Folks, I had a lot of fun in the SP contest though I couldn't really devote nearly as much time to it as I wanted. I pretty much only called CQ at the very end, giving those running the points for QRP. Still, not bad; 152 Q's for 1326 points.
Thanks to the HI-Z Circle 8 and HI-Z Triangular working diversity, I heard a whole lot that didn't hear my QRP signal. I didn't keep track but I heard easily 20 different countries that didn't hear me. KH6LC had the best ears this year LZ9W came in 2nd. Using Diversity in the K3s, I was using the HI-Z Circle 8 and triangular. I used the new HI-Z Encoders for control of the two arrays. It made utilizing the K3s's Diversity go to a new level, they made pulling in the best SNR for a given station so much easier than using the analog versions. Just much more efficient to find the best conditions for reception, I love them. I found the DX was really present during this contest, thought that would not be the case with the intense storms that had just passed through but amazingly, there was little atmospheric to interfere and the DX was everywhere. I have the AMTRAK RFI and the neighbors RFI to have to deal with but aiming to the NE cut out so much noise. With that, I could hear much more than usual. Worked W1BB, now the SP memorial station, and as I had never worked Stew (never had a real 160 antenna till 08), it's nice to have that in the log. I have to get something better regarding my TX antenna. Impossible to have a tower on my property and though I want to relocate, getting a property where I can put up a tower up with elevated radials is getting slimmer by the year, we're all getting older and I just can't do it all anymore. I used to have an INV-L, using an above tall Oak as my fixture for the vertical but it came down a few years back and since I can't move the radial bed, I have to shoot the wire over trees farther away and now what was the L, is now a sloper. I know that has some bearing on my Tx and takeoff angle. I keep thinking I should try an experiment and disconnect the radials from the 160 wire, add elevated radials to it and then pull the end of the wire up so the feed-point is 10' off the ground. That might give me lower angles than I have now with roughly 50 130' Radials. Doing that, I could make it an L again, still wouldn't be as high as the original though, that initial tree was the tallest one around. I always look forward to Topband contests. 73 & HNY to us all, Gary KA1J _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
