ARRL 160 Soapbox built 1-29-2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: 7X0RY Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 8 Horrible local QRM 599+30dB!!! CUAGN in OKDX RTTY.... 73!!! Frantisek ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AA1K Class: M/S HP Total Score = 356,700 Congrats to W2GD, NO2R and W4MYA and no doubt some others. .... Maybe next year I'll bring in another op or two and get serious about this one in multiop, since there's no "assisted" category :-) ....only 15 Europeans the first night and a total of 56 for the weekend, less than half of a year ago. Two JA the first morning and UA9CLB calling in at 2313z the second night made for some excitement. But the promising early opening to Eu the second night quickly fizzled. No runs of Europeans, only a few short spurts ..... Worked all states but needed KP4, VE4 and VY1/VE8 for section sweep. ... Heavy QRN the first few hours from storm kept the rate down....only one hour above 100 .... and noise from neighbor's new Plasma TV caused loud garbage across the band. The joy of 160. Station details and QSL info at www.aa1k.us. QSO AND RATE BREAKDOWNS UTC 160 rate total --------------------- 22Z 82 82 82 23Z 83 83 165 00Z 103 103 268 01Z 95 95 363 02Z 94 94 457 03Z 79 79 536 04Z 86 86 622 05Z 48 48 670 06Z 30 30 700 07Z 42 42 742 08Z 58 58 800 09Z 27 27 827 10Z 27 27 854 11Z 52 52 906 12Z 31 31 937 13Z 13 13 950 14Z 0 0 950 15Z 0 0 950 16Z 0 0 950 17Z 0 0 950 18Z 0 0 950 19Z 1 1 951 20Z 0 0 951 21Z 14 14 965 22Z 39 39 1004 23Z 53 53 1057 00Z 36 36 1093 01Z 43 43 1136 02Z 38 38 1174 03Z 49 49 1223 04Z 52 52 1275 05Z 25 25 1300 06Z 40 40 1340 07Z 7 7 1347 08Z 6 6 1353 09Z 19 19 1372 10Z 16 16 1388 11Z 15 15 1403 12Z 25 25 1428 13Z 3 3 1431 14Z 0 0 1431 15Z 0 0 1431 --------------------- tot 1431 ---- 1431 QSO POINTS BREAKDOWN UTC 160 rate total ------------------------ 22Z 164 164 164 23Z 166 166 330 00Z 215 215 545 01Z 202 202 747 02Z 197 197 944 03Z 167 167 1111 04Z 175 175 1286 05Z 99 99 1385 06Z 69 69 1454 07Z 93 93 1547 08Z 119 119 1666 09Z 54 54 1720 10Z 60 60 1780 11Z 107 107 1887 12Z 62 62 1949 13Z 26 26 1975 14Z 0 0 1975 15Z 0 0 1975 16Z 0 0 1975 17Z 0 0 1975 18Z 0 0 1975 19Z 2 2 1977 20Z 0 0 1977 21Z 31 31 2008 22Z 108 108 2116 23Z 169 169 2285 00Z 87 87 2372 01Z 89 89 2461 02Z 79 79 2540 03Z 110 110 2650 04Z 107 107 2757 05Z 53 53 2810 06Z 83 83 2893 07Z 14 14 2907 08Z 12 12 2919 09Z 38 38 2957 10Z 32 32 2989 11Z 30 30 3019 12Z 50 50 3069 13Z 6 6 3075 14Z 0 0 3075 15Z 0 0 3075 ------------------------ tot 3075 ----- 3075 2 point QSOs: 1360 5 point QSOs: 71 MULTIPLIER BREAKDOWN station: AA1K UTC 160 rate total --------------------- 22Z 31 31 31 23Z 9 9 40 00Z 7 7 47 01Z 14 14 61 02Z 6 6 67 03Z 12 12 79 04Z 3 3 82 05Z 2 2 84 06Z 3 3 87 07Z 3 3 90 08Z 2 2 92 09Z 0 0 92 10Z 3 3 95 11Z 0 0 95 12Z 1 1 96 13Z 0 0 96 14Z 0 0 96 15Z 0 0 96 16Z 0 0 96 17Z 0 0 96 18Z 0 0 96 19Z 0 0 96 20Z 0 0 96 21Z 1 1 97 22Z 7 7 104 23Z 3 3 107 00Z 3 3 110 01Z 0 0 110 02Z 1 1 111 03Z 2 2 113 04Z 1 1 114 05Z 1 1 115 06Z 1 1 116 07Z 0 0 116 08Z 0 0 116 09Z 0 0 116 10Z 0 0 116 11Z 0 0 116 12Z 0 0 116 13Z 0 0 116 14Z 0 0 116 15Z 0 0 116 --------------------- tot 116 ---- 116 QSO BREAKDOWN BY CONTINENT station: AA1K ALL ----------------------------------- N America: 1365 1365 (95%) (100%) S America: 3 3 (0%) (100%) Europe: 56 56 (3%) (100%) Africa: 1 1 (0%) (100%) Asia: 3 3 (0%) (100%) Oceania: 3 3 (0%) (100%) ----------------------------------- QSOS PER MULTIPLIER BREAKDOWN station: AA1K Mult QSOs CT 33 EMA 40 ME 16 NH 32 RI 8 VT 12 WMA 8 ENY 34 NLI 14 NNJ 40 NNY 2 SNJ 16 WNY 32 DE 6 EPA 58 MDC 39 WPA 14 AL 26 GA 35 KY 11 NC 39 NFL 22 SC 17 SFL 9 TN 45 VA 60 WCF 9 AR 13 LA 9 MS 7 NM 4 NTX 20 OK 11 STX 21 WTX 2 EB 8 LAX 4 ORG 8 SB 2 SCV 15 SDG 2 SF 4 SJV 7 SV 12 AZ 15 EWA 5 ID 3 MT 7 NV 5 OR 13 UT 7 WWA 24 WY 2 MI 66 OH 95 WV 18 IL 54 IN 35 WI 29 CO 19 IA 13 KS 7 MN 47 MO 19 NE 4 ND 1 SD 8 NL 1 MAR 7 QC 7 ON 40 MB -- SK 2 AB 4 BC 11 NWT -- PAC 3 AK 1 PR -- VI 1 1A -- 1S -- 3A -- 3B6 -- 3B8 -- 3B9 -- 3C -- 3C0 -- 3D2 -- 3D2/c -- 3D2/r -- 3DA -- 3V -- 3W -- 3X -- 3Y/b -- 3Y/p -- 4J -- 4L -- 4S -- 4U1I -- 4U1U -- 4W -- 4X -- 5A -- 5B -- 5H -- 5N -- 5R -- 5T -- 5U -- 5V -- 5W -- 5X -- 5Z -- 6W -- 6Y -- 7O -- 7P -- 7Q -- 7X -- 8P -- 8Q -- 8R -- 9A 1 9G -- 9H -- 9J -- 9K -- 9L -- 9M2 -- 9M6 -- 9N -- 9Q -- 9U -- 9V -- 9X -- 9Y -- A2 -- A3 -- A4 -- A5 -- A6 -- A7 -- A9 -- AP -- BS7 -- BV -- BV9P -- BY -- C2 -- C3 -- C5 -- C6 1 C9 -- CE -- CE0X -- CE0Y -- CE0Z -- CE9 -- CM 1 CN -- CP -- CT 1 CT3 -- CU -- CX -- CY0 -- CY9 -- D2 -- D4 -- D6 -- DL 15 DU -- E3 -- E4 -- EA -- EA6 1 EA8 1 EA9 -- EI -- EK -- EL -- EP -- ER -- ES 1 ET -- EU -- EX -- EY -- EZ -- F 3 FG -- FH -- FJ -- FK -- FK/c -- FM -- FO -- FO/a -- FO/c -- FO/m -- FP -- FR -- FR/g -- FR/j -- FR/t -- FT5W -- FT5X -- FT5Z -- FW -- FY -- G 3 GD -- GI 1 GJ 1 GM 1 GU -- GW -- H4 -- H40 -- HA -- HB -- HB0 -- HC -- HC8 -- HH -- HI 1 HK -- HK0/a 1 HK0/m -- HL -- HM -- HP 1 HR -- HS -- HV -- HZ -- I 4 IS -- J2 -- J3 -- J5 -- J6 -- J7 -- J8 -- JA 2 JD/m -- JD/o -- JT -- JW -- JX -- JY -- KG4 -- KH5K -- KH7K -- KH8/s -- KP1 -- KP5 -- LA 1 LU -- LX -- LY 1 LZ -- OA -- OD -- OE -- OH 1 OH0 -- OJ0 -- OK 4 OM 1 ON 1 OX -- OY -- OZ -- P2 -- P4 1 PA 1 PJ2 1 PJ7 -- PY 1 PY0F -- PY0S -- PY0T -- PZ -- R1FJ -- R1MV -- S0 -- S2 -- S5 2 S7 -- S9 -- SM 2 SP 2 ST -- SU -- SV 1 SV/a -- SV5 -- SV9 -- T2 -- T30 -- T31 -- T32 -- T33 -- T5 -- T7 -- T8 -- T9 -- TA -- TF -- TG -- TI -- TI9 -- TJ -- TK -- TL -- TN -- TR -- TT -- TU -- TY -- TZ -- UA 3 UA2 -- UA9 1 UK -- UN 1 UR 3 V2 -- V3 -- V4 -- V5 -- V6 -- V7 -- V8 -- VK -- VK0H -- VK0M -- VK9C -- VK9L -- VK9M -- VK9N -- VK9W -- VK9X -- VP2E -- VP2M -- VP2V -- VP5 -- VP6 -- VP6/d -- VP8 -- VP8/g -- VP8/h -- VP8/o -- VP8/s -- VP9 -- VQ9 -- VR -- VU -- VU4 -- VU7 -- XE 1 XF4 -- XT -- XU -- XW -- XX9 -- XZ -- YA -- YB -- YI -- YJ -- YK -- YL -- YN -- YO -- YS -- YU 1 YV -- YV0 -- Z2 -- Z3 -- Z7 -- ZA -- ZB -- ZC4 -- ZD7 -- ZD8 -- ZD9 -- ZF 1 ZK1/n -- ZK1/s -- ZK2 -- ZK3 -- ZL -- ZL7 -- ZL8 -- ZL9 -- ZP -- ZS -- ZS8 -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AA4LR Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 41,608 Antennas: Shunt-fed 15m tower w/ tribander Half-size single K9AY loop pointed north Equipment: Elecraft K2/100 w/ KAT100 running 90 watts Comments: I was planning to put about 10 hours in this contest, about six on Friday night, and four more on Saturday. First sat down at the rig just after 0000z to find that the antenna had high SWR! I had just checked it the night before, and it was fine. Fourty minutes later, I determined that a 150 pF silver mica cap had shorted. I had thought this was a 1 kV unit, but actually it was 100 V. I replaced it with a 160 pF 4 kV disc ceramic. I could tune the antenna with the antenna analyser, but it was intermittently showing high SWR. About this point, I got really frustrated. I had the same sort of problem last year that cost me the second night of the contest. I walked out of the shack and upstairs to watch some TV. After a while, I decided that the problem must be in the windings of the toroid of the matching network. This toroid is two stacked T200-2 cores wound with 44 turns of 16 gauge enameled wire. Evidentially, the turns must have rubbed against each other through heating and cooling cycles being outside and worn through the insulation. Later, I went back outside and took off the matching network assembly. I unwound the toroid and re-wound 45 turns of 20 gauge insulated wire. Sure, the Q would be slightly affected by the smaller diameter wire, but maybe it wouldn't arc. Inspecting the wire I unwound, I could not find the definitive point of prior arcing. Putting this all back together and mounting it on the tower, I was pleased to quicking find the matching point again. Back inside at 0345z, I found a clear frequency and proceeded to CQ for the next hour. This is the part I like best about the 160m contest -- running stations at 60+ / hr. Thought I would call it a night around 0500z, but the stations kept calling so I didn't pull the plug until 0635z. After 0600z, I had one weird moment. A strong station came back to my CQ, signing M0AIH. I thought that couldn't be right, so I asked for it again. M0AIH. I thought, no way, this has to be W0AIH, he's so strong. So I send him my report and he comes back with 599 , which my brain thought might be WI. I correct the call and send W0AIH TU, and he comes back with "EU". At this point, I ignore my brain and change the callsign back. It baffled me for the next ten minutes how he could be so strong from the UK. Then it occurred to me that 0600z is around dawn in that part of the world. Ah! I was having so much fun running that I probably didn't S & P enough. Only DX was HI3A and the M0. Hopefully, I'll be able to get on for the Stew Perry, now that my matching network is working once again. I list the half-size K9AY loop in my equipment, but I never found a case where it was actually useful. All the signals I tried it with were louder on the transmitting antenna. It's probably too short to be effective on 160m. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AA5VU Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 720 TS-570S(G) to an Inverted-L. I am a RTTY operator but it was fun to make some 160 CW QSO's. Talk about red-faced my first contact was with K5TR using the wrong antenna (Ringo Ranger 2-meter) and power at 5 watts. I sent my call and he came right back to me - K5TR has good ears. HiHi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AA9DY Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 18,800 First time on 160meters. Was a last minute inspiration to try this contest. Had a blast with a simple 140' longwire. Set up the antenna just minutes in the dark and cold before our big snow storm started. Got a foot of snow by the start of the contest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AB1DR Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 43,155 ARRL160 Score Summary Sheet Start Date : 2006-12-01 CallSign Used : AB1DR Operator(s) : AB1DR Band : 160M Power : HIGH Mode : CW Default Exchange : NH Gridsquare : FN42LU Name : Ann Byers Address : 8 Bartlett Street City/State/Zip : Newton NH 03858 Country : USA ARRL Section : NH Club/Team : YCCC Software: N1MM Logger V6.10.3 Band QSOs Pts Sec 1.8 329 685 63 Total 329 685 63 Score : 43,155 Rig : Antennas : Soapbox : Thanks for everyone's patience!!!! This is my first log I've ever submitted for a BIG contest and for YCCC...hopefully the first of many. 73 de Ann, AB1DR I have observed all competition rules as well as all regulations established for amateur radio in my country. My report is correct and true to the best of my knowledge. I agree to be bound by the decisions of the Contest Committee. Date : 2006-12-03 Signature : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AC0W Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 75,107 I'm sure many who called thought this guy had no ears as I was getting out better than what I could hear. I could hear many stations calling but could not pull then out of the noise. A postage stamp size lot with no receive antenna coupled with S9 noise makes for a difficult time. Thanks to all that called and hung in there with me and my apologies to those that did call and we couldn't make the connection. Hopefully next year I will have something that will help me hear you and get you in the log. 73 Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AC4JI Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 13,608 Average to good band conditions. Good participation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AC5AA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 2,310 With just a little HV2V and 500w output, it made for short distance QSO's. 160m is fun - some day I need to put up an inverted L or something larger than the vertical. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AC6DD Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 145,992 Equipment: Radio: FT1000MP (Two of them, but not SO2R) Amplifiers: (Two of them, but not SO2R) ACOM2000A (first night – Buzzzzzzzzzzz), Intech Com1000B (second night) TX antenna: Inverted L, 50 feet vertical, no radials. RX antenna: same as above This was again a portable operation, the shack being a utility trailer on the Pacific Ocean. You guys sitting at your warm home shacks don’t know what you are missing. The antennas have been in place for a while, so all I had to do was drive up with my trailer, hook a few cables up and presto, I am on the air. Now, I know the contest starts at 22:00. From what I was told the ARRL had to help the East Coast stations somehow, so they equalized our West Coast advantage by giving them a bit more darkness time. Fair enough. To help out a bit, I decided to start at 02:30. I should be honest here, since I lost a minute or two, stemming from the fact my radio didn’t have any output. No problem, been there before, I have a second radio on hand. So I switch radios and check for power. Well, the amp shuts down from an arc fault. The coax to the vertical turns out to be shorted at the connector (it was fine last weekend). Ha, big deal Murphy, I have more coax, much more. Bring it on! The DX engineering 4 square active receive array is dead (Ok, I knew that from last weekend) and I have to listen on the vertical. No big deal, just a little noisier. After a while you don’t even hear the 500kV lines anymore. From what I read here some folks on the East Coast are already calling it quits by the time I start. I S&P for an hour. Conditions are poor, and not much DX. When I finally start calling CQ, people tell me I have a buzz. How do they know? I have to confess that I did have a few beers (Yes, I know all top contesters say it is a no-no, but I am not a top contester, so I figured it is OK). It must be all these video cameras on you tube or something. For the rest of the evening I drink Coke. Well, it turns out it is not me with a buzz, but the amplifier. The Bulgarian marvel is