12/18/2006 | AL4T This was my first real SS effort. Between deployments (I'm an active-duty Infantryman in the 82d Airborne Division), kids, and the myriad other distracters common to life at 40-something, well, you know how it goes. I was able to get in about 19 hours of S&P, mostly at night, and squeeze out a Sweep, though! Even though I wasn't specifically aiming for mults I did operate Assisted and as the tally rose I have to admit I did click on the red calls in the bandmap more often than the blue ones.... (thanks, Tom, N1MM!).

354Qs
80 Mults
56,640 claimed score

Jay up north wasnt my toughest mult, though DE was, with a dedicated QRPer giving me the sweep.

FT-1000MP Mk V Field
SB-1000 Amp (about 700 watts)
Explorer-14 with 40M add-on kit on 45 feet of Rohn 25G. You can just see the tower through the window. It works great for me, but would be even better if I had it 20 feet higher so it didnt get caught in the Hickory tree in the back yard and I could rotate it more than 120 degrees. I guess I *could* cut the offending branches off
For 80 & 160 meters, I use what I call a Fan Half-Sloper fed through an old Dentron tuner. Thats a half-wavelength of wire, folded in half, the two ends joined at the feed point, and held apart by 4-ft pieces of PVC pipe. It is fed against the tower & its ground system. Think about half of a cage dipole from the ARRL Wire Antenna Classics book. It works MUCH better than any other 80M antenna Ive put up on my suburban lot, although I have a full-size vertical base in the ground, almost finished. Still.

73, and see you in ARRL DX CW (If Im not deployed again)
Brad -- AL4T