[OKDXA] ARRL DX?

[Kim Elmore]

How did everyone do? Me? Well... I, um, forgot that it was this weekend 
until I tuned the bands. Sigh.

So, to make the best of it, I fired up N1MM+ and decided I'd concentrate 
on 80 m. Upon checking everything out I findmy reliable 80 m DX antenna 
(a F12 Sigma 80) was showing a 4:1 mismatch where it should be resonant 
(around 3515-3520) and showing resonance near 3560. What!? Well, dang 
it! It's acting just like my 75 m inverted V, which seemed suspicious, 
but it wasn't identical. So, I didn't somehow screw up antenna 
connections... On my morning walk I saw nothing unusual: no broken 
connections, no damaged coax cabling, but it was very windy here a 
couple of days ago, so I went out with a short step ladder to check more 
carefully. All connections were good. But a more careful inspection 
showed that two turns of an adjustable loading coil were touching, 
shorting out a turn. After a minor adjustment, all was perfect. But.... 
The contest was over. So I got zilch.

73,

Kim N5OP

-- 
Kim Elmore, Ph

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, UAS, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/“I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two 
reasons. First to discourage the composer from writing any more and 
secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven." – Jascha 
Heifetz/