[TVARC] ARRL DX Contest

[Robert Schwer]

George, you were correct a couple of weeks ago! I DID enjoy this contest. I think my 100 watts and flagpole did pretty well for themselves. I used my new VizKey Bug the majority of the time and my N3ZN paddle in “bug mode” as well.

I had a total of 129 contacts in 46 countries for a score of 17,802. Not much, but a record for me!

80 meters	9 contacts	8 countries
40 meters	46 contacts	28 countries
20 meters	74 contacts	37 countries

I added three new countries to my TVARC DXCC total. Bahamas, Grenada and Latvia.

Glad to hear the new antenna worked well.

73, Bob, K3ZGA

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: George Briggs
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2018 8:54 PM
To: Villages Reflector
Subject: [TVARC] ARRL DX Contest

I had hoped to try for 100 countries worked, since I fell short in CQWW CW last November.
However, Karen and I had tickets for The Lion King in Orlando today, so I only operated Friday
night and Saturday, with lots of time off, and I only managed to work 79 different countries.

40M was my main band, with an inverted vee dipole up at about 20 feet at the center and 8 feet
at each end.  And I fired up my Elecraft KPA500 amplifier to the tune of about 400W output.  Boy,
does a real (albeit low) antenna and a little power make a world of difference.  No longer was I
the last station in the pileup to get through, and I was even able to get answers to CQs on occasion.
Overall, I would estimate that I got between 30 and 40 contacts via CQs.

I used my Elecraft antenna tuner to put the 40M vee on 80M and made 7 contacts.

On 20, 15 and 10M I used my new secret weapon - a mini-hybrid-quad 2-element beam.  It loaded up
just fine, and, even at only about 10 feet off the ground, it worked at least as well as my SteppIR
vertical.  I think I will keep it.

20M stunk on Saturday as far as I could tell.  Signals were generally weak out of Europe, and contact
rates were quite low.

So, here are the totals:  Band    Qs/Countries
80    7/6
40    190/65
20    97/54
15    28/20
10    3/3

For a total of 325 Qs, 148 Countries ===> 144,300 points

I heard Pete (K2PS) and ED (K2TE) in there plugging away.  Frank (KA1AF) and I had a little fun
beating each other in back to back contacts, and Dennis (N0SMX) and I shared spots for a few minutes
via text messages.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, even though a bit disappointing.  Now, in two weeks it is the phone version
of the ARRL DX contest, and the rig belongs to Karen (K4ZDM) to chase countries in that one.

So, how did you do???
73,
George K2DM




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