This is a great overlay category, I was surprised at how popular it was in
last weekend's Sweepstakes CW contest. There were definitely many high
scoring "wire" stations even with the geomagnetic storm.
The overlay rules state: Operation is limited to the use of single-element
antennas such as a single vertical, end-fed wire, or a single dipole antenna
no more than 50 feet above ground at its highest point. The antenna(s) may
cover multiple bands, as in the case of multiband verticals and dipoles with
fan or trap constructions.
It appears that there is no limit to how many single wire antennas you can
use as long as they do not have parasitic elements.
John KK9A - W4AAA in 2023 Sweepstakes CW
Jeff Clarke ku8e wrote:
I really liked the ARRL Sweepstakes Limited Antenna category that the
ARRL added. It's nice to see score comparisons to other stations using
similar wire antennas to mine. I was really surprised to see other guys
that I always assumed had a tower and beam antennas in that category.
Many of them are pretty loud in Georgia (especially if they're running
an amplifier) so my advice is don't give up on contesting if you only
have wire antennas. You can still have fun ! I'll probably never have a
tower and beam antenna since I'm older now , don't climb towers anymore
and retired. You're not going to win anything with wire antennas
compared to the big guns who always win which makes it easy to just do a
contest PT or casually. If I had something to shoot for maybe I would
spend more operating time in a contest from home.
Kudos to the ARRL. It would be nice if they added this overlay category
to their other contests too. Maybe CQ as well ?
73's Jeff KU8E
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