of cake using a 60 foot Spiderbeam
support pole in the front yard with 28 radials to fill in the near-field giving
us a 1.1:1 SWR at 3750 KHz. (Yes, it got comments from the neighbors and the XYL
was visiting family out of town) 😊
The only thing missing was our partner in crime Gay, N4SF, who could not join us
this year because of Covid and the isolation that have entailed after travelling
from sunny California. We missed him greatly. Next time, buddy!!
Rigs: Elecraft K3/P3 x 2, Acom 2000A, KPA 1500, FilterMax IV band-pass filters,
VA6AM high-powered triplexer and band-pass filters for 20-10m, Stack Match for
feeding two antennas on 20-10m, multiple 6x2 antenna switches, lots of coaxial
stubs and hundreds of ferrites controlled by two of K8UT’s latest Raspberry Pi
FreqEZ and a programmable logic controller for the shunt fed tower remote tuner
and error proofing.
Antennas: See above
Our hats off to all the interference reducing reference articles and
presentations provided over the years by K9YC, K1TTT, K2TR and N0AX. They were a
godsend!
Thanks to all for working us in the pileups and for the courtesy extended by
everyone. Hope to work you all next year!
Rick W4GE
Steve, AA4V
Craig NZ4CW
and, of course,
Dave AA4VT
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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