06/25/2002 | AA4LR WHAT FUN! I HAD NEVER OPERATED THE ARRL 160M CONTEST BEFORE. I DISCONNECTED MY R7000 AND USED THE COAX RUN TO PUT UP THE INVERTED-L. AS IT WAS, THIS ANTENNA WASN'T TERRIBLY EFFECTIVE, AND I ENDED UP USING THE DOUBLET MOST OF THE TIME, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS CUT FOR 80M. FIRST NIGHT WAS NEARLY ALL S & P. GETTING RESPONSES WAS TRICKY. I DECIDED MANY HAMS MUST BE USING REALLY NARROW FILTERS, AS I WOULD SHIFT MY TX FREQUENCY AROUND A BIT EACH TIME SOMEONE CQED IN MY FACE. THAT WORKED, AND I HAD TO TUNE AWAY FROM VERY FEW STATIONS. I TRIED CALLING CQ IN SEVERAL SPOTS, BUT ONLY GOT ONE ANSWER IN MANY MINUTES OF CALLING. W4AN HAD ADVISED ME TO CALL CQ, AND I WAS GETTING READY TO TELL HIM IT JUST DIDN'T WORK WITH LOW POWER AND CRUMMY ANTENNAS. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE THE NEXT DAY. I HAD GONE INTO THE BACK YARD TO PUT OUR NEWLY-CUT CHRISTMAS TREE INTO A BUCKET OF WATTER. LOOKING UP, I SAW THE 125' DOUBLET WAS HALF LAYING ON THE GROUND. I HAD SPLICED BACK 10' OF WIRE ON EACH END OF THE DOUBLET FROM A PREVIOUS (FAILED) EXPERIMENT. ONE OF MY SPLICES HAD BROKEN, AND THE ANTENNA WAS VERY LOW, WITH A FAIR AMOUNT ON THE GROUND. THE SECOND NIGHT WENT BETTER, ALTHOUGH I COULDN'T OPERATE QUITE AS LONG AS THE FIRST. BUT, AFTER AN HOUR, I STARTED TO CALL CQ IN A CLEAR SPOT JUST ABOVE 1876 KHZ. I STAYED THERE FOR THE NEARLY 2 HOURS. THE RATE WASN'T GREAT -- ABOUT 30/HOUR, BUT IT WAS BETTER THAN I COULD DO S & P, SO I KEPT AT IT. I CQED SO MUCH, THE COOLING FAN ON THE TS-430 CAME ON SOLID. I'VE NEVER WORKED THE RIG SO HARD. MY FINGERS BEGAN TO HURT FROM SLAPPING THE PADDLES, BUT I WAS HAVING TOO MUCH FUN WITH THE RUN TO STOP. EVENTUALLY, IT WORKED OUT AND I HAD TO QRT SHORTLY AFTER. AS FOR SECTIONS, I MANAGED TO WORK ALL OF 3-LAND, 9-LAND AND 8-LAND (I THOUGHT I'D NEVER FIND A WV). ALL OF 4-LAND BUT PR, VI, WCF AND SFL, ALL OF 1-LAND BUT VT AND EMA (GO FIGURE), ALL OF 2-LAND BUT NNY AND NLI, AND A SMATTERING OF 5'S AND 0'S. OH, AND THE GOLDEN EARS AWARD GOES TO N6IG, WHO HEARD MY PIPSQUEAK SIGNAL ALL THE WAY IN CALIFORNIA. THAT WAS FUN! LET'S DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR. -- AA4LR