breaking down again. I am amazed; the signal reports I get are all 597, not even one 8 or a 6. The RST scale is perfectly calibrated. Someone even asked me to shut down. Ha, I understand it now; it is a conspiracy from the competition to get me to quit. No way, I keep going. VY2ZM checked in both evenings, first night S3, second night a S5. Missed some stations from Asia in the morning, which I just could not make out. Did not contact VK or ZL, which are usually good copy from here. The next evening I get a new amp hooked up. It is a solid-state job, so it didn’t cover the band like the Bulgarian. My vertical has a 30 KHz 1.5 SWR bandwidth, and the new amp couldn’t move around much. I start off high on the band for a while, than go out and add two feet of wire to the antenna, and move low for the rest of the night. How about that DX window? I asked a few stations to move out, and most are happy to do it. More information for the masses is needed here. During one instance a CQing KH8 popped out behind a West Coast station when he moved out. It was a rough weekend. It was brutal with just the vertical, and I will not do it again. Anyhow, this was my best score in the ARRL test, probably due to improved participation. Missed: NNy, Mb, Nl, Nt, Pr, Worked: C6, HI, HK0/A, HP, HL, JA, JT, KV4, P4, PJ2, UA9, XE, ZF 73, Niko - AC6DD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AD4EB Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 167,992 Had fun, although did not do as well as last year. Not sure if it was because of conditions, or perhaps participation was down. Decided to shoot for 1000 QSOs, which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Ended up on Sunday morning CQing for what seemed forever, getting hourly rates in the single digits for the last 2 hours. K3LR, you made my day at 15:08, I could finally QRT with peace of mind HI! Missed PR, WY, AK, MB, and NWT sections. Was logged into W1VE's Live Amateur Radio Contest Scores. It was really cool to be able to watch my progress as compared to others in real time. It definitely is a motivational tool. With N1MM, it only took a few mouse click to get setup. Now looking forward to Stew-Perry! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AD5VJ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 21,696 Highlight of the Contest was working Ireland on my "T" Vertical using the same antenna for reception. Thanks again to all who gave me a contact Thanks to the FREE N1MM Logger Application group for a great application that actually keys my radio using WINXP with no additional hardware needed. 73 fer nw es gud DX, QSL VIA: BUR, LotW, e-QSL Bob AD5VJ(AAR6VM) Old calls: WY5L/KH3-KE5CTY-N5IET http://www.ad5vj.com/ Member: CTDXCC, NTCC, STXDXCC FISTS: # 12637, SKCC# 2369 10X# 37210, FP#-1141 SMIRK#-5177, RARS #-149 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AD6ZJ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 22,220 As this was my first serious attempt at a 160M only contest I took Friday off to be rested and ready for the night. I woke up at sunset and proceeded to the shack but could not find a single station to work. Decided to visit with the XYL for awhile and await the band opening. Returning to the shack at 9:30PM I could now copy a few stations but was unable to work them. About 15 minutes later I realized I was on the dummy load! Switching to my 1/8 wave vertical did the trick and had no trouble making my 100 QSO goal the first night... I had to revise my goal for the second night. I am real pleased with how 100 Watts could get the job done. I could work most of what I could copy but several mults had no copy on me. Had a tough time getting to the North East only picking up ENY and EPA and MDC in all of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd areas. I lack radials to the NE and it was evident but nothing can be done about that. Bottom line - I had a great time and look forward to the next one! AD6ZJ, Loren ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AD8P Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 251,180 This was my personal best I am sure. But then again I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. I almost gave up and went home at the start. Horrible noise. I am sure there will be a "few" busted calls there. I decided earlier in the week to go single op with no packet. Just like the good-old-days. 90% of the time I spent calling CQ. Very little S&P. On Friday I was called by 2 or 3 Europeans but that changed considerably on Saturday. Just about all the DX were those who called me. At my age sleep is something good so I went home around 4AM local both nights and didn't stick around to see if I could manage any VK/ZL or JA opening. I never heard a station I couldn't work. But I was heard by a few I didn't work. I agree with another writer that there are a bunch of QRP operators on top band or antennas in the basements. My apology if you were one of the several who called and I was unable to pull you out of the noise. I missed AK, MB, NWT, and PR. Maybe a trip to MB is in order sometime. That would be fun. My thanks to Hud for the hospitality even though he was in Philly for the weekend. He certainly has a very fine station. Soapbox items: What ever happened to QRL? at least once before pounding a CQ? It must have happened to me 20 times and I know I wasn't weak in too many places. 2. If you are running packet and you leave a frequency for 15-20 seconds to work a spot and I come along and do my customary QRL? 3 times with no response, where do you get the thinking you still own the frequency? 3. Lots of tuner-uppers. 4. Few klix. 5. Less than normal dupes. 6. My longest running and most favorite contest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AI2N Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 8,000 No 160M antenna right now; grafted some loaded extensions onto my 40/80 trap dipole just to get on. Worked lousy; I'll cut them off today and hopefully get real before CQWW 160. I did put up some additional rx antennas (two pennants, a 1/2-size switchable flag) to augment my shielded loop. They work great. It's amazing how clearly I can hear distant stations that can't hear me. As usual, thanks to all who dug me outta the noise. 73, Redd, AI2N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: AL4T Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 14,161 I came home from a field exercise for a few hours and saw on the N1MM Reflector someone had trouble setting up for this contest. I opened N1MM, set up, and clicked on the rules for the contest... and found out it was going on right then! This was 2200 local, Saturday. I tuned up my 80M fan sloper and answered a couple of CQ's... and I was off! I burned up my amp in SSCW a few weeks ago and haven't fixed it yet, so I did all S&P and had some of the best rates I've had - 120/hr for a minute, 72/hr for 10 minutes, 54/best hour. This was my first foray into 160M, other than a half-dozen Q's in CQWWCW, but I have been working on low band antennas and hope to do a bunch more. I've got a K9AY hanging in the front yard, my sloper and my still-incomplete FS 80M vert in the back. Thanks for the Q's and CU in the 'tests, 73, Brad AL4T Sergeant First Class, Infantry 82d Airborne Division ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: C6AQQ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 85,698 Tough contest with LP and only a trapped dipole at 80' on the roof of the hotel overlooking the beach! Had only about 25KHz usable bandwidth. Heard many that I couldn't raise; noise level was often much higher than the previous weekend (CQWWCW). I guess I wasn't real loud; a few times I was stepped on in the "DX Window" by US stations calling CQ...(you know who you are!)...was called by some very strong signals, especially from UT, but missed AK, ID, and WY for WAS, and surprisingly missed WTX and MB of the sections within 2000 miles...was pleasantly surprised to work KH6 during a "run"--thanks! Got home today, temp at 35F is about 50 degrees lower than C6A! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: CF3JNO Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 20,244 It became obvious very early in the contest that I should not have used the CF3 prefix for this contest as it confused many of the stations that I worked. I had to resend many times before they got it, and again when I gave my section as Ontario. It was also obvious that many people use partial call checklists because there is only one --3JNO in the list. Some people insisted that I was VA3JNO regardless of how many times I sent CF3JNO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: DF2PY Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 3,100 Cndx were poor across the Atlantic for both nights. Only the best equipped stations had their signals travel across to Europe. There was no volume of US-stations to be worked from central EU like was the case last year.The TX array was useless most of the time for rcving, used two 800 ft bevs (WNW & NNW )instead.This contest is nevertheless big fun to participate in from EU, although it takes considerable effort to play from this side of the big pond. 73 and gd dx everybody ! de wolf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: DL8LAS Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 960 Bad propagation on topband last weekend. Only 30 Qsos with the big stations. Hope to hear you next yera with better conditions! Andy DL8LAS www.dl8las.de Station: IC 756 Pro II ACOM 2000A V160 HD 27m Vertical REC ANT: EWE 300 degrees AMA7 3,40m magnetic loop low dipole 2x 26m Software: wintest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: DQ4W Class: M/S HP Total Score = 616 W2GD and CG3EJ were the loudest and easiest to work from here. CQing was hopeless, nobody came back on our CQs, unfortunately. This was completely different one week before in CQWW CW. In general we could hear a lot more stations than we could work... Had fun anyway. 73 de DQ4W. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: ES5Q Class: M/S HP Total Score = 9,216 Decided to test the new full size 4 Square antenna in this contest and hoped for propagation similar to CQWW CW. It was not even close to that. First night was very difficult with just 33 QSOs. It was very difficult to catch attention of NA stations. We heard hundreds of them but very few came back, ACOM200A and 4 Square was not enough:) First one to finally send ? and react at 23.33 UTC was K4LTA. The second night was much better and we got spotted several times and guys coming back to CQ. We got all K1, K3 and K8 mults. Missed NNY fro K2, AL and SFL from K4. Got CO, IA and SD from K0. W0SD was our last QSO ast 02.23 on Sunday after having called him throughout the contest. One before last was AA0RS who came to our CQ and gave us CO. KV0Q whom we also called all the contest for hours and hours never came back! No K5, K6, K7 or K9 worked although heard many of them. Worked VA5DX who was the only station on the band first morning for quite a while, what a strange propagation. Second morning heard W7IZL but he did not copy us. Hoped to get some LP QSOs or KL7 but no sign of any signals LP whatsoever. The new antenna works great. 42m high heavy duty verticals are made by Juha OH1JT and Pekka OH2HE from Finnish Antenna. They are heavily tapered from 13 aluminium tube sections, the lowest one 138mm in diameter. Verticals are guyed from 3 heights to 3 directions and matching is done with Comtek ACB-160. I intend to put 64 1/4 wl radials to each ground mounted vertical, currently only 8 radials per each are in place. Will post some pictures also later. Beverages are almost not any more needed with this antenna. 73 Tonno ES5TV ES5Q All bands - All modes QSOs (with dupes) - By time ! Hr ! ! ----------------- ! 00 ! ! ! 01 ! ! ! 02 ! ! ! 03 ! ! ! 04 ! ! ! 05 ! ! ! 06 ! ! ! 07 ! ! ! 08 ! ! ! 09 ! ! ! 10 ! ! ! 11 ! ! ! 12 ! ! ! 13 ! ! ! 14 ! ! ! 15 ! ! ! 16 ! ! ! 17 ! ! ! 18 ! ! ! 19 ! ! ! 20 ! ! ! 21 ! ! ! 22 ! ! ! 23 ! 4 ! ! 00 ! 17 ! ! 01 ! 9 ! ! 02 ! 1 ! ! 03 ! ! ! 04 ! 1 ! ! 05 ! 1 ! ! 06 ! ! ! 07 ! ! ! 08 ! ! ! 09 ! ! ! 10 ! ! ! 11 ! ! ! 12 ! ! ! 13 ! ! ! 14 ! ! ! 15 ! ! ! 16 ! ! ! 17 ! ! ! 18 ! ! ! 19 ! ! ! 20 ! ! ! 21 ! 12 ! ! 22 ! 37 ! ! 23 ! 29 ! ! 00 ! 17 ! ! 01 ! 2 ! ! 02 ! 1 ! ! 03 ! ! ! 04 ! ! ! 05 ! ! ! 06 ! ! ! 07 ! ! ! 08 ! ! ! 09 ! ! ! 10 ! ! ! 11 ! ! ! 12 ! ! ! 13 ! ! ! 14 ! ! ! 15 ! ! ! 16 ! ! ! 17 ! ! ! 18 ! ! ! 19 ! ! ! 20 ! ! ! 21 ! ! ! 22 ! ! ! 23 ! ! ----------------- ! ! 131 ! Powered by Win-Test 3.6.2 http://www.win-test.