11/21/2006 | WA3A SS phone has always been my favorite contest. In the late 70's I placed in the top-ten LP several times as WA3TBW. Later I operated several HP contests and my best was over 1600 Qs in the early 90's as WA3A. (My station and antennas for these earlier efforts were nearly identical to what I use today. Back then I also had a Heathkit SB1000 amplifier.)
Shortly after that I took a long break from ham radio and returned to the air in 2004. This year my goal was to once again make the top ten. My rig is a TS940s with stock filters and my antennas are all wires in trees. I live in the boonies and have an almost perfect yard for lots of high wire antennas. All my antennas are fed with homebrew open-wire feedlines. I made over 1200' of it! I also have 2 homebrew balanced L network tuners and 1 old Heathkit tuner. For 80 and 40 I use dipoles at 55'. I have a 2 element delta-loop aimed west for 40m at 60'. The delta loop is an inverted right-angle config.(long side at the top, fed at bottom point). For 20/15 I have a Vee beam 250'/leg at 55' pointed west. This worked very well on 15 but I wasn't competitive on 20 and only could muster 50 Qs there. Open wire is great but changing bands can be a hassle. I definitely lost time during band changes. I've always been an open-wire nut even in the 70's when open wire wasn't cool. It's cool now....right?
As most of you know, SS phone can be brutal. It's taken me almost 4 months to want to do it again! The expanded 80m band will be a big improvement! 73, Steve -- WA3A