02/24/2004 | ZS1AN Wire antennas only, dipoles on 20, 15 and 10 and a vertically polarized delta loop on 40. The ARRL DX contest last year was my first major international contest, so this was my first anniversary. This time at least I had computer logging, rather than the paper log and manual paddle I used last year! Some frustrating times in the afternoons when the only stations I could hear were the big multi-multis which I had already worked and was only managing 5 or 6 per hour. However the evenings, night and early mornings more than made up for this. I was able to run on all bands at times, although 10m was only open briefly on both days. 40m was challenging, with lots of QRN from the African thunderstorms, not to mention the whole of Europe and America screaming at each other across the Atlantic, and low powered me off the side of the beams! At times it required some patience but this was rewarded when by the enthusiasm on the other side when the operator finally got my callsign with its ZS prefix. I'll be back with a beam next year, promise. -- ZS1AN