11/30/2008 | W4AAA The station is under construction and the only permanent antenna on the 110 foot tower is a homebrew 6 element 20m beam with a 60 foot boom that I put up a month earlier and never tested. Just before this contest I installed many temporary antennas and I ran the various control and hardline cables from the tower to the house. A thunderstorm storm passed though on Friday night and it was still quite windy when I finished setting up on Saturday morning, just before the contest. I began on 20m and the new beam worked well. I had a fantastic start working mostly the west coast with a peak 60 minute rate of 109 QSOs. After 2 1/2 hours I switched to 80m. Fortunately the storm had now passed and the band was quiet and open to most areas of the US and Canada. I worked all 80 multipliers during the first 8 hours. Nearly all of them called me so I did not have to spend much time looking for a sweep. I had very little success on 40m during the first night however on Sunday afternoon the skip was shorter and conditions were much better. For some reason I did not have a lot callers on 20m during the second day even though the band was wide open, perhaps I ran out of west coast stations to work. I was never able to run at all on 15m so I spent most Sunday afternoon on 40m. After the sun went down I switch to 80m until the contest ended. I had a great time operating the 75th November Sweepstakes. QSL via WD9DZV.

73,
John
john@kk9a.com -- KK9A