CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2023
Call: KH6AQ
Operator(s): KH6AQ NH6V
Station: KH6AQ
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: PAHOA, HI
Operating Time (hrs): 24:05
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 581 State/Prov = 54 Countries = 15 Total Score = 399,441
Club:
Comments:
Another successful topband "field day" operation from the Big island
of Hawaii. And before we forget, thanks to everyone we worked and we hope you
all had as much fun as we did.
NH6V and KH6AQ began setting up at 6 am Friday morning and were on the air by
4:30 pm. Propagation was not fantastic yet provided 24 hours of lowband fun.
Local RFI was low and we could dig most callers out of the noise. The first
night yielded 441 Qs while the second we got 140 between running, S&P and
spots. It is true that there's no band like top band.
We ran 1500 watts to a 45 deg sloping (away from NA) 1/4 wavelength vertical
wire worked against two elevated 130' radials. The antenna was improved from the
same used in the Big Stew back in December. The radials were higher this time
with the lowest points being 8' above lava rock and about 50' back from the
ocean and parallel to the shoreline. The other improvement was having it slope
toward the top of a 140' tree rather than 100 ft. EZNEC shows this over
land/near ocean antenna to have 2 dB more loss than being completely over the
ocean. Compared to a land only antenna it shows about a 6 dB boost in signal. We
can see this in RBN data vs other Hawaii island stations. We ran a 500 W tube
amp in the Stew and a 1500 W SS amp this time for 5 dB more signal.
The "shack" was a little Honda FIT. The operating position is the
passenger seat which is quite comfortable. A wooden board on the op's lap held a
laptop PC, Bencher paddles and a mouse. The FTdx-10 sat up on the dash board
within easy reach. The SPE Expert 1.5K amp had the driver's seat and performed
flawlessly. 1500 W running off a 120 VAC generator is impressive. To limit the
amount of salt air in the "shack," and to keep things cool, the car
engine idled the entire time to keep the AC going. 4 gallons of gasoline in 24
hours seems just right. We switched ops as we got tired and that worked out
naturally to 3 hour shifts. The resting op slept in the second car right next to
the generator. That guy could tell what what going on in the shack by listening
to the generator responding. Operations ceased 20 minutes before the planned
5:30 HST ending time due to the generator running out of gas. We tried many
times yet couldn't snag zone 24.
The generator was a brand new $250, 4 kW unit. Nothing fancy and it made quite a
racket, especially when keying the SPE Expert amp. The generator governor mushed
the CW sounds together such that while not copyable it played the CQ TEST tune
hour after hour. The generator does produce RFI which we knocked down
considerably with an L-GND filter. The 120 VAC wires (minus generator GND which
was not connected) were wrapped 10 times through two stacked FT240-31 (I think)
ferrite cores. The extension cord ground was connected at the choke area to a 1'
ground rod. A cellphone in hotspot mode provided a connection for N1MM to
display skimmer spots.
We brought homemade low sodium frozen burritos and homemade cookies along with
fruit to eat. This healthy food was balanced out with McDonald's and frozen TV
dinners.
FTdx-10
SPE Expert 1.5K at 1500 watts
1/4 wavelength sloping vertical wire against two elevated radials
N1MM
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