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Except for a little logging during Field Day, I don't do CW contests. My 20 WPM just can't keep up with the blinding speed of most contests. I certainly wasn't planning on working the 160 CW contest. Imagine my suprise when I tuned around 160 during the contest. I could copy these guys! The avarage speed seemed to be somewhere around 22 to 25 wpm, certainly doable with the short exchange.
I tuned up half of my 80 dipole by disconnecting one leg of the ladder line and made a few contacts. The next thing I know, I'm downloading the log and dupe sheets and programming my keyer, just having a ball! I ended up working 64 stations as far away as Colorodo before I had to shut down. Not competative, but not bad for my first time on 160.
Next year, I'll try to get up a better antenna and plan on spending a little more time at it. I sure had fun. Thanks
Harry, NK9R Marietta GA.
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I am getting hooked on this band though! ;-)
73, Bob K8IA
nr the Superstition Mountains
Arizona USA
Location: Calhoun, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana Ground elevation at my home is 235 feet above sea level.
Single-Op QRP to a dipole for transmit and receive Icom 756ProII 116 QSOs
Wow! This was fun! My first time on 160m. Before the contest, I had made a single 160m contact on a 80m dipole in the entire 7 years I have been a ham.
The day of the contest, I put up a 160m dipole, rather low at less than 50 feet, with ends dangling to withing a few feet of the ground. Running QRP is a good challenge to be heard on top band! Now after a single weekend, I've worked 36 states QRP 160m on my simple antenna. I don't have any special receiving antenna, not yet!
Sections worked: NH, WMA, NNJ, NNY, SNJ, WNY, DE, EPA, WPA, AL, GA KY, NC, NFL, SC, SFL, TN, VA, AR, LA, MS, NM, NTX, OK, STX, AZ, ID, MT, UT, MI, OH, WV, WI, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, MN, MO, NE, SD, MAR, ON
No DX worked :(
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QTH: Clermont Harbor, MS, USA
This is my second attempt operating the 160 Meter contest. My first effort in 2003 resulted in 2 QSO's. Much antenna/operating theory was gained by reading ON4UN's book "Low Band DXing" and K1ZM's "DXing on the Edge" since that poor showing. I operated a few hours due to "honey-do's" and made 38 QSO's with CO6LPB being my only DX contact.
Station consists of an inverted-L at 85 feet supported by a tall pine tree, with four 100 foot extension cords as radials (use clip leads to tie the 3 wires together), a low 160 Meter folded dipole, and a Kenwood TS-430S with 100 watt output.
Watch out next year (more radials, better RX antenna, more operating time is in the works).
73,
Charlie
Ground crew for N9ADG ARRL160CW. |
Saw my daughter in her school play Saturday evening, so my participation in the contest was mostly limited to Friday night. Even so, running 5 watts into a top-loaded vertical here in SCV was adequate to get me a handful of Midwest contacts in OH, IL, KY, and WI -- plus Hawaii. I could hear a few East Coast stations, but they couldn’t hear me.
Suggestion for next year: Everyone sends 599 as part of the exchange -- why not update the rules and substitute power level (“H” for high, “L” for low, “Q” for QRP) instead of RST? This would make the contest more interesting for the participants. Working a distant station partially buried in noise would be far more meaningful if I knew he was running 5 watts instead of a kilowatt.
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This was my first 160Mtr Contest. Started the contest using 100 watts to a 1/4 wave sloper for 75Mtrs. Needless to say each of my first 25 QSO's was hard-fought.
Decided to try something else so I took the coax from my horizontal full-wave 40mtr loop and tied the shield to the center conductor and jammed it into the transmatch. Ended up with a top-loaded vertical (er... sort-of!). Anyway... it worked a lot better than the sloper and I managed 107 Q's in 41 sections. Not great... but a LOT better than I expected.
I hope to be prepared with a better skywire next time around!
Thanks for a FUN Contest.... and THANKS TO THOSE WHO DUG MY SIGNAL OUT OF THE NOISE!
I wonder how much power was dissipated as heat in my transmatch!
73, Bob Bacharach WA2EMF
Rock Hill, SC
From Southeast Ohio, Albany, Ohio 45710 Conditions were not good from my remote location in Meigs county. I have a full size dipole at 55' and figured that I could at least work most of the states. But seemed to be a big wall west of the Rockies. Gotta work on a better transmit antenna and receive antenna. I just moved to this location recently and haven't had time to get things tweaked. But worked SV and an SCV which were just about 219 RST. 100 Watts. Total was about 150 Q's 47 Mults and VP2M for DX
Luck to you all
73 de Greg Weinfurtner NS8O
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