This past weekend was the 2008 ARRL International DX Contest. I participated with the help of some borrowed equipment graciously loaned to me by John, KX7YT. This weekend marked several “firsts” for me. I made my first contact on HF, participated in my first contest, and had my first twinge of “antenna envy”.<\/p>\n
On the first note, I was using a borrowed a Kenwood TS-830S hybrid radio and an MFJ-969 antenna tuner. I built a quick 20-meter dipole to use just before the weekend. I initially had it in my attic, but that turned out to be much too noisy to use (likely due to proximity to my server room). I moved it outside and strung it up about 10 feet from the ground between a window and a tree. Using the Kenwood was quite an experience. Learning to tune it up for each band I wanted to transmit on was a bit of an effort, especially when you have to also tune the antenna tuner as well. I feel rather privileged to have made my early contacts on such an unique legacy radio. Now I can say “back in my day, we used to have to warm up the tubes and tune the radio before we could talk on HF…”<\/p>\n
On the second note, I made several interesting contacts in the contest. None were too surprising or rare, nor were there any distance records being won. However, for my first time out, with an unknown radio and makeshift antenna, I think I did okay. I made contacts in Alaska, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil across a total of 15 QSOs on the 20 and 15 meter bands.<\/p>\n
Finally on to the antenna envy. After removing the antenna from the attic, I strung it up between two trees for a maximum height of about 5 feet. This made a huge difference over the attic from a noise standpoint. However, repositioning it again at a height of about 10 feet was another large improvement. Now I understand why people want big antennas, up high, and away from sources of noise! I’m already scheming about how to build a unobtrusive wire antenna between a few of the peaks of my roof. It will take some work, but I think that, given the positioning of my house, I’ll be able to make something that works well without being too noticeable by the neighbors.<\/p>\n
I had a lot of fun with this, and I’m now trying to decide which radio I should get for myself, as well as what other antenna options I may be able to construct before the next contest at the end of March. What is that saying about boys and expensive toys?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend was the 2008 ARRL International DX Contest. I participated with the help of some borrowed equipment graciously loaned to me by John, KX7YT. This weekend marked several “firsts” for me. I made my first contact on HF, … Continue reading