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: F5IN Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 4,650 very very poor conditions and i think that US stations are not interessed by DX contact I call severals stations with good reports here and never answers... only with US/VE.... Powered by Win-Test 3.6.1 http://www.win-test.com http://perso.wanadoo.fr/f5in ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: F6CWN Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 24,252 My friend Jeff F6CWN had a frenzied idea. So, that was the start ... He wanted to try a new kind of Beverage array, a triple wire feeded in the same way of the 3 vertical array described in John ON4UN's Low Band DXing book. QTH is north from Rouen in northern Normandy. It is a real killer antenna for F/B ratio. Eastern Europe stations received over s9 on transmitting antenna were totally faded out or barely audible. At first try (read one hour before start of the contest ...) we thought the Beverage feed system was broken since the band was totally quiet! Fortunately, a G station was heared when sweeping the band, with a nice S/N ratio ! You can have a look at the "zeekretweepon(tm)" http://f6fgz.free.fr/ARRL_160_2006/zeekretweepon.jpg Transmitting antenna was a 19m shunt fed tower. We tried a kite antenna but we only managed to partially bend the 15m beam that was right into the flying path, you know Murphy ... Conditions seemed to be poor on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, lot of deaf due to WX. Answers rating were ranging from NIL or ? to "SRI QRN" at best ... However, 40 Q's were in the log at the end of the first night after lot of struggling against QRN for W/VE ;) Second night was much better with the first night quota logged in an hour. Log was closed with 258 Q's without west coast, only UT as far west. I was SO since Jeff just wanted to learn this new band for him. He just listened and enjoyed ! He wants to improve the system so see you next year :) -- 73 Gérard F6FGZ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: IK1YDB Class: M/S HP Total Score = 5,846 Propagation during the contest was very bad! My EWE rx ant work very well, but many USA stations don't heard me. My Station info: IC 756 pro III ACOM 2000A tx ant Delta loop@31m. rx ant 4 switchable EWE see on http://digilander.libero.it/ik1ydb/ 73 hope to work some of you in the CQWW 160! Flavio IK1YDB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: IQ2CJ Class: M/S HP Total Score = 4,088 Very poor conditions.... Hundreds of US call-sign passed by PCL but only few of them audible from us. Contest started well with a loud and fast W2GD qso and a 40 minutes call to a NO2R loud CQ test. I suppose RX noise for them. QSO logged in! After this band got worst and worst and only an S5 signal (into beverage) from W4AN must be noted. Many of you heard weak all nite and even the grey line dind't help that much! Second nite almost same except for a lovely and constant signal from CG3EJ. Tnx for the calls and sorry if missed any of you! ANT system: 27 meters vertical elevated radials + 200 meters beverage (for CQWW160 I'll stack 2 of them) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0BJ Class: M/S LP Total Score = 41,724 As usual Skywarn Recognition Day at WX0GLD meant no Friday night operation and pre-fatigue for Saturday. I'd hoped to have K0FW cover Friday but he was on family sick patrol so the multiop entry amounted to me + OH2AQ. I was expecting good condx due to low flux/D layer absorption. But armchair copy of JA was NOT really anticipated! Too bad my greyline op was quite limited due to prepping for church choir, and was done without spotting as I couldn't get OH2AQ to come up right then. Bottom line -- lotsa fun, and worth the multi classification to spot for friends/acquaintances/DX. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0DD Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 31,212 They tell me I have awaken from a 15 year coma. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0EU Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 53,900 Pretty good conditions, especially the second night. Only had time for a few short operating sessions. Beverage to the East worked like crap the first night. Found out that a friend of my son's had pulled it down Friday evening and broke it. Turned a 290 foot terminated beverage into a 150 foot unterminated! Even with the beverage on the second night, I still had problems copying some callers through the line noise (Thank you, Xcel energy and your wonderful line noise repair crews...you do have some, don't you?). Heard some partial calls of 1- and 2- land stations, but just couldn't pull them through. Always a great chance to say hello to old friends like K9AY, W0UO, and also work a bunch of GMCCers: K0UK, W0ETT, WT9Q, KO7X, and others. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0HW Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 22,500 Well I tried it in the QRP class this year in the 160 Meter ARRL Contest and I probably will try it again based on this years success. I feel that a lot better score could be reached with higher antennas. My plan sometime is to try a 5/8 wave vertical hung from my 9’ delta wing kite. My only problem would be the steady wind to keep the kite in the air for the night hours. I have 40 acres here at this QTH so I will be trying the kite vertical at some point but it may be for Field Day instead. My apology to KO9S who sent me a report and had to wonder what happened when I didn't come back after he sent his report. My computer died with loss of rig control and I tried to go to the straight key and it just didn't work out with my weak QRP signal and no logger. About 17 hours of time spent in the QRP Power Level with low antennas on 160 is about all I could handle for the weekend. I appreciate all those stations that pulled out my signal. I felt good that I did as well as it seems. My antennas were a double bazooka inverted V at about 45' high in the middle and 16' on one end and 25' on the other end. A temporary inverted L from the ground to about 45' then level for the rest of the 135'. This inverted L started with a ground rod and 9 133' radials at the base and was expanded to 11 radials on Saturday morning. It was about 15 degrees out so I quit adding them. I had planned about 17 radials. I felt like to two added radials helped the second night, as I was able to work a few stations that didn't copy me the first night. Some time on Saturday night I lost one of the ropes holding the inverted L in the air and it partially came down. I thought something had happened, as the double bazooka seemed better. I did make most of the QSOs on the inverted L with about 30 on the bazooka toward the end of the contest. My rate averaged at about 1 QSO per 4 1/3 minute and about 14 QSO per hour. 13 QSOs the 1st hour 11 QSOs the 2nd hour 22 QSOs the 3rd hour 21 QSOs the 4th hour 20 QSOs the 5th hour 14 QSOs the 6th hour 18 QSOs the 7th hour 15 QSOs the 8th hour I slept for a few hours early Saturday morning and then made 3 QSOs on Saturday morning with the 1st QSO at 1320Z and the 3rd QSO at 1346Z. I then started the contest in the evening again at 2256Z. 8 QSOs the 9th hour 7 QSOs the 10th hour 9 QSOs the 11th hour 6 QSOs the 12th hour 4 QSOs the 13th hour 16 QSOs the 14th hour 10 QSOs the 15th hour 14 QSOs the 16th hour 12 QSOs the 17th hour My greatest thanks to all those stations I made contact with and to all those stations that tried to copy me but we never made the contact. I was unable to get any of the DX to copy my signal but I did try with two of the XE stations in the DX window. For the last few contests I have been posting my scores via the live scores using the "Live Score Poster by W1VE Version 1.0.3" but it would not work for me for this contest. It kept saying "Could not connect with Writelog. Is it running?" It worked great on all the other contests. 73 and see you on the next contest. Jim K0HW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0IO Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 123,760 Lots of fun. RX loops saved many QSOs. Had to ask VY2ZM for a fill on his section -- my mind temporarily went blanker than it normally is! Missed AK, Yukon, PR, VE4 and NNY. Hope to work you all on 10, Stew Perry, and the North American Meteor Scatter Contest on Dec 18th K0IO, Operating 160 on and off since 1963 Iowa: W0DRE, Connecticut: W1GNC, Back to Iowa: K0IO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0RC Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 103,056 I had a great time trading top position on the W1VE Scoreboard (within our class) with WB8JUI all weekend. The competition definately keeps my focus on the radio! I would call it a photo finish and we will need to wait for the official results from ARRL after the logs have been processed. 73 de Bob - K0RC in MN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0SF Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 174,080 A big thanks to Steve K0SF for allowing me to sit in again this year at his great station. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0TO Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 87,828 Once again in the ARRL 160 Contest the State of Maine eluded me or I would have managed WAS. Oh well, wait til next year. Non-optimal band conditions for both nights with brief fantastic propagation followed by extensive dismal propagation. The northeastern tier of sections (VO,VE1,VE2,ME,RI,CT,VT, etc) was not heard at all during the first night. Still, it was sort of fun -- some of the time. The K9AY double loops worked excellently for RX. I heard a lot of courteous operating including checking to see if frequencies were in use. The propagation changes made it seem to some, I am sure, that people had just jumped on 'their' frquency and started CQing. In fact both stations had been there and suddenly they heard each other when the propagation improved. Tod, K0TO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0TT Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 112,728 I would rate band conditions as good. No static crashes! Only occasional power line noise which would build up, then fade away over 10 or 20 minutes. I listen on the transmitting antenna, a top loaded T-vertical about 70 ft tall. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0TV Class: M/S HP Total Score = 220,481 This last week I was in NJ/NYC helping my mother move until Friday morning and I had to drive back from NY on Friday. I got back just a few hours before the start of the contest and had time to get the station ready. I also brought back lots of cold cuts, knishes, rye bread, pickles, and cheesecake from one of the best delicatessens in NYC. At least we were going to eat well. There was a storm front coming through just at the beginning of the contest. The static crashes and noise made hearing anything very difficult. Sorry for all those who called we couldn't hear. Copy was close to impossible. I hope you called in again later. We started having problems with one of the rigs a few hours in and our transmitter was cutting out. I finally traced it down to another Orion failure (sorry Ten-Tec). We lost almost everything Friday night after about 0700 because of this problem. I thought I had solved it during the day on Saturday only to have the failure return just after we started operating on Saturday evening. I decided to switch off to another rig for the duration of the contest. We had no further equipment problems. The contest was a lot of fun and we all had a great time. Congratulations to the top stations and we're looking forward to the CQWW 160 contest in January. MVP this time was N1IW who kept a great run rate Friday night. 73, Jerry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K0UK Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 82,575 BAND CONDITIONS WERE GREAT FOR THIS STATION WITH OUT RECEIVING ANTENNAS. BEST DX WAS TO JA AT ABOUT 1300 TO 1400 Z. WORKED ALL THAT I HEARD AND A GREAT RUN FRIDAY NIGHT. JUST GETTING TOO OLD FOR THE ALL NIGHTERS. WORKED LOADS OF GMCC,ER AND FRIENDS. GMCC'ER : KEN W0ETT CALLED IN WITH A FB SIGNAL, KV0Q BILL HAD THE STRONGEST SIGNAL AND I BET BILL MADE 1K Q'S,K0FX DON WAS PROWLING THE BAND, BOB KJ0G DOING IT FROM DOWN THE ROAD, WT9Q BOB WAS ALSO STRONG AND GOING STRONG. N0KQ BILL CAME IN, K0EU RANDY WAS WORKING THE BANDS ALSO, KI0II RON WAS ON. HOPE ALL IS WELL RON WE MISS YOU!. ART K6XT CAME THRU LOUD AND CLEAR. HERE IN GJ,CO WA0RSX CARSON GOT ON AND A NEW TOWER AND ANTENNA IS COMING SOON FROM CARSON OUT ON THE REDLANS.... FRIENDS OF GMCC THAT WERE ON,K0KE ERIC WAS IN THERE FROM PARKER, N2IC STEVE IN NM, K0RF CHUCK, ALAN K0AV, AND A POT LOG OF CO STATIONS. STILL NO RECEIVING ANTENNA. THE XYL TOLD ME TO STOP COMPLAINING AND GET SOMETHING UP. DONT WHINE GET'ER DONE SON..FAMOUS WORDS. SORRY FOR NOT COPYING ALL THE ONE THAT WERE JUST TOO WEAK HERE BUT NO YES NO NOISE PTL. GREAT CONDITIONS AND GREAT OPERATORS. IF I HAD KEY CLICK SORRY WILL GET THAT FIXED TOO. PTL GOD BLESS HERE IS THE LIST OF STATIONS I WORKED THAT SENT CO AS A SECTIION, BOB SHERWOOD NC0B, BILL KX0B, CRAIG AC0DS, KEN W0ETT, JOHN WORMA, ERIC K0KE, BILL KV0Q, TOM W0GG, ART KRXT, LARRY K0RS, GLEN W0IJR, ALAN K0AV, RON KI0II, BOB WT9Q, RANDY K0EU, CHUCK K0RF, DAN N0TK, WX7G DAVE, K0FX DON, K0YW BOB, WA0RSX CARSON, KJ0G BOB, NN7A ART, W0KU LARRY. THANKS GUYS HOPE I GOT THE SECTION CORRECT.. SEE YOU NEXT ON 10MTRS. PTL GOD BLESS, BILL K0UK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1EP Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 90,597 Summer like temps on Friday made for a very noisy band. A line of severe thunderstorms and rain was passing through Friday night, bringing more seasonable weather. For most of Friday night, the noise level was elevated and there were constant static crashes. A normally easy signal to copy required fills, as the crashes would always be timed with the section report. Saturday night was much quieter, but I think activity for the casual op was down. I found it difficult to work far western sections, but then again, I never heard a NNY station on. Where was K2NNY? Some sections were only heard in passing, like NE or WY, but others, like many of the CA sections were never heard at all. I did hear and work a little of Europe, but looking at some of the other reports, I think that there was much more on than I heard! There were big pileups on some of the Carib stations (no PR station heard either), but after a while that settled down and one call got the mult. Thanks for the Qs and sorry about all the fills needed on Friday night. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1GU Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 137,381 Great opening run then downhill from there. Plagued with line noise to west and never got back into it. C U in Stew Perry. