Yesterday, we went and bought our Christmas tree. Decorating will happen today, and I'll post pictures later. In the evening, Cara attended her high school Cotillion. I dropped her off around 8:00 PM, and went back home to wait for the text to pick her up.
What's a Dad to do with a few free hours? If Dad's a Ham, then the ARRL 160M contest, that's what!
I was hoping against hope, because just two weeks ago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the QRP Foxhunt group performed a little impromptu 160M Foxhunt. That night turned out to be a bust as I had an S9 noise level all evening, and was not able to hear anyone all night.
Last night, I turned on the KX3 and found a noise level of about S1, and the band was bursting with signals. Hot chocolate!
As I've enumerated before, the only thing I have for 160M is my W3EDP antenna. The KX3 matches to it quite nicely. After tuning for a few seconds, the SWR was about 1.2:1, and I was in business. I began to twiddle the dial and began making contