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January 29-30, 2005 160M Challenge Event premise: To get in the CQ 160M contest and make as many QSO's as possible with QRP. Final Results: Call QSO's SPC Antenna Award N5TW* 341 51 4 square vertical array + beverages Most QS's & mults KW4JS 101 32 rndm wire KF0XV 72 34 135' rndm wire AE3J 68 31 165' inv L - horiz sec @ 65' K4AQ 60 18 off cf wire @ 40' NU7T 60 15 210' cf wire @ 40' K3WWP 44 15 ~110' attic rndm wire WN4OAA 15 8 ~120' ef wire @ 25' N3CJM 6 3 Butternut HF2V *-W5TA OperatorSOAPBOX: K3WWP - I wasn't in a contesting mood so I only put in just under 1 hour operating time. Back in December for the ARRL 160M contest, the A index was 0 on Saturday, this weekend for the CQ 160M contest, it was 20. That made a difference. In December I felt like I was running 100W instead of my 5W as it was very easy making QSO's. However this time even stations that normally work me easily in 160M contests weren't hearing me at all. Still I guess 44 QSO's in 59 minutes is not all that bad. Perhaps I should have stuck it out longer. WN4OAA - Due to illness and antenna problems I only operated for one hour in the 160 meter contest, but 15 qso's per hour probably would have been a great contest if I could have stuck it out. It was fun, very challenging to nudge inbetween the big QRO pileups. It would be really awesome if for just one weekend in the entire year, it was mandatory for everyone to run less than 5 watts in a major contest. Oh well. They just don't know what they're missing. W5TA - I was single operator at N5TW. Tom has a four square vertical array on 160 plus beverages for receive. The rig was a TenTec Orion set at 5 watts output. The QRP performance with an antenna like that is awesome. In the early evening hours the coverage is limited to about 1000 miles, but by 10 or 11 PM I could essentially work anything I could hear... except the Europeans. Did work Hawaii for "best DX". Thank you NA-QRP for encouraging QRP operation on "top band", and all the other bands. NU7T - (in NV) Illinois was the only state worked East of the Mississippi. KF0XV - I thought the contest went pretty well. 5 watts on 160 was pretty tough but not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. I worked the contest a total of 5hrs 45min Friday and Saturday. I'm pretty happy with the results that I ended with, 32 States and 2 Canadian Provinces. There was a time I wanted to go QRO to get some states that couldn't hear me but I kept with my goal and that was 160 contest 100% QRP. AE3J - A lot of fun with 5 watts and all the wire I put down for the ground radials was worth the work. I cant wait till next year the club has sparked my qrp bug again thanks. |