K4TMC IOTA Contest Island Station SOLP SSB

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: K4TMC

Operator(s): K4TMC

Station: K4TMC

Category: Island Station

Class: SO Unassisted SSB LP

QTH: NC, NA112

Operating Time (hrs): 14

Summary:

 Band  Ph Qs  Ph Mults

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   80:    0             0

   40:   45           8

   20:   238        29

   15:   49          9

   10:   1             1

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Total:  333      47  Total Score = 111,625

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

 Comments: Well…I finally did it!  After several years of other commitments
and activities that always fell on this weekend, I was able to parlay
commitments and juggle activities to allow a 3-day visit to the Atlantic
Beach, NC site.

With one of the W4MYA Run’em stickers in front of me, I kept S&Ping to a
minimum, mostly just to judge how the band conditions were playing-out.
Things started slow Saturday morning with low run rates on 20.  Moved up to
15 when things got better there.  Never heard anything on 10, except for
working fellow IOTA station W4KAZ after moving from 15.  Then we quickly
tried 20 & 40 successfully.   20 finally opened to Europe Saturday
afternoon and I had some good runs until 2149 when the band seemed to go
dead.  I took that opportunity to take the dog out for a quick walk, upon
which I discovered why 20 and 15 were dead…the BuddiHex had experienced a
significant wind-damage event.  There had been a strong thunderstorm pass
through mid-morning followed by a heavy rain downpour.  After that cleared
away, I visually checked everything and did not see any problems. However,
we were left with several hours of moderate to strong winds.  Upon
inspection after lowering the BuddiHex, I found that the vertical feed
assembly pole had come out of the lower central hub assembly, which caused
a broken spreader arm.  So I completed the contest with the 20 & 40M endfed
halfwave verticals.

Being the first time in this contest, I was pleased with the final results.
I am looking forward to next year’s event.

Equipment: Elecraft K3+/100 with Heil HC4 mic element

Antennas: Buddipole BuddiHex at 30 ft; PAR EF-20H vertical with base at 9
ft, PAR EF-40 vertical on 66 ft carbon mast.

73,

Henry – K4TMC