We ( N4UK and W4OC) had limited time but managed to put up an
inverted L antenna with 60 feet vertical the rest horizontal and 5 elevated
radials at 15 feet height.I have the melted shoelaces on my sneakers as
proof that a fiberglass roof of a house on an island in the Pacific gets
QUITE hot around noon time! The antenna tuned up beautifully and we did not
have to cut/remove any wire at all.The effort was quite worth it as the 160m
antenna previously used was in a bad state of repair and did not work and
had to be completely replaced. Unfortunately, the property and the
surrounding terrain did not allow us to put up a decent receive antenna and
conditions were quite noisey. We did manage to work around 400 stations
during the ARRL DX contest and the night before.I had a schedule with 5B4ADA
but arrived late and did not here him but he called me an hour later and was
great copy. Worked lots of PYs,LUs, and a CX and some other Europeans. It
appeared that everyone was hearing us well. The problem was mostly us with
receive and the constant 10 over S9 static crashes. Look for HP1XVH this
coming weekend in the 160 test. Gunther is new to 160 meters and was
hesitant to call in the window until he got more comfortable with the band
but hopefully we have convinced him to give it a try.He said he would go
around calling loud signals. QSL 3E1CW to N0JT. We will try harder to get a
receive antenna going on our next trip.
73 Ken N4UK
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