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1LT Class: M/S HP Total Score = 338,550 This year I operated the "single op assisted" category, or whatever is the closest ARRL approximation (multi-op, I guess). My goal was to make as many points as possible and to demonstrate my station's effectiveness, despite the operator. I missed you, Jeff. K8ND was QRV from PJ2T. Jeff usually operates the late night/early morning hours when we multi-op, as we have done nearly every year this contest has existed. Conditions seemed inverted from the normal ARRL 160 pattern. Usually US sunset is a relatively weak time for EU DX, and the time before EU sunrise is the best time. This year, the opposite seemed true. However, the first few hours of the contest were plagued by severe QRN from a very strong cold front traversing the country. The storm system blew down half of the elements of my phased array project, but fortunately (?), the phased array is not yet ready for use. I can appreciate WB8JUI's frustration with antennas that come down immediately before you want to use them. The second evening sunset presented a very quiet band, and I enjoyed a small run of EU stations, although I had to resort to ESP in a few instances. Jeff never needs ESP, which is another reason I missed his company. No matter how much effort I expend on receiving antennas, I can never hear well enough. To S50U: sorry that we have a hard time hearing Europe. I love to work DX between oodles of W4s, but when the band is busiest, any pause to listen for very weak signals inevitably results in numerous "?"s and "QRL?"s on top of the weak signals. So the listening period tends to be short. Also, it is hard to find the right receiving antenna before the caller stops calling. I have 15 receive antennas, and I can't hear anything. Please accept my apology, but don't stop calling. Station: IC765, K8ND's ETO 91B (great amplifier, thanks Jeff!), NA software. Transmit antenna is a 65 foot "Tee" top vertical, and 15 assorted Beverages between 500 and 1000 feet. BTW, the longest Beverage points at Europe, and it hears more noise that any other antenna. Murphy rules. Where were the PRs? Also missed MB and NWT. WAS in 13 hours. DX: 8P, 9A, C6, DL, EA8, ES, F, G, GI, GM, HI, HK0, HP1, I, LY, OH, OK, OM, ON, OZ, P40, PA, PJ2, PY, S5, SM, SP, UA, UR, VP2V, XE, YU, YV, and ZF2. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1PQS Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 43,092 Band was very short both nights. Signals beyond about 600 miles in any direction were all weak. I kept taking 2 hour time outs in hope for improvement. Finally gave up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1PX Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 128,650 Part time effort. Missed SDG, SJV and ND for CONUS sections. Thanks to everyone for the Q's. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1VW Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 159,220 When you start at 0313 you will be down on your score. Missed : PR AK SDG ID MB NT Best call in was ZL6QH Thanks to everyone . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K1ZZI Class: M/S HP Total Score = 232,370 This was my first 160m contest. All the activity was amazing. I couldn't believe it. Thanks to everyone for your contacts and your patience. Calls from Europe, KH6ZM and other DX stations was an unexpected fun surprise! It was all great fun! Thanks to all. 73, Ralph - K1ZZI ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K2ONP Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 39,788 Small limited effort, further limited by thunderstorms and power outages. Lots of fun, though! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K2PS Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 19,026 Just wanted to give out a few points, but the rates were awesome. Maybe next time I'll give a full effort. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K2RD Class: M/S HP Total Score = 13,916 Carolina Windom 160 up 40 feet. Put it up 3 hours before the contest started. Nice to have an antenna on the band from California. Amazed to work east coast and some DX. Thanks to all for good ears. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K2TA Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 4,350 K2 @ 5W to dipole at 30 ft. for 1 hour = Low score! But fun while it lasted. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K2ZR Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 56,100 Rig: IC-765 @ 100 Watts Antennas: CF Wire 650' Long -- EF Wire 450' Long -- 160M Inverted Vee Dipole Conditions good both nights although the band was longer late Saturday evening early Sunday morning. Never heard PAC, PR, AK nor a number of 6 and 7 sections. Dealt with winds gusting up to 60 MPH for the 1st 24 hours of the contest. Fortunately, all antennas survived. As always, the ARRL 160M Contest is lots of fun with many good operators! 73, Dick, K2ZR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K3AU Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 37,510 Part-time effort as family events allowed. Always a challenge with 100W and my compact Lazy-U antenna Great camaraderie on Top Band! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K3STX Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 45,018 Where were all the Europeans!! I did not hear a single one. Maybe conditions weren't great (I'm new at 160); it was tough making QSOs with the West coast. CU in the CQ 160 M contest. paul TS-850S, AL-811 amp, N1MM logger, 160 M inverted L with 8 radials (no receive antenna) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K3SWZ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 68,894 Happy to work ES5Q for a new country on 160 meters. Contest started with terrible static crashes. Very bad storms blew through the area just at start time. I was very pleased on how well the "Short Beverage" and the "Rotatable Delta Loop" worked on receive! Lots of big signals on the band. I hope I was one of them.... Always a fun contest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K3TD Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 4,092 IC-756ProII Shortened Inverted L, 35' tall and 75' long, fed with an SG-230 Smartuner (stealth!) N1MM Logger Checkout of new microKEYER interface installed Friday evening. It worked great once I got everything configured properly. Next time maybe I'll check out new hardware before the contest starts! First CW test in many years, Op rusty but had fun! 73, Tad, K3TD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K3WW Class: M/S HP Total Score = 265,000 Incredible storm noise the first few hours, then quieted down and I managed to average 100/hr for the first 6 or 7 hours. Europe sporadic and fairly weak. Nap, got up early and had 2 PAC stations call in just missing ND and VE4 and VY1. FAmily stuff all day Saturday, got home and back on around 6 local time. Some louder Europeans, and lots in the noise, Too tired, went to bed by midnight, Alarm went off, decided I had my 1000 plus Q's went back to sleep. All in all Europe sounded down to me and west coast up. Im considering true Multi Op with a real guest op, and full time in one of these things. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4BAI Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 19,890 FT1000MP, AL811H, 500 watts output, 88' center-fed zepp with feedline tied together and fed throug MFJ tuner as if it were a random wire. No radials. Regular 160 meter antennas are down. This one didn't work very well, but did enable me to give out a few points, work 4 Caribbean stations, and a few on the west coast with very good ears. Hope to see you all in the Stew Perry TBDC from W8JI. I will probably use the SECC Club call, W4AN. 73, John, K4BAI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4EA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 68,964 Concert performances made this a very part time effort. As usual, not much DX in this contest. Neal, K4EA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4EU Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 63,360 Thanks for the Q's. 73....//Steve K4EU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4IE Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 23,688 Another hit and miss effort. Terrible noise at this QTH just in the DX Window. Had fun anyway. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4NO Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 57,868 Did some quick antenna work around 0345 in 32 degree Wx to get on the first night. First QSO at 0414, got sleepy at 0707Z and called it a night. Back on for another 2 hours Saturday night and quit after loosing two different frequency fights. Had I been serious about this one, that wouldn't have been the case. Greg K4NO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4RO Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 104,000 I don't know about sections vs countries - numbers are approximate. Managed a small number of EU (S5, F, DL, YU) but DX seemed way down compared to CQWW a few weeks ago. It was nice to hear the W4AN call warming up the airwaves. An excellent showing by the TCG, and it sounded like MWA was out in force again also. The 157 hour was a whole lot of fun! Now if one could only maintain that kind of rate without an international plane ticket, contesting would be even more popular than frisbee golf. :-) 2006-12-02 0041Z - 4.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 240 per hour by K4RO 2006-12-02 0142Z - 3.2 per minute (10 minute(s)), 192 per hour by K4RO 2006-12-02 0147Z - 2.6 per minute (60 minute(s)), 157 per hour by K4RO 73 -Kirk K4RO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4TD Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 181,815 This is my first-ever entry into the ARRL 160M contest...what a blast!!! I have been tinkering with a new 160M 1/4-wave vertical for a couple of weeks and wanted to use this contest to give it a shakedown. I knew from experimentation with the vertical that I would need some RX antenna capability so I spent Thursday installing two K9AY loops for the contest. I woke up Friday morning excited about using the vertical/loops in the contest later that afternoon. That excitement lasted right up to the point that I detected the reflector of my 2-elment 80M yagi laying on the ground in the back yard, courtesy of the weather front that moved through this weekend. On the bright side, the 90 foot element managed to fall 185 feet to the ground without scraping any of the phillystrand guys or damaging any elements on any of the other seven yagi antennas on the tower below it... It landed about 60 feet from the base of the tower and about 15 feet shy of the K9AY loops... From a rate perspective, the first night was much better than the second night. When I shut down the first night, I had around 700 Q's and 70 mults. I had hopes that the second night would be as good as the first night because the WX affecting other parts of the country the first night would have calmed down. That may well have been the case, but I didn't benefit from it... I have 4 or 5 deer who are full-time residents on my property. Apparently they didn't approve of my installation of the K9AY loops and took it upon themselves to try and re-engineer the loops on Saturday night. Having heard so well on the loops on Friday night, I was curious why I couldn't hear as well on Saturday night. I received my answer Sunday when I found the results of the "assistance" I received from my wildlife friends. My apologies to those stations that I had so much trouble hearing or that answered my CQ without a response from me. I worked all the DX that I managed to hear (C6, F, GI, HI HK0/a, HP, I, P4, PJ2, XE, YV and ZF), and only missed the following sections: ND, PR, AK, WY, MB, NL and NWT. I am already looking forward to this contest next year. 73, Rick K4TD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4UJ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 57,580 Soapbox : I got a single direction receive loop working 20 minutes before contest started, thanks to N4GG. The noise level went crazy the second night, however, that would become the least of the worries, I missed about 4 hours of prime time operating when our main water line broke! The WinTest software with WinKey is a great combo. Great job guys. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4WX Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 2,610 Had fun in my first CW contest and also my first time ever on 160! I did not plan on entering, but I tried to load up the G5RV with a tuner after hearing an AZ station above the ten over noise level. I was amazed that the tuner found a match, and astounded that my signal made it to AZ! Played around for almost four hours until the wife woke up at sunrise and scolded me for not having come to bed. Rig: Omni VI+ at 90 watts Ant: 80 Meter G5RV up 30ft with MFJ-993 auto tuner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K4XU Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 88,550 Couldn't start until almost 10PM local time, 06z, Friday night but was able to hold a frequency right away and kept up a good rate until I pooped out about 1030Z. Got a good start the second night and thought for a while I might make a sweep. Especially after VO1HP and VY2ZM called me in succession! Activity seemed down a bit from last year. There was not as much Caribean DX available as usual. KV4FZ, PJ2T, XE, HK0, and several JAs were all the DX I could find. However, I did not get up for the dawn patrol either morning. Conditions had a lot of slow QSB. A station would answer my CQ - loud and easily copied - and when it came time to get his exchange, he'd be in the mud. With patience, waiting for the QSB tide to rise again, the QSO completed. "Mud" here is relative. There is a S-7 broadband pulsing noise covering the lower end of 160m here that has two notches in it - classic pulsed envelope stuff - where I can be productive if there is a spot there to wiggle into and call CQ. I need to make a directive antenna, at least one with a good null, that I can hook to the IC703 and wander the property lines in search of its source. The deer have torn down all of my receiving antennas. One of the Bambis got tangled in a pennant made with #18 copperweld and froze to death. Martha Stewart, the local Sierra Club and the ASPCA were a little unhappy.... Gear: Radio: Ten-Tec Omni 6+ and Home-brew kW (actually Alpha 86 serial # -1) Antenna: inverted L, spaced ~2' from the tower up to 68' and ~60' sloping down from there at 45 deg. Fed against 12 radials, three elevated quarter wave and the rest on the ground, varing from 130 down to 60' depending on distance to property line. The lot is 300' x 175', within the city limits of Bend, and surrounded by moderate density residential subdiviions. Thanks for the QSOs, see y'all in Stew Perry. Dick ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K5BG Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 253,080 This is a great contest and the great participation from all is what makes it great. Thanks to all for calling and I am sorry to those that waited while I fumbled for the right beverage switch before hearing you or missing you altogether. Missed PR, VI, AK, NL, MB, NT and does anyone live in NNY? DX worked C6, DL, EA6, F, G, GJ, HI, HK0/A, HP, I, JA, OM, P4, PA, PJ2, S5, SM, V7, XE, YU, YV and ZL Observations: 1. Really hard to leave a run frequency to look for mults when the band is so crowded. 