2006 ARRL 160 Meter Contest
12/03/2006 |
AF9J
This is the first ARRL 160m Contest I've done since at least 2000. Back then, a move to a different apartment made it almost impossible for me to erect an antenna that would put out any kind of a signal on 160. Throw in hard times that kept me QRT from 2001 till 2005, and it makes for a long time since doing this contest.
I decided to do the contest QRP again. Until recently, I'd been struggling with trying to come up with an antenna that would effectively radiate on the low bands, at my present location (I moved here in 2005). I can't run out wires to the trees from my 2nd story apartment's balcony (my landlady knows I do ham radio stuff, but she she pretty much implied that I should keep things low impact visually). Out of desparation, during the SSB SS, I went back to an antenna I haven't used in years - the rain gutter with a counterpoise. My apartment building has a 150 foot long rain gutter on my side of the building. It showed promise in the SSB SS, so I decided to give it a whirl in the 160 Contest.
What can I say? I had a blast!, in spite of awful condx. I had S9+ noise, due to a blizzard that came through here on Friday, dumping a foot of snow. I also had to contend with at least 10 over 9 powerline noise between 1830 & 1865, from those wonderful 250 kV powerlines about 150 yards east of my apartment building. All of the DSP in the world, didn't make dealing with the noise any easier (especially while wearing headphones). In spite of it, I was able to do 133 QSOs, and work 34 sections, for a total of 9044 points. Not bad for a QRP effort on 160m, from an apartment. It wasn't easy, and I often had to repeat my call multiple times. I thank all of you who were willing to work to dig my signal out of the noise. Yeah! My antenna plays!
Some disappointments - I used to work CO stations all of the time in the past during the 160 Contest. I didn't hear a single one, in spite of the fact that I weakly heard BC, CA, and WA. I also only heard and worked one, 1-lander, and 3, 2-landers. Very weird. But, I was able to work semi-rare SK, NE, KS, DE, and SC.
73 & I hope to work some of you next week in the 10m Contest,
Ellen - AF9J -- AF9J
I decided to do the contest QRP again. Until recently, I'd been struggling with trying to come up with an antenna that would effectively radiate on the low bands, at my present location (I moved here in 2005). I can't run out wires to the trees from my 2nd story apartment's balcony (my landlady knows I do ham radio stuff, but she she pretty much implied that I should keep things low impact visually). Out of desparation, during the SSB SS, I went back to an antenna I haven't used in years - the rain gutter with a counterpoise. My apartment building has a 150 foot long rain gutter on my side of the building. It showed promise in the SSB SS, so I decided to give it a whirl in the 160 Contest.
What can I say? I had a blast!, in spite of awful condx. I had S9+ noise, due to a blizzard that came through here on Friday, dumping a foot of snow. I also had to contend with at least 10 over 9 powerline noise between 1830 & 1865, from those wonderful 250 kV powerlines about 150 yards east of my apartment building. All of the DSP in the world, didn't make dealing with the noise any easier (especially while wearing headphones). In spite of it, I was able to do 133 QSOs, and work 34 sections, for a total of 9044 points. Not bad for a QRP effort on 160m, from an apartment. It wasn't easy, and I often had to repeat my call multiple times. I thank all of you who were willing to work to dig my signal out of the noise. Yeah! My antenna plays!
Some disappointments - I used to work CO stations all of the time in the past during the 160 Contest. I didn't hear a single one, in spite of the fact that I weakly heard BC, CA, and WA. I also only heard and worked one, 1-lander, and 3, 2-landers. Very weird. But, I was able to work semi-rare SK, NE, KS, DE, and SC.
73 & I hope to work some of you next week in the 10m Contest,
Ellen - AF9J -- AF9J
Back
