[WIARC] Arrl DX test

[Melba and Jim Funk]

Danny and I learned more than we wanted to know about how the station wasn't
quite "ready"for this one.  I told him a good host (me) would have had
little things working before inviting in a guest operator (him).  I
compensated for my lack of hospitality by suggesting we use his call so he
gets the bureau cards.  Heheheheheh....

What happened?  Lessee....  Dan came in mid-afternoon on Friday and we
worked at getting another antenna in place for the weekend.  The choices
were a TA33 at 55' fixed on the Caribbean or a 5-element 15 monobander that
needs (uh, still...) to go at 75', rotateable.  We might have tried the
latter, but it was quite a bit more complicated and the wind was plenty
stiff.   Getting the TA33 past two sets of guys and fastened to the top of
the tower was no picnic, but the other project would have been a LOT worse.
As it was, we got basically everything set up in the shack with a few
minutes to spare.

The weekend was a series of minor setbacks punctuated by periods of actual
operating.  We lost track of which connectors and jumpers were intermittent,
we swapped out so many of them.  Tuners quit tuning and then decided to tune
again.  Antennas grew silent and then later spoke.  An amp will find
weaknesses in the system!  The TH6 turned 90 degrees in the rotator
overnight in the wind.   The open-wire dipole quit working.  Saturday (nice
day for antenna work) saw two tower climbs.  One may or may not have been
necessary.  Sunday, the TH6 turned in the rotator again and the 40/10 stack
moved in the rotator housing somehow or other.   Somehow, we kept working
stations.

Charlyn came down to catch some mults on 10.   I think she has had her
contest fix for the year....

Anyway, we heard NA9Q, W9FGH, N9GXW, N9UPG  and N9DT et al and I've talked
to Dr. DX and know he was on as well.

Danny and I wound up with a  bit over 800 QS and 301 mults for somewhere
around 730K.

Hope y'all had fun!
73, Jim N9JF
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arlyce and Mike Nowack" <mnowack@adams.net>
To: <WIARC@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:22 PM
Subject: [WIARC] Arrl DX test


>
>
> I hope everyone had some time that thry were able
> to devote to the contest.  I was able to work the
> event Saturday evening and most of the day Sunday.
>
> Without having verified everything, the raw score
> was:
>
> 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
>
> QSO's 46 92 129 43 310
>
> Mult 32 49 58 23 162
>
>   150,660
>
> Not the greatest effort but not bad for the
> time I had to devote to it...
>
> Let's hear from everyone who was on.
>
> 73, Mike NA9Q
>
> _______________________________________________
> WIARC mailing list
> WIARC@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/wiarc
>