Contesting

Paul NG7Z introduced us to the annual QRP Fox Hunt at our last Saturday breakfast. The QRP Fox Hunt Comittee is recruiting foxes for 40m and 80m.

A QRP Fox Hunt is a series of 90 minute Amateur Radio events during which low-power (QRP) stations, or “Hounds,” attempt to make contact with specific QRP stations designated as “The Fox.”

See http://www.qrpfoxhunt.org/ for more details

next meeting, one week early!!, this Saturday 9/13, same place, same time (8am), see you all at:
the Panera Bakery
17262 Redmond Way

Agenda:

1. Around the table. Visitor introductions.
2. How about operating at N7KE during the Salmon Run?.
3. NAQP SSB Results? How did our RTKCC team do?
4. What is the best band for summer time DX? Work any DX on 40M lately? How about 30M?
5. Up coming operating events:
   • WA Salmon Run: Sep 20 (1600-0700UTC) & Sep 21 (1600-2400UTC).
     Rules see WWDX site; also see “WACYA Award – Worked All CountY Award”
     Spend all your time on 75 M to work all 39 counties over the weekend. Be sure to work N7KE on all bands. Be sure to put “Redmond Top Key Contest Club” (RTKCC) on your SR entry.

next meeting this Saturday 8/16, same place, same time (8am), see you all at:
the Panera Bakery
17262 Redmond Way

Agenda:  

1. Around the table. Visitor introductions.
2. How about joining the RTKCC NAQP SSB Team this weekend? We can sign you up at the meeting, using WiFi. Bill, W7GKF, is the team leader. Up to 5 members. Do we need a second RTKCC SSB team?
3. NAQP CW Results? How did our RTKCC team do?
4. What is the best band for summer time DX?
5. Up coming operating events:
   * NAQP SSB this weekend. 1800Z 08/16 to 0600Z 08/17, 2008  (11am to 11pm PDT)
   * WA Salmon Run in September, 9/20-9/21.

I was looking forward last summer to doing some decent contesting on 160M with an inverted L I had put up. However, I had also put up an 80M dipole close by to see if it would outperform the inverted L on 80M. The L is fed directly with an Icom AH-4 remote auto tuner. I did this purposely to have the option to work all bands in the event my other antennas failed. This was prior to erecting the tower and beams. It turned out that the dipole was better so I pulled the L down. But, of course, that made it impossible to work 160M. So another option was needed. There was still a rope in a very tall tree left over from an 80M delta loop that Steve, W7QC, had helped me put up. So prior to the Stew Perry, I pulled up 120 feet of wire and attached 10 radials along with the aforementioned auto tuner. This seemed to work pretty well for transmitting as I could work anyone I could hear. But the key word here is “hear”. Unfortunately, I live very close to a PUD right of way that has two three phase HV runs. In fact, my west property line borders this right of way. So it is a very noisy environment on 80 and 160 meters here. I’ve solved the 80 noise problem but not the 160 noise problem.

The CQWW 160 meter contest was fun. My electric fence noise was present but not as bad as it has been. I operated both nights between about 4:00 pm and midnight. The first night was much more productive than the second. I ended up with 469 contacts, 53 state/provinces and 8 countires for a final score of 71,797. I only remember calling a couple of stations that did not come back to me and only a couple of stations that I could not copy.