[PVRCNC] N4GU ARRL 160m

[Mike Barts]

            ARRL160 Score Summary Sheet
     CallSign Used : N4GU
Operator Category : MULTI-OP
Band : 160M
Power : HIGH
Mode : CW
TIME: ~4.5 hrs

ARRL Section : NC
Club/Team : POTOMAC VALLEY RADIO CLUB

Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
      1.8     212     439   57
Total       212     439   57


             Score : 25,023

My 160m inverted-L fell down in one of the spring wind storms and had 
not gotten one of those roundtoits to put it back up with. Had a few 
minutes Wednesday morning, so tried to re-shoot a rope back up into 
the tree using my trusty air cannon. First shot, of course, wasn't 
right. While pulling the sabot back out of the tree, it got hung up 
and when it finally broke free, it rapidly turned the stored energy 
of the bent tree branch and string tension into kinetic energy which 
brought the sabot rapidly hurling in my direction. Fortunately, its 
aim was about as good as mine, but the sabot did not survive its 
impact with the driveway concrete. No time to try again before the 
contest started Friday

Saturday i took a different tack and dropped my 30m dipole and used 
its support to install an inverted-7 antenna (the angle much too 
acute to pass for an L). This configuration has a suspiciously low 
SWR, but no time to look a gift-horse in the mouth. Loaded up the amp 
and started making Qs after dinner. Good 'fresh meat' runs got 
interrupted by the XYL and holiday visitors. Discovered that my K9AY 
array is deaf. It was working a couple of weeks ago...... I knew I 
was a bit of an alligator, but that has to wait for another roundtoit 
to show up. Decided to turn on the skimmer looking for a handful of 
states needed to complete 160m WAS on LoLTW. No joy. Every spot I 
needed, I couldn't hear (that receive antenna thing again...). I 
really enjoy this contest. Someday maybe I'll have a decent antenna 
system to work with for it.