2. Still some clicking rigs out there. 3. A fun time with lots of familiar and lots of new calls. Hope to CU in the next one. Best wishes for a happy holiday to you and yours. Bob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K5KA Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 45,290 Poor condx to the west. Line noise on this end after a record snowfall. Hope that goes away after the melt. 73, Ken K5KA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K5NA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 313,038 This was the 33rd time I have entered the ARRL 160M Contest. I always go into this contest with one simple goal, to make the top ten. Sometimes I do (2004), and sometimes I don't (2005). I think I might have made it this year, but you can never be sure. Conditions seemed very unsettled and the QSB was as severe as I have ever heard it. You might copy a callsign on the first try prefectly clear and then spend 5 minutes trying to get the exchange. Thanks for the many who stuck with me until I copied them correctly. I missed the sections of PR, NL, MB, and NT. This is the fewest section mults that I have worked in quite a while for this contest. The European stations were in and out and I missed a lot of them. The QSB, QRM, and being this far west of the east coast means it just isn't that easy to work Europe. I managed 26 DX multipliers but only 11 of them were from Europe. I had put up a new NW beverage for this contest and it worked very well allowing me to work 39 JAs and a UA0. Most of these Asian stations were worked just after sunrise here on both mornings. Once again I had a terrific time in this, the 37th ARRL 160M Contest. I am already thinking of ways to improve for the 38th. 73, Richard - K5NA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K5TR Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 203,667 Congratulations to K5NA, K5BG and several others that have some really great scores from this part of the world. The band did not seem to be that great overall but it was pretty quiet most of the weekend for me. I decided to get on and play around in the ARRL 160 contest. I have never done this contest very seriously so this was kinda new to me. One the main reasons to do it was to find out how my antennas were working or not working on this band. The short answer is that while I have a decent signal I am at least 10 DB down from K5NA. I guess I have some work to do if I want to close that gap. I also found out that the antenna I have been using as my only 160 antenna here is at least 20 db down on receive (and I would guess similar on transmit) to the sloping vertical I put up a few months ago. I think I know what I will be doing in the short term for fixing that - I am not so sure if I am willing to do a lot of work get get up to the K5NA signal levels since I seem to hold my own on this band in the various multi band contests I play in each year. Lots of numbers: Callsign Used : K5TR Operator : K5TR Category : SOHP BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults Countries ______________________________________________________________ 160CW 1178 1130 2341 75 12 ______________________________________________________________ Totals 1178 1130 2341 75 12 Final Score = 203,667 points. Station: http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/blanco/k5tr_station.html 160 - 1/4 wave sloping vertical - 1/4 wave inverted L (80' vertical) some radials - NE, NW, SE, SW beverages ~500' long 160 80 40 20 15 10 30 17 12 ALL --- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- USA calls = 1055 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1055 VE calls = 44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 44 N.A. calls = 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 S.A. calls = 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Euro calls = 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 Afrc calls = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Asia calls = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 JA calls = 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 Ocen calls = 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 Total calls = 1130 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1130 HR 160 HR TOT CUM TOTAL SCORE -- ----- ------ --------- ----- 22 37/16 37/16 37/16 0.00M 23 71/15 71/15 108/31 0.01M 0 76/12 76/12 184/43 0.02M 1 82/9 82/9 266/52 0.03M 2 81/3 81/3 347/55 0.04M 3 67/8 67/8 414/63 0.05M 4 72/7 72/7 486/70 0.07M 5 53/4 53/4 539/74 0.08M 6 42/0 42/0 581/74 0.09M 7 27/2 27/2 608/76 0.09M 8 27/1 27/1 635/77 0.10M 9 35/2 35/2 670/79 0.11M 10 16/2 16/2 686/81 0.11M 11 28/1 28/1 714/82 0.12M 12 17/1 17/1 731/83 0.12M 13 17/1 17/1 748/84 0.13M 14 1/0 1/0 749/84 0.13M 15 --- 749/84 0.13M 16 --- 749/84 0.13M 17 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 18 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 19 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 20 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 21 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 22 --- --- 749/84 0.13M 23 13/1 13/1 762/85 0.13M 0 41/1 41/1 803/86 0.14M 1 36/0 36/0 839/86 0.15M 2 42/0 42/0 881/86 0.16M 3 54/0 54/0 935/86 0.17M 4 39/0 39/0 974/86 0.17M 5 33/0 33/0 1007/86 0.18M 6 17/0 17/0 1024/86 0.18M 7 21/0 21/0 1045/86 0.18M 8 22/1 22/1 1067/87 0.19M 9 14/0 14/0 1081/87 0.19M 10 12/0 12/0 1093/87 0.20M 11 12/0 12/0 1105/87 0.20M 12 10/0 10/0 1115/87 0.20M 13 9/0 9/0 1124/87 0.20M 14 3/0 3/0 1127/87 0.20M 15 3/0 3/0 1130/87 0.20M D1 108/31 108/31 D2 1022/56 1022/56 TO 1130/87 1130/87 1. Oh 58 2. STx 53 3. Mn 49 4. Il 44 5. Tn 44 6. Co 35 7. Va 34 8. Mi 32 9. NTx 31 10. In 29 11. Ga 27 12. Az 27 13. WWa 27 14. Al 26 15. Nc 24 16. NFl 23 17. Mo 23 18. Wi 21 19. On 21 20. Mdc 19 21. Sv 19 22. Ia 18 23. Ep 17 24. Ks 16 25. Scv 16 26. Ok 15 27. ENy 15 28. WNy 15 29. Or 14 30. Ar 13 31. Sc 13 32. Ct 13 33. La 12 34. Nm 12 35. Em 12 36. NNj 12 37. WcF 11 38. Nh 11 39. Org 11 40. JA 11 41. Ms 9 42. Ky 9 43. SFl 9 44. SNj 9 45. Wv 9 46. Sd 8 47. Bc 8 48. WMa 8 49. Ut 8 50. WPa 7 51. Mt 7 52. Sjv 7 53. WTx 6 54. Me 6 55. Eb 6 56. Vt 6 57. Sdg 6 58. Sf 6 59. Nv 6 60. Lax 6 61. Sb 5 62. Ab 5 63. Ew 4 64. NLi 4 65. Sk 3 66. Ne 3 67. Qc 3 68. Wy 3 69. Pac 3 70. DL 3 71. YU 3 72. Mar 3 73. De 3 74. XE 2 75. Nd 2 76. YV 1 77. HK0/A 1 78. Id 1 79. HI 1 80. Ri 1 81. PJ2 1 82. V7 1 83. ZL 1 84. C6 1 85. Ak 1 86. P4 1 87. Nl 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K5ZD Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 59,598 Only operated a few hours Saturday night. Conditions to Europe and West Coast were poor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6JEB Class: M/S LP Total Score = 1,620 Very nice contest. I was only able operate a few hours in between home improvement projects. Saturday my antenna had gone out of tune and even the tuner was of no use. Will work on an antenna that won't wimp out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6LRN Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 23,541 Wkd XE, PJ2 & JA. Thanks to all for Qs...CU in 10 M 'test ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6MM Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 23,826 My best 160M effort and it was all Search & Pounce. Had fun using my "No Excuses" 30 ft. PVC Vertical, helically wound with 1/2 wavelength of 4-conductor wire + 6 ground radials (www.k6mm.com). Squeezed out 57 sections, including several on the Other Coast. Thanks for the Qs, and 73, John, K6MM. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6NR Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 109,142 Great contest as always, conditions seemed pretty good stateside, not much DX. The JAs were very strong Saturday morning, but I didnt realize that until I started calling CQ and heard the response. Sunday morning JA signals seemed weeker and I didn't work many more, except right at my sunrise. I worked a total of 43 over the weekend. I was very pleased to hear and work GI0KOW Saturday night at about 1130pm my time. He wasn't very strong, but he was there. The only Eu I heard. JT1C called me Saturday morning, he was very strong. I started working the contest remotely using my TS480 and SGC 500watt amp. I decided to drive out to the station (80miles away) and work the rest locally with my IC756 Pro II and AL-1200. The extra 700 or so watts helped, and there is nothing like having a keyer paddle at your finger tips rather than a computer keyboard. Thanks for all of the QSOs. My antenna is a 45' high inverted L over 66 1/8 wave radials; my station is located at 3300' in the California High Desert near Victorville. Dana, K6NR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6NV Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 30,432 With my limited antennas, I had a great time. Friday night from here was great, I was able to hold a run frequency, felt that I was loud and actually had a sustained run rate of around 60/hour for 2 hours. Ran about 200 q's Friday. Sat night felt like I had worked everybody, was a workout to find fresh q's. On both evenings I was generating a pileup at times. Have to do something for a better receive antenna, I could tell lots of folks calling me, but they were so weak it was mush and I could not pull them out. Felt good to get most people I called on the first call while S&Ping. Very few contacts east of the Rockies. Last night, though I was surprised with MDC and DE. I am also fighting a S 7-9 noise level here (powerline related) which dosen't help, but I am figuring out how to hear through it. Lineup: FT-1000MP AL-80b, 900-1kw most of the time 125' slopper off the 60' tower running in a southely direction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6OWL Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 9,108 A few hours over the weekend using the mighty Isotron in the city. For the second year in a row, the mast toppled in mid-contest. I thought propagation had gone crummy so went out to lower the push-up for the night and found the antenna on the back lawn. Nevertheless, some stations were able to complete contacts with me! Amazing. 73, Mark K6OWL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6VVA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 14,720 A little bit of fun in short spurts. Condx were much better Sat. Night. Umh, WriteLog does NOT count Countries so I'm guessin at 5. Tnx for the Q's. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K6XT Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 27,755 Ants: 80M ground plane; 160 DP@10ft rx only ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K7BG Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 157,836 Had a sort of disjointed weekend that ended up affording me more operating time than I expected. I got on at the start on Friday and played for an hour or so and then was away for about 3 hours during prime time, at my daughter's basketball scrimmage. I came home and was on for all but an hour or two up until 1000z. I took some breaks to be a nurse and check on my wife who (Saturday was her birthday) had come down with some sort of stomach ailment or flu that has been going around up here. I went to bed at 1000z Saturday and slept through til 1400z, so I guess I missed the JA opening. Since my wife was still feeling a bit less than optimum we watched Poseiden Adventure last night instead of our original plans to be out for her b-day celebration Saturday night. Before and after the movie I was on most of the time till about 0800z. I went to bed at 0800 and set the alarm for 1200z so I wouldn't sleep through the JA opening. It paid off with a couple dozen JAs this morning including a UA0 thrown in. I ended with 890 Qs and 84 mults. Missed NT, NNY, NL, VE4, PR. Worked HI3, P4, ZF, JA, UA0, PJ2, XE and was happy to be called by JW5NM and I think that's it. No receive antennas here. I just tweek the old 765 until it thinks it has DSP. IC-765 driving Drake L-7 with old 3-500s to a quarter wave sloper coming off the heavily loaded tower (6 yagis) at 80 feet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K7OX Class: M/S HP Total Score = 139,072 On Wed I came down with a horrible head cold and was not planning to get on except to look for any new countries. My wife, (KE7AJ) pointed out I would not be able to sleep anyway with all the coughing and hacking so might as well get on. Both nights around 2AM quit and tried to grab a couple hours of sleep and get back up around 5AM for Pacific DX. Other then KH6, JA's and a lone UA0 nothing heard in the Pacific should have just sleep in. I had 49 states the first night and early the second night found W1OP in RI to give me WAS during the contest. I then was thinking maybe a Sweep would be possible but it was not to be. I missed 5 sections, NNY PR VE4 NT and NL. I heard VO1HP on the second night but could not break through the midwest/eastcost signals to grab Frank for the tough NL section. As far as the other 4 sections I never heard one. Conditions as far as noise etc seem to be OK but there still were a lot of clicks and birdies form other stations. Thanks for the Q's and Happy Holidays. Any "Top Banders" in the "Big Apple" ? I am leaving for NYC for ten days to spend the Holidays. 