[Corkradioclub] An important lesson... never give up

[John Tait]

*That's a great story Cormac, and well done OM. If you win a plaque, 
you'll have to give it to your daughter! {:o)**
**Unfortunately, I didn't get on for the Stew, as petticoat government 
decreed that I be elsewhere.**
**  Anyway, now I know what the glow in the North-western sky was!**
**BTW.. That "windy weather" peaked 55MPH here, and flattened my pair of 
40m phased verticals. {:o(**
**    A Healthy, Happy, and DX filled New Year to all CRC people.**
**                      de**
**                  John EI7BadApples*

On 05/01/2013 09:58, Cormac Gebruers wrote:
> I just thought I'd share...
>
> It's good to have goals, they keep life interesting. Each year in radio I
> try and set myself a few goals. They're usually very modest and only for my
> own benefit but I find them a good way to keep focussed and they help to
> get more out of the hobby.
>
> One goal I set myself for 2012 was was to put in a good showing in the Stew
> Perry Tobpand Challenge. This is a really fun event held on topband CW in
> December of each year. It's organised by a fantastic group of hams in the
> Boring Amateur Radio Club (N7RAT) in Boring Oregon (near Salem, made famous
> by the witch trials), USA. It's a 14 hour contest with a strong American
> flavour and participation but it also attracts a great many topband
> afficianados from all over the World. It's all about working distance; the
> further away the station you work, the more points you get. The banter
> around the event is great fun, including the (in)famous Stew Perry plaques
> sponsored by various particpants. I've sponsored a plaque for the past few
> years and even managed to win one last year for the "top score using a base
> loaded vertical less than 60' high". It all adds to the fun. You can read
> all about the Stew here: http://www.kkn.net/stew/ . I also wanted to use
> the Stew as the last hurrah for the Titanic Commemoration call EI100T. It
> seemed fitting to end the call's time on air (it was licensed only for
> 2012) by giving it a good airing on topband, the closest band we have to
> the MF frequencies used by shipping.
>
> Anyway, as this year's Stew approached, I set about improving my topband
> antenna. While I'm luckier than most in being able to put up a topband
> antenna at all, what I had used - the "award winning" 60' base loaded
> vertical ;-) in truth wasn't a good antenna and I had other options.
> Previously I'd had a quite good inverted L for topband and 80m and I
> thought I'd revert to that approach as it seemed to have done the business
> in the past.
>
> So, once Xmas holidays rolled around, out came the antenna engineering
> toolbox and over 3 days, up went an inverted L for topband. As I wanted to
> maximise the vertical portion of the antenna, the entire exercise was
> tricky and time consuming. The result however was very satisfying - an
> inverted L with a 62' vertical section and a horizontal wire that at the
> far end was still 60' high. At the antenna feedpoint I matched the antenna
> using a coax cable capacitor, something I'd never done before - it works
> really well.
>
> I finished the antenna on December 28th, the contest was on December 29th.
> Overnight on December 28th/29th some windy weather hit. I woke on the
> morning of the event to wreckage. The antenna was destroyed :-( Basically I
> was back to square one, in fact it was worse because I now had no antenna
> at all for topband. Gloomily I resigned myself to missing my favourite
> event of the year. That was, until my 8 year old daughter came out to see
> what was wrong with Daddy. She looked at me, looked at the wreckage and
> then, as she nonchalantly wandered away quoted a line from one of her
> favourite movies Galaxy Quest (she has a quirky sense of humour this kid)
> "Never give up, never surrender!"... I stared after her as she wandered
> off. A voice inside my head began echoing here words "Never give up..." I
> spent the bulk of the 4 remaining hours before the contest rebuilding the
> antenna and finished it with about 40 minutes to go. I'd made it.
>
> And then the tree branch supporting the horizontal end broke... I couldn't
> believe it. By then however I was in such a bloody-minded state of being
> that I set about fixing it again. By sheer force of will and lots of luck I
> did and just in time...
>
> I went straight from yard to shack and put in a 14 hour effort. It was
> tough going (it always is on topband) but I was just happy to have been
> able to take part at all. Amazingly, the jury rigged version 3 of the
> antenna worked... it really worked.
>
> The preliminary results for the Stew are now rolling in (you can see them
> on the site mentioned above). Out of the 700+ logs submitted so far, EI100T
> is currently the highest scoring low power station worldwide outside US/VE!
> It's early days yet but if that remains the case, what a reward it'll be
> for having stuck at it :-)
>
> The lesson? "Never give up, never surrender!"
>