2003 ARRL November Sweepstakes (Phone)
11/22/2003 |
KE8FO
After being off the air for over a year and missing the 2002 SS due to a move, and finishing the new house's basement for the past year...I got on the air for the first time Sunday morning of the 2003 SS!
It was my goal when I started the basement a year ago, but until the week before the contest, I thought the phone SS was Nov. 22-23. Yikes!
But I spent most of Saturday setting up and erecting my MFJ vertical again. Hardest part was getting the coax out of the house...isn't it always?
But I did it...with a funny "chuk-chuk-chuk" noise centered around 21 MHz, but also heard on 28 and 14! I think it is either a grounding problem or something in the new house is creating RF. Anyone with a suggestion, please email me at ke8fo@tm.net. Thanks.
Operated 10 hours Sunday and nabbed 175 QSOs in 65 sections with my 100W IC-728, and MFJ vertical and VersaTuner II, from West Michigan. Turns out the dipole up about 12' was tuned too high in frequency for all the bands, but the tuner worked.
Surprised at the conditions: 40M was my best band, and very little on 15 and nothing on 10!
This has got to be my last year for handwritten logs. I hope to get an used PC and do computer logging by the time the ARRL DX test rolls around. I haven't checked lately, but I could never find a contest log program for my Mac. That's too bad, because Macs rule, if you ask me.
And next SS, a 40-80 dipole gets up in the air, I go 24 hours and try for my second sweep in 25 years! But I am just happy to get back on. The basement is almost done!
---Mark, KE8FO (licensed and ARRL member since 1976) -- KE8FO
It was my goal when I started the basement a year ago, but until the week before the contest, I thought the phone SS was Nov. 22-23. Yikes!
But I spent most of Saturday setting up and erecting my MFJ vertical again. Hardest part was getting the coax out of the house...isn't it always?
But I did it...with a funny "chuk-chuk-chuk" noise centered around 21 MHz, but also heard on 28 and 14! I think it is either a grounding problem or something in the new house is creating RF. Anyone with a suggestion, please email me at ke8fo@tm.net. Thanks.
Operated 10 hours Sunday and nabbed 175 QSOs in 65 sections with my 100W IC-728, and MFJ vertical and VersaTuner II, from West Michigan. Turns out the dipole up about 12' was tuned too high in frequency for all the bands, but the tuner worked.
Surprised at the conditions: 40M was my best band, and very little on 15 and nothing on 10!
This has got to be my last year for handwritten logs. I hope to get an used PC and do computer logging by the time the ARRL DX test rolls around. I haven't checked lately, but I could never find a contest log program for my Mac. That's too bad, because Macs rule, if you ask me.
And next SS, a 40-80 dipole gets up in the air, I go 24 hours and try for my second sweep in 25 years! But I am just happy to get back on. The basement is almost done!
---Mark, KE8FO (licensed and ARRL member since 1976) -- KE8FO
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