73 Gary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K7RL Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 162,792 Quite a month in Western Washington - floods, damaging wind, heavy snow, severe cold, power outages, and a new all-time precipitation record (15+ inches of rain). And that was just November! So if WWA was a bit more scarce than usual, you know why. The latest round of wild weather brought over a foot of wet snow to Camano Island that downed trees and branches. We lost power for four days and I wasn’t sure it would be on in time for the contest. Lesson learned: Buy a bigger generator! Missed NNY, PR, NT, and NL. Funny, I worked all over New York, but somehow missed NNY. The first night was productive, but conditions seemed better the second night with louder signals. Was pleasantly surprised to be called by R1FJT, P40TA, V73RY, and UA0DC, including all of the FB JA ops. I still find it amazing that a hunk of wire hanging from the trees can produce 912 Qs on 160m. Just need to work on a better receiving antenna now. Happy Holidays to all and thanks for the Qs! 73 de Mitch, K7RL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K7TJR Class: M/S HP Total Score = 145,725 Activity seemed a little down this year or we were a little older? Was very happy to hear yv5 pj2 c6 zf2 ps7 hp1 ua0 v73 kl7 kv4 vy2 p40 xe kh6 and hi3. I heard vo1 but could not get his attention. Worked 54 Ja stations as well, way down from the 124 in CQ 160. Missed NL NLI NNY NT PR MB.I picked up RI at the very last moments of the contest. I think my 14 different Rx antennas slowed us down a little in the early a.m. hours. I have a permanent groove worn in the switch panel from rotating the selector knob. I am now experimenting with diversity Rx on the Orion and I think that might be the answer to our multi-directional problem. K7ZUM could only be here for one day so I flew it alone night 2. I had the internet cluster on but found it to be no use at all. I found all the dx I could work just by making s/p runs up and down the band. The only exception was a post I saw from zl6qh of my signal early in the morn when the rx antennas were still focused on the US. I later looked for him but no luck. I could hear some really weak stations calling from the pacific but just could not make them out. Hmm perhaps time for position 15 on the Rx antenna switch hi hi. Great contest and thanks to all except the guy that blatantly stole my frequency by sliding right down on top and I was using a 200 Hz window. He never even hiccuped except when I sent LID zero beat. Allready looking for the next 160 event.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K7XC Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 55,870 The Best I Have Ever Done In The 160M Contest! I guess The 175' Long Inv L Up 37' Is Working Pretty Well. Power Line Noise Came On At 4AM Sunday Making It Impossible To Continue. Used Both A IC-746 And A Omni-D, Each At 100W Out. Worked 48 states in less than 12 hours, Missing Only ME and RI! Cool Stuff!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8AJS Class: M/S HP Total Score = 81,178 The band was noisier than earlier in the week; DX was hard to hear. I got a few, certainly nothing to write home about. By Saturday night the spots were about worthless; I would go after a new call only to find out that someone who spotted the station blew the call and it was really someone I had already worked. If some of these operators have logs that look as bad as their spots, they'll be losing a lot of points when the logs are checked. Rig: FT-1000MP + ALS-600 amp Ant: Helically-wound vertical, 204-foot inverted vee Software: WriteLog 10.58e ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8BL Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 119,151 Friday night had bad QRN from storms passing through. Saturday was much quieter, but propagation to DX still poor. Had some good runs when I found those rare open spots, but they didn't last too long when the crowd squeezed in. It's quite amazing how many stations can operate in less than 80 KHz!!! Am really pleased with the Inverted L Bazooka (from NJ3T web site) with deep ground rod and 4 radials (one elevated) and alligator clips to neighbor's 200' long chainlink fence!! Missed ID, ND, NL, MB, AB, NT, PR, PAC & AK. Heard ID, AB and KH6, but couldn't break through pileups. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8CC Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 246,136 Second time operating this contest. First time was last year as guest-op at W8MJ. Thanks to Ken and Dave for encouraging me to do this one solo again ... Friday began at 5:00am for school, as usual. I may need to look into taking Friday off if I pursue this trend of operating this contest as single-op. Last year, early Saturday morning my mind and body took over for my ambition and demanded that I sleep IMMEDIATELY. So I laid down from 10Z-11Z and was back in the chair before sunrise. This year I was able to postpone this unfortunate force of nature until Sunday, but it was about the same scenario and about the same time. In spite of the MAJOR QRN from the storms, compounded with having to use the TX antenna for a while, the early rates turned out OK. The first eight hours were 76, 86, 86, 90, 88, 91, 87, and 73. However, Friday night I worked *no* Europe ... and not for want of trying! It just didn't seem to be there. I went to bed Saturday morning with 935 QSOs and a score well ahead of last year. Saturday night I was rested, showered, and ready ... but only worked DL, ES, F, G, GI, and I. What? That's it?!? I worked some Carribbean stuff (missed PR) and out west I worked a few KH6's, but no VK/ZL, JA, AK, NT, or anything exotic ... very disappointing. With more QSOs, but less mults, I ended up with a score that is only slightly higher than my score from last year, even after a stronger start. Domestically, I missed AK, MB, NT, and PR. As usual, I learned a lot: - after noise-blanker modification, an FT-1000D can be a decent receiver - sometimes black goes to red and red goes to black - your amplifier will become untouchable after the blower bearings seize (tip: keep adding muffin fans until it stops glowing orange) - individual "coffee bags" (like tea bags) seem to have a finite shelf life - there are less "CLICKY" stations now that you 'MP users are fixing the darn things, making the unmodified ones ever-the-more irritating!! Station: NA software FD-1000D (modified) 140' shunt-fed tower 500' Beverages NE, NW, SE (broken), SW one apparently indestructable ViewStar PT-2500A (2x3-500Z) 73! Don Chisholm K8BB Go Mad River! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8FH Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 206,210 IC-756 PRO2 ¼ wave vertical full wave loop @70’ 4 square receiving array NA logging software lots of iced tea a couple NoDoz one dozen donuts I was afraid when I got home from work on Friday that my vertical would be a pile of aluminum debris on the ground due to the 60 MPH winds that blew in on Friday, but all was well. The noise level Friday night on the transmit antennas was S9+, the addition of a receiving array 1000’ back in the woods over the summer away from all power lines and such really made a great difference. Nearly all of the contacts were on the vertical, only made a couple on the loop. Stayed awake both nights this year, the last couple years I passed out during the second night. Didn’t work much DX and missed ND and AK as well as several Canadian sec’s. It was a fun contest, thanks to all for the Q’s. 73 Fred ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8GU Class: M/S HP Total Score = 188,877 Equipment: FT-1000MP mark V TS-930S (2) Homebrew 1.5 kW amps 100-ft shunt-fed tower NE/SW unterminated beverage NW/SE unterminated beverage Soapbox: We are somewhat dismayed to report that Murphy is alive and well in IL. We had a pretty good first night, ending with 900/75/7 and one broken amp. After the second amp gave-up early on Saturday night, we called it quits. This year, we connected my TS-930 as a "spotting radio"; although, we didn't use it too much. It was interesting, though, to park the '930 on the run frequency and compare what you could hear on the two radios, even though they were sharing the same RX antenna. There were many times that one radio could hear far better than the other; but, this condition would reverse itself (randomly) from QSO to QSO. Interesting. Well, we didn't do as well as last year and Lynn has two amps to repair. But, I think I can say we had a good time. (Paraphrasing N9RV, it's hard to complain about a contest that provides you with 100+ hours.) Thanks for all of the QSOs and repeats! Thanks also to Lynn and Donita for letting Zack and me crash in their basement and play with antennas and amps we can't install at home. 73, --Ethan, K8GU, for the team. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8IA Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 9,476 Orion II (100w), 78' vertical, K9AY Rx Loops. Been a bit ill this week, so just a token showing to make 100 q's and then quit. Mission accomplished. CU All in Stew Perry! 73, Bob K8IA Arizona USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8IR Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 67,536 I got spoiled by last year's conditions. This year was not nearly as good, at least in the evening. Things got rolling about 0400 on Friday night, and had a great run over nearly two hours, then went to bed. Got up about 1100, and conditions were still good until 1400. Saturday afternoon was very tough, and the band didn't start to really open up until 0300. This weekend would not have been possible without the help of my new MFJ-1026 noise canceller. I've had some bad power line noise all season, and after being shut down on 160 and 80 last week in the CQWW, I figured I needed something, and ordered the unit last Monday. I was extremely pleased with the results. Using an R-8 vertical as the noise pickup, I was able to bring an S7 (in the 250Hz bandwidth) noise down below the other noise, so the power line became a non-factor. Lacking a receive antenna, I still can't hear well, but at least I could hear enough to warrant running. The only problem occured at about 0345 Saturday in the midst of a slow but steady run. I was at the low end of the band, with a 2.5 SWR, and suddenly the relay in the 1026 stopped pulling in. The manual warns against running before the tuner into a higher SWR. I worked a few more through the suddenly S7 again noise, and headed to bed way earlier than I should have, given the band was sounding pretty good. Got up Sunday morning, and discovered the 1026 worked FB with 75 watts into the 2.5 SWR, and was fine at 100 watts into a reasonable SWR, so I was back in business. Even worked KH6. I kept CQing to the end, just to make sure the unit was going to hold up, and it performed flawlessly to 1600. I equaled last year hourly rate of 2 for the final two hours. Thanks to all who called me. And apologies to those who I couldn't pull out or even hear. And thanks for those who dug me out of their noise. I'll be back for the Stew. 73 Jim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8LN Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 21,777 Operating QRP wasn't as bad as I thought. Yes I did miss some mults and it makes you wonder how a station can be 20-30 over calling CQ and they don't hear you. You learn to just say oh well and move on. Then there are thoses who are just above the noise and they hear, go figure. Operated SP only, hour or so on, watch some TV and do it again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K8MR Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 69,200 Saturday night/Sunday morning only. Not much time tuning, so only DX was HI3A and C6AQQ. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9AY Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 253,092 Had a fun time, but the RX antenna farm wasn't up to pulling out weak DX from the noise! TX: Inv-L RX: K9AY Loop, 3 Beverages 73, Gary K9AY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9CT Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 210,290 First time and really enjoyed it. WAS (ND was last at 1307Z Saturday AM) in 16 hours and 7 minutes! We just had a record snowfall for 12/1 and the QRN at the beginning was fierce. Band became quiet but the conditions to the west were not as good as hoped. Midwest and East stations were of good strength. Lots of stations in a few Khz! Run frequencies were hard to come by! Thanks for the Q's! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9DX Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 343,000 If low sunspots = good top band conditions, then there is sometning wrong. The first day was a total wipe-out to Europe and the second day was almost as bad. It was great that there were so many state-side stations swarming like a beehive to take up the slack. Thanks to everyone. John ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9GY Class: M/S QRP Total Score = 2,420 Never thought I would be in this contest. Was supposed to fly to AZ to visit my Dad this weekend but a winter storm ended that plan. Also ended up with an unplanned day off from work due to the storm. The worst area hit was in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Just a lot of rain and some light dusting of snow here in the southern suburbs. Was sitting in the shack at 22z on Friday and thought geez I might try to string up a longwire and give the contest a shot. Wow, amazing what a compromise antenna and QRP can do. Lots of good antennas and ops on the other end for sure. I thought that would be cool to enter as SO-QRP but then remembered that I used packet (mainly to spot stuff). Most of the QSOs were Friday night/Sat morning...by the time Sat night rolled around I was fairly wiped out. FT-817 at 5 watts approx 60' longwire at approx 25' high (horizontal) Sections worked: 2) NNJ 3) DE, WPA, EPA 4) KY, NC, TN, VA 5) AR, NTX 8) MI, OH 9) IL, IN, WI 0) IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, SD VE) ON Happy Holidays & Best of health to all, Eric ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9MU Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 15,962 I tried running but it never produced much results. An invetered L and 100 wiskeys just doesn't cut it. Lots of frustration from "CQ's in the face" but I did manage to bag HK0GU for a new one. 73, Justin K9MU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: K9NW Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 30,256 Nothing like a quick rate fix! 73, Mike K9NW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KB7Q Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 164,738 Last year I discover what an excellent 160 meter location the mountain cabin really is. The terrain drops off 1,500' in the first quarter-mile in a semi-circle from east to west. This year I drove up prepared for a maximum effort; more seat time, more radials, better coax, and a full 150 watts. It all seemed to pay off. We had light winds all weekend, so the 7' balloon holding the 1/4 wave vertical stayed out of the trees (mostly) and straight up. Conditions seemed fine with very little QSB and very quiet. I worked 700 folks and all 50 States Friday night which made for quite a slog Saturday to find 285 others to get into the log. Playing hide and seek with the JA's while trying to squeeze into the 1810 - 1825 Khz windows each morning was a test of the K-2's receiver and everybody's patience - everybody seemed to space out about 300 Hz and ask and respect QRL, but some folks are still sporting key-clicks after all this time. DX worked: 10 JA's, HI6A, P40AT, C6AQQ, XE2S, PJ2T. I was amazed at the number of dupes! One gentleman worked me seven times! I should bundle up his QSL cards and send 'em. I worked 'em all and let the log checking software sort 'em out. We are having fun! Time for bed. Best, Gene, KB7Q ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KC4HW Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 2,457 Well I did not have much to play with here in Fadette, AL. Just a dipole about 25' at the center and ends about 8', mostly boardside North and South. Ran low power. No receiving antennas! Really did not take a lot of time to play, was working on the Rohn25 tower. My station played pretty much like I thought it would, in that I could hear many high power stations, but they could not hear me. Also the CW contest speed exceed my abilility by a good bit most of the time. I mostly tune the band looking for stronger signals and code speed that I could copy. Well I missed the target 100 QSOs for the ACG challenge, but next year, hope to be much more capable. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KD2MX Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 17,664 Conditions were horrendous at contest start-time. Spring-like temperatures in the 70s here in NJ and an approaching squall line created ear-numbing noise. I had planned to operate qrp but when I could barely make a qso with CT, I decided that qrp might be an exercise in great frustration this weekend. After listening a few minutes, I went to dinner and came back later in the evening when the noise had died down a bit. This is my second season on 160m. I had good success last year running mostly qrp, which I was forced into by rfi problems. I still managed to work 37 states using just a longwire. I put up a ~600' loop this fall and it solved my rfi trouble. No longer does the microwave go berserk when I run full power (100w). I had a tougher time this weekend working west of the Mississippi with 100w than I did last year with 5w. Conditions on Saturday night were better than Friday but still noisy, and most stations were pretty weak. I did manage a few new states though, but it wasn't easy. I only worked a hour here and there, grabbing a couple hours sleep, then getting in some early morning work before catching some more sleep. Not great for the qso total but there's less competition at 3am and you don't get too screwed up. Nothing too exciting to report. I was hoping for AK...lots of luck right? I was spoiled last weeked in the CQWW when I worked NH6 on one call on 160. That was a thrill, even though I felt like I was cheating running 100w. With that, I figured WAS on 160 is possible with low-power and a simple wire antenna. The strangest thing this weekend was hearing W6WA here at about 0830 at S9 calling CQ and he not hearing not only me, but anybody else for that matter. Maybe he fell asleep at the wheel with the cq machine running. Here's hoping for better condx for Stu Pery and CQ160. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KE9I Class: M/S HP Total Score = 266,352 If it weren't for the dupes we would have had no one to work after about 09z on the second day. Not much dx heard let alone worked but fun as usual. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KH6/KU1CW Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 4,375 Well, looks like plan worked this time. I have started contest back in Missouri as KU1CW and after 10 hours/950 QSO's into it-packed up, jumped on the plane and chased the sun on my way to Maui(KH6). Unpacked, hooked everything together, under cover of darkness hanged 130FT of wire on the palm tree and went into contest, second day of it as KH6/KU1CW. 95% of the people I've called did not hear me and the rest was slightly confused. Contest is over now and hotel security noticed antenna (hazard), so there are no antenna and I'm ready to work and have some fun (Golf), when I can. Some notes: AC6DD was the best TX/RX from US West W4AN(W8JI) is the best from anywhere with W4MYA right behind. WS4Y and K9CT were the best TX/RX from the Midwest. A lot of 'Big Guns' are quite unbalanced in link budgeting-I had them 59+ and have tried to connect for 15-20min with no luck at all... Had a surprising KH8Q QSO-and have heard him few times after, hope to work him from MO later. Thanks everyone and 73. Alex KH6/KU1CW (for a week...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KL7RA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 34,398 Never got Northeast of WPA and missed all the multiplier rich New England secs. Short openings to the rest of the Eastern seaboard with really only a handful of stations worked. Called many loud stations Southeast of me early in the evening with no luck but could work very weaK Stations in other directions. Second night I was hearing the lower 48 early before 0200z but never could get anyone's attention until after 0600z and trust me I tired. It wasn't till 1100z before I could really call CQ with any results. After putting up with 20dB+ over static crashes from storms in the Pacific during the WW CW I ran a new beverage pointed at W1's. Running 500 feet of coax down a steep hill I ended up flat on my face in the snow after rolling for 30 feet. This had to be a good sign as I'm sure the antenna will work great. No W1/2 prop to try it however. 73, Rich KL7RA North Kenai, Alaska. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KN4Y Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 2,500 Short run before trip, sure wish I had had a 160-meter mobile antenna. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KN6RO Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 22,857 First time in this test. My 193 QSO's brings my all time total on 160 to about 200 QSO's. I put up an Inverted-L just to be able to get on the air, and I'm glad I did. Still working on my CW skills, and I appreciate all that worked with me to get the Qs. Needless to say, All S&P. Yaesu FT-1000MP, Kenwood TL-922, Inverted-L at 60 feet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KO7X Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 59,400 Missed NL, NLI, NNY, NWT, PAC, PR, VI and VT. HI3A was my only DX QSO. The only DX (off the continent) heard was a KH6 that I never worked. As usual, this was very much a part time effort. Wyoming was one of the last sections in the log thanks to my QRP neighbor Dale, WC7S. Never heard another Wyoming station. No surprise, although last year W7SE ran up a big score. CU all on 10 meters next weekend. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KR2Q Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 25,704 Last year I said how much fun this contest is. Not this year....just one long slog (and not that long either). Had trouble staying away (well, actually, I didn't stay awake). Terrible atmospheric noise first night until storm "passed" (NNJ was tornado watch area!), then nobody heard me. Went to bed. Second night better (locally), but nothing of any signal strength west of the Mississippi. Heard KH6 this morning at sunrise, but "no way" qrp. Didn't even try. Called CQ 2,175 times on day 2; some return rate. Looking at my results last years, wow. This year was a big disappointment. Elecraft K2 and 1/2 wave wire with center at 50' and ends at six feet. Stew better be better than this! de Doug KR2Q ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KT0R Class: M/S HP Total Score = 92,112 I just got on a bit Friday night and some Saturday night. I just had a hard time getting going on Friday. I worked late and crashed by 10:00 pm Got on Sunday and had a good time. Thought I had NNY but, my post caught the mistake and was NLI oh well. Not much dx only 2 PJ2 and KV4....Like many others missed AK,NT,NL,PR,MB,NNY. Yes many weak stations.. I always wonder what is that guy using for a antenna. I had good time. Always fun to hear old friends on and some new ones. See you all in the next one. Vry 73 Dave KT0R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KT4Q Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 5,092 HAd a little time at night to execute a few calls. Rig: Yaesu FT-100MP MV Ant: Carolina Windom 160 73 de Steve, KT4Q ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KU1CW Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 166,496 That was part one of the contest-from continental US (MO) and day two was continued as KH6/KU1CW from Maui. Don't know if ARRL would allow that-they stripped me of two all time W0 records CW and SSB on 80M last year for the ARRL DX, since I was working K0LW SO160M and KU1CW SO80M. Was 4 records, but they left only 160M standing and 80M as check log. Was a pretty good tempo from MO and RX testing of the 'Big Gun's'-interesting experience. Thanks everyone for calling and trying to copy. 73. Alex KU1CW. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KU8E Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 58,156 Icom 756PRO - 100 Watts - Inverted L Guess I need to improve the antenna - Inverted L - about 40 ft vertical. I never felt like my signal was that strong although I was able to run stations when I CQ'ed. Frustrating to hear so many loud W6/W7's - some 20 dB over - and have them CQ in your face. KH6ZM was about S9 at Sunday morning at sunrise but he couldn't hear me. Heard but did not work - EB,EWA,LAX,NV,PAC,SDG,SF,SJV,UT,WTX. Worked only 1 EU and heard one other. Carribean is a chip shot from here and most DX was from down there.. Jeff KU8E ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KV0Q Class: M/S HP Total Score = 271,476 Very noisy conditions made it difficult all weekend. Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KV1J Class: M/S LP Total Score = 5,082 Put up a temporary beverage but found the band quiet without it. Did not arrive in Maine until 7PM Saturday so short effort. 73, Eric KV1J and Matthew W1MAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: KV8Q Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 6,660 Didn't have much time to play in this one. Not much for an antenna either. Maybe next year, this gets a bit higher on the priority list. Glad to give 90 stations an extra Q. Rig = TenTec Jupiter Antenna = 102' G5RV @ 45' (yeah, I know. It's only have size for 160) Software = N1MM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: LA6YEA Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 1,848 Laid back operation, due to bad condx. A S/P contest. Spent some hours on to give out some mults, but went to bed 0400 Saturday and 0500 Sunday local time. In between listening I did some "Morserunner virtual contesting" hi hi.... Understand the noise level was a big problem in most of NA. I gave up calling many stations, that I had a quite nice copy on: W7IZL, NQ0V, K9DX among many others..... Some came very well through though: NO2R, N6ZO, W4MYA, VA5DX, N0NI, CG3EJ, K0TV, W3BGN, N4PN, AA4V, K1TTT.....GOOD EARS GUYS !!! Heard a few EU stations in there, and UU7J. They were not to busy either, and I heard most of takers they had. One exception GI0KOW wkd many I had no chance copy here...Most signals came in on my south west beverage (skewed path), due to the f.... active magnetic field that makes direct path useless. Condx came on and off very quickly here, but only once my cq calls gave a small run...Well, hoping for some better condx soon. S/P is fun, but a good run is better !! Setup here: IC-756PROIII, Commander HF-2500, Titanex V160S 27m vertical, 2 dual wire beverage 1000ft covering NW/SE and SW/NE directions. Cu in the next one, with my own call or LA3Z/LN3Z. Paul - LA6YEA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: LY2IJ Class: M/S HP Total Score = 9,520 A and K indexes were low, so I decided to go the station to test new 2 x 310 m Beverage to USA - path was skewed during all CQWW CW, to try to catch A22 on TB and VU7 on 80, to try to work last 4 states for WAS and to do a little contesting. First QSO was with VY2ZM at 2121 UTC, followed with W2GD a minute latter, then I found A22/JA4ATV on 1812 - #201 for me, made few JA QSOs on their SR, tried to get through to VU7 on 80 - no luck. Back to 160 - east coast loud and good ears - 12 QSO per 25 mins, then back to 80 for VU7 - 20 mins and I am in log for all band new one. Next 2 1/2 run hours with 20 min S&P stop gave me 119 QSOs - rate was really good with 3-4 stations calling, not easy to copy under heavy QSB. Band suddennly closed at 0140. Added just few extra QSOs with very weak signals during next 2 hours and I gave up waiting for morning opening - I left station 3 hours before Sunrise, but from the others comments I see I missed nothing. Results are reached, new antenna shined, very impressive run, but I still need LA, KS, ID and HI - band closed before their evening basically. Most active sections - VA- 17, NC - 14, EPA - 13, CT -8. QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band Hour 160 Total Cumm OffTime D1-2100Z 2/2 2/2 2/2 33 D1-2200Z 12/9 12/9 14/11 20 D1-2300Z 40/11 40/11 54/22 D2-0000Z 51/7 51/7 105/29 D2-0100Z 28/4 28/4 133/33 18 D2-0200Z 1/1 1/1 134/34 60 D2-0300Z 2/1 2/1 136/35 Thanks, 73 Arunas / LY2ij ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0FP Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 146,172 The second night was definately better than the first. My Q count is low the first night and I never recovered. Both 2004 and 2005 had better Q counts with more mults. But this beats my 2003 score by a good margin. 