2011 WPX CW a Bust!
I was soaring with excitement after spending time at Contest University and Dayton Hamvention. I have since landed with a thud.
Antenna
Musings about my bi-square on 40M
Last year my one good strategy was to treat WPX as a domestic contest. From this local it means hitting 40M/80M pretty hard. That said, it is nice to pick up the 6‑pointers (DX QSOs, off-continent) and EU on 40M is quite easy from my station. This year I decided to modify my strategy to capitalize on …
Rambling post (written while listening to old Country music in a cold basement in Nashville)
Been neglecting my weblog for too long! Some minor reconfiguration occurring along with some additional metrics around contesting planned here. To catch up, I have been quite enjoying my IC-7600, learning more and appreciating it with each operating session. I am not quite setup for SO2R, but I have added some I.C.E 419B bandpass filters along with the YCCC SO2R+ controller. I have a sneaking suspician my …
G5RV vs. Ground Plane on 80M: G5RV by 5dB!
Excited by the possibility of adding to my DX worked totals on 80M during the ARRL DX CW contest a few week-ends ago, I hurriedly installed a new 80M ground plane (GP) antenna. Like the year before, I intended a single-band effort and the new GP was going to be my secret weapon.
Paths to Everywhere!
I have been playing with HFTA software from the ARRL Antenna Book to determine the typical take-off angles needed to communicate to DX locales. First step was to develop my elevation profile, which I did based upon the instructions included using a program named MicroDEM. While not the most intuitive thing in the world, I did manage to …