[K6BW] 160M at K6BW

[David Mueller]

  Last weekend I participated in the Stew Perry DX
Challenge, a 160M contest that gives you points based
on the distance of the QSO.  The exchange is your grid
square, and it gave me a unique opportunity to see
exactly where I was working.  I've posted a photocopy
of a US grid square map at the shack with all the
grids worked last weekend colored in.
   I operated about 8 hours and made 341 QSOs with
N2NL (high power) and several more as K6BW (running
QRP).  My best QRP QSO was with W4ZV in North
Carolina!  Not bad for 5 watts on 160 meters!
   Fortunately, I had the two Beverage antennas
installed and they made all the difference in the
world.  It was raining extremely hard all night, and
the rain static made the transmit antenna impossible
to listen on.  
   I've been able to make some conclusions about the
160M half wave sloper at K6BW....

How loud am I?  This comment sums it up:

"You were pretty much the loudest W6 out this way." -
>From my friend John, N2NC in northern New Jersey.  If
you can hear it, you can work it.  K4XS in Florida
commented during the ARRL 160M contest that I was in
the top 20% of the loudest West Coast stations.

How well do the Beverage antennas "hear"?  Even with
the rain noise, this comment sums it up:

"Best distance was N2NL, the only California or CM
grid I could reach." - from VE3KZ in Ontario who was
running QRP (he was pretty weak!).

I can hear pretty well, and I plan to add two more
Beverage antennas to cover the South and Northwest
directions.  I'm going to patch a jumber to give the
other stations access to these antennas, which Bill
would like to use for the MARS net.  These antennas
work extremely well!  You can see the northeast
Beverage where it crosses the driveway just to the
north of the water tower.

If someone would like to complete their WAS
certificate on 160M, K6BW is the place to do it.  I've
done it twice in the past month.  Conditions have been
poor to Europe for the past month, but I hope to get
some openings there in January and February.

73, Dave N2NL

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