2006 IARU HF World Championships
07/12/2006 |
W3VR
IARU was my first contest with my new call sign and my new/old tower installation a mid 60s 40 foot EZ-Way crank-up/tilt over and my late 70s Hy-Gain Thunderbird Junior. Ive owned the antenna since 1979, but its been in a box since 1985 when I moved here to Florida. I bought and refurbed the tower this year. So plugged in my trusty 1986 Kenwood TS-430S which I bought new before kids for an unintentional classic station setup.
The 430 has been my main rig for 20 years. It sat in its box since 1988 when my daughter was born until last year, when it came out of hibernation to live again on HF. My real classic rig is a Swan 350 that some one gave me, which I fixed. I keep for fun on 40 and 80 and as a heater for the shack in winter.
Just used 20-meter ssb with a single Q on 15. Unfortunately, my 40/80 dipole is not up in the air yet
After working the morning at my club (N4TP Tampa Amateur Radio Club, big, tall aluminum and computerized late model rigs), I had to get home for some family things. After finishing these, I thought I would find out what my station at home can do.
There were a lot of thunderstorms around, and since my tower is not very heavy duty, I left it nested, so the beam was at 22 feet A few hours and 265 Qs later, I called it a night.
Im simply amazed! With 100w, I can actually hold a frequency with my little beam! I made a couple of runs, one for almost 40 minutes, with a best hour total of 109 Qs! Multiple DX stations called ME during the runs! I worked multiple Russians and Bulgarians, all over Europe and the Balkans! Im second or third in pileups in search and pounce! And my new 1x2 call sign takes about a second to send!
I cant get too overconfident about this stations performance, as it is probably the other stations gear that is doing most of the work, but hey, this is the sunspot minimum, right?
This contest was a blast! I will certainly do it again!
Lu -- W3VR
The 430 has been my main rig for 20 years. It sat in its box since 1988 when my daughter was born until last year, when it came out of hibernation to live again on HF. My real classic rig is a Swan 350 that some one gave me, which I fixed. I keep for fun on 40 and 80 and as a heater for the shack in winter.
Just used 20-meter ssb with a single Q on 15. Unfortunately, my 40/80 dipole is not up in the air yet
After working the morning at my club (N4TP Tampa Amateur Radio Club, big, tall aluminum and computerized late model rigs), I had to get home for some family things. After finishing these, I thought I would find out what my station at home can do.
There were a lot of thunderstorms around, and since my tower is not very heavy duty, I left it nested, so the beam was at 22 feet A few hours and 265 Qs later, I called it a night.
Im simply amazed! With 100w, I can actually hold a frequency with my little beam! I made a couple of runs, one for almost 40 minutes, with a best hour total of 109 Qs! Multiple DX stations called ME during the runs! I worked multiple Russians and Bulgarians, all over Europe and the Balkans! Im second or third in pileups in search and pounce! And my new 1x2 call sign takes about a second to send!
I cant get too overconfident about this stations performance, as it is probably the other stations gear that is doing most of the work, but hey, this is the sunspot minimum, right?
This contest was a blast! I will certainly do it again!
Lu -- W3VR
Back