49 States again. Where the heck is Alaska when you need it? Some of the missing mults were a shock too. What's up with nobody in NNY or SDG? Missed PR and NL & NWT in RAC. They call it sweepstakes with a twist of DX. I call it great fun. There must be a bunch of stations running bed springs for antennas. Or else the transmitters are powered by the Energizer Bunny. There are more ESP QSOs in the log this year than normal. At least, that's the way it seems. The station antenna has S7 noise. And my beverage occassionally has S3 noise that comes and goes. Forgive me if I was working you and it felt like you had a brain dead moron on the other end. It was the buzz box inthe neighborhood. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0IJ Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 64,313 Threw up full size inverted V--35' high, but 60% only about 10', and it worked great. Lots of fun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0KK Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 4,959 After CQ WW SSB, SS CW, SS SSB, CQWW CW 2.5 hours was a push if I wanted to continue to have a family! HI HI Some year I hope to do this one QRP and full time. Some YEAR! Kirk N0KK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0KQ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 2,781 Low noise here for 160m. The inverted L up only 45' seemed to work pretty well on low power. I was only able to work 2 hours but it was fun. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0NI Class: M/S HP Total Score = 322,047 hmmm. if we could only turn say every 50 dupes into a new multiplier somehow. The dupes don't really bother me, it tells me the station is loud, and keeps me busy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0OCT Class: Single Op QRP Total Score = 9,216 Field Day in December. We still don't have power. It's 19 degrees F outside. Had enough battery power to run QRP, and my aerials weren't knocked down. Used a kludged together radio that had contacts twisted together by hand. Operated by Coleman lantern and hand logging. I learned several things: Some times the weak ones come back. A rig with no AGC allows you to monitor the swings of propagation. W0JPL a stone's throw away will take your head off if you have no AGC. I can maintain the house at a balmy 51 deg with no furnace. Carbon Monoxide doesn't give as nice a buzz as, say, a nice merlot. 73 and thanks for listening. Jim N0OCT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0XB Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 170,724 Thanks to all. My personal best in this 'test. Soapbox stuff: Wish more guys would learn to zero beat a cw signal. Lots of tuner-uppers it seems as well. Good attendance this year, lots of strong signals which is always good on 160. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N0YY Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 61,056 Rig: FT-1000MP Inverted-L with raised radials Write Log 10.55D Just a few hours to play. Probably missed some easy mults, but wanted to do a bit of run and S&P. Nice run on Friday night/Saturday morning and some S&P on Saturday night. No Europeans heard. Caribbean's were strong! PJ2T was a rock - was there all the time as a beacon. C6AQQ was up and down. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N1EU Class: M/S HP Total Score = 132,153 Limited 8-hour effort. Missed PR, AK, MB, NWT. Thanks for the q's and apologies to those I couldn't pull out. Equipment: Orion/Acom 2000A, inv L, 580ft Beverages NE, NW, SW, SE 73, Barry N1EU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N1IX Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 80,988 Great contest!! Really exciting to be called by DX on 160. I never heard the west coast. It was a real chore to work EWA and NV. I had to work Saturday so I slept Friday night and missed the best few hours of the contest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N1UR Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 50,344 This was supposed to be a serious effort. Instead, a number of things came up during the weekend that prevented it. The first 3 hours saw strong thunderstorms approaching and then going right over head. The first 2 hours were really bas static crashes (even on the beverages) ans then I had to QRT for an hour due to the storm. The line voltages were fluctuating and I ended up blowing the FT-990's power supply (oh well, off to the shop with that). Also lost a box controller on my 15M stack match due to nearby lightning. When I was on, I was surprised how little EU or DX in general was heard. Also, the West Coast seemed very hard to work from here. A few nice hours of runs though and it was fun while I was on. 73 Ed N1UR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N2CU Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 35,030 Knowing I couldn't put in a full effort (still recovering from CQWW at W2FU) I decided to put in two hours as "fresh meat" Saturday night. WOW! I felt like I was on a rare DXpedition the rate got so high. Meter hit 240/hr. Conditions seemed punk with some stations sounding like aurora. My apologies to a couple of stations I just couldn't pull out of the noise. No EU heard in that short time and only DX was P40TA that called in. CU in the Stew and CQ160. FT1000MP, Drake L7, Inverted L @ 46', K9AY loops, N1MM logger. 73, Tom N2CU <>< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N2FF Class: M/S LP Total Score = 6,798 I used packet so I was M/S. Bummer, no asssited SO category! Too bad I don't have a 160 meter antenna. I used the venter conductor of my 80 meter dipole as a long wire. I had great fun until Sunday morning just as I was about to quit when I ran into RFI getting into my keying line. Perhaps next yar I will have a REAL 160 meter antenna. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N2MRI Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 13,250 Club is "Hudson Valley Contesters and DXers" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N2NT Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 55,131 Since my 4 square of inv L's is broken, I got on with the inverted vee to give out a few points. My inverted vee has never been a great DX antenns, but I was amazed the second night just after sunset by a mini pile up of Russian stations, and then a solid 579 call from UA9CLB! Nice job by the CLB crew for a great antenna setup. Glad I caught what seems to be the only decent opening of the contest. 73, Andy N2NT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N2WN Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 171,160 Rig : Elecraft K2/100 Antennas : ~48' wire Tee vertical (used it for Rx most of the weekend) 295' coax beverage (helped keep the QRN tolerable, but not the best Rx antenna on the Top Band, great for 80) Soapbox : Well Friday started off much worse than the Friday before CQ WW DX CW. I really feel for the folks in the mid West. We had gale force winds. Lost my 83' vertical around 7:30 AM, snapped the puppy clear in half, and it was working so nicely... What to do??? Dipole? load the 44' of it that was left? Nahhh, build a Tee from scratch. 48' tall 150' across the top, close enough, throw a couple radials out... tunes too low, throw a couple caps in, looks good now, narrow, but as one would expect. Will it play? Film at 1600Z... OK, 15 minutes before the show starts, I blow a fuse. Of course, I don't have a spare here, it's an hour drive back home...but scrounge around and find one that will work, if I keep the power under 100 watts, so 85 it is, and away we go. The contest starts and so does the QRN. The big cold front that whacked the mid-west rolls thru. First two hours or more are hard hearing, even on the Rx antenna. It passes and all is nice and quiet finally! My rate picks up and the multipliers are rolling in. Managed to work ALL 50 the first 15 hours. No joy on a sweep, missing include: PR, MB, NWT (I never heard them) and SDG and NL (heard both in S&P mode). Funny last year it was LAX missing, plenty of them this year. Great participation, plenty of states well represented including the tougher ones. Nice to have LA and MS back in force... DX was pretty good, although thought it was better last year for some reason. UU7J was really loud, and had good ears. DX Folks who called me included: CT1JLZ. KH6ZM and XE2KK. As usual there were some I couldn't pull out. This was partially due to the fact if you were quiet too long, the frequency was considered vacant! Tough when you pack everyone into such a small spectrum. More QSOs, one less multiplier this year, increased my score around 20K, depending on how the checking goes. Thanks for the intense weekend. See ya in the Stew. Cheers, Julius n2wn Sect Total N2WN 13 13 AB 2 2 AK 1 1 AL 24 24 AR 8 8 AZ 10 10 BC 7 7 CO 12 12 CT 13 13 DE 3 3 EB 2 2 EMA 20 20 ENY 20 20 EPA 30 30 EWA 3 3 GA 27 27 IA 13 13 ID 3 3 IL 41 41 IN 26 26 KS 9 9 KY 8 8 LA 9 9 LAX 2 2 MAR 2 2 MDC 33 33 ME 5 5 MI 32 32 MN 50 50 MO 17 17 MS 8 8 MT 4 4 NC 27 27 ND 2 2 NE 4 4 NFL 15 15 NH 14 14 NLI 10 10 NM 4 4 NNJ 17 17 NNY 1 1 NTX 14 14 NV 5 5 OH 70 70 OK 11 11 ON 27 27 OR 6 6 ORG 3 3 PAC 1 1 QC 3 3 RI 3 3 SB 1 1 SC 8 8 SCV 3 3 SD 5 5 SF 3 3 SFL 11 11 SJV 4 4 SK 2 2 SNJ 10 10 STX 27 27 SV 5 5 TN 37 37 UT 3 3 VA 38 38 VI 1 1 VT 6 6 WCF 8 8 WI 22 22 WMA 6 6 WNY 20 20 WPA 11 11 WTX 2 2 WV 12 12 WWA 12 12 WY 2 2 Total 953 953 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N3GJ Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 35,728 Equipment: IC-761 100w, Inv L with 12 radials I was only able to put in a few hours this year. Best DX was N6DZ, NK7U, and W7DX to the west and P40TA & PJ2T to the south. Didn't hear any Eu sigs during the small amount of time I was on, so I didn't log anything from Eu. 73 Tnx for the QSO's Gd DX, George N3GJ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N3NR Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 75,040 Missed last year's contest with downed antenna; and I was really bummed to have to sit on the sidelines! Wasn't able to get it back up until Christmas time. That antenna lost it's radial in August! Of course, the remaining main element fell apart when I tried to repair it! So the week of Thanksgiving I devoted one day to putting the 160 vertical back up. It's basically an inverted U with two elevated radials. I'm happy with the performance! This was my best QSO count ever, and just missed my best score ever by about 3 mults! Hopefully mother nature will be nice this year and allow me to keep the inverted U up thru next year's contest! Thanks for all the Q's! 73 de Nick N3NR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N3ST Class: Single Op HP Total Score = 179,744 Missed 10 US/VE Sections (ND,PR,PAC,SB,SDG,AK,WY,MB,NL,& NWT) 12 DX Countries 16 hrs operating time Conditions Friday early evening were terrible. QRN from passing storm made copy very hard. Fortunately it quieted down later. West coast was coming in great late Friday night. Had some really good rates going. I really enjoyed this contest. Station: Icom 756Pro2 Drake L7 1/4 wave vertical Inverted V - apex at 160ft 2 Beverages (East / West) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N3ZA Class: M/S HP Total Score = 13,944 First night stormy - no operation. Second night only. About 6 hours total time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N4BAA Class: M/S LP Total Score = 63,672 Contitions NOTHING like they were for CQWWCW...but FUN FUN FUN... Mother in town this weekend (What was I thinking??)...and Son's birthday to boot......Will plan better next time!! HI HI See you next weekend in the 10M contest (with amp ON!!!) Jose - N4BAA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N4EK Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 2,626 Missed Friday night as my wife thought we needed a short overnight trip to Cedar Key to unwind. so we rode the harley up on friday and came back saturday. i got on about 2230 z for a while before the florida-arkanas game and then during half-time. after the the game i decided i was to tired to stay up. must have been all them oysters from friday night, or was it all the 807's used to wash them down ?? 73, ed N4EK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N4GG Class: M/S HP Total Score = 112,631 Noise sure came up the second night. Worked this in between chores and prior committments. FT-1000MP+Inrad, Acom2000A, 20M Lazy-H with feeders shorted fed against radials, K9AY loop, Writelog. GG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call: N4JF Class: Single Op LP Total Score = 9,310 MADE A FEW CONTACTS TO HELP THE ACG...OUR LOCAL ARC " W4CUE " CELEBRATED ITS 80TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A SPECIAL EVENT STATION THIS WEEKEND. WE O