K3ZO Comments re CQ 160 meter contest.
In order to be different I decided to concentrate on the REF CW
Contest this year, where I had 305 QSOs. Since it didn't start
until 0600 GMT Saturday I played around in the 160 contest some on
Friday night. Conditions were OK but thunderstorms in W4-land made
QRN a bit heavy. The window was pretty well respected and I got
some DX there. I4JMY had a surprisingly strong signal, better than
John, ON4UN. Hard to believe at times that he was in Europe.
I chanced to listen Saturday night at about 0100 and found the band
very quiet and good to Europe, so I stayed for a while. Called a
number of Europeans including some outside the window who were
holding their own with the W's. Then I nestled in a little above
1840 and started running people, and I estimate that one-third of
my callers were Europeans. After playing with antennas I found
that my 80-meter half sloper was a good receiving antenna for them.
Normally that antenna has S9+ line noise on 160 but some rain had
quieted down my principal source of line noise, a 69-kv line about
1-1/2 blocks from the house.
I missed the JA opening both mornings, but did have 4X4NJ call me
for an Asian QSO.
The 79 10-pointers were a pretty good ratio to my 542 total QSO's,
and I thoroughly enjoyed the nine hours I put into this contest.
The rig is a TS-830-S driving a Titan 425 and the antennas are two
half-slopers to the SE and W off 140 feet of Rohn 80 tower, which
also holds 80 and 20 meter monoband Yagis.
Very 73,
Fred Laun, K3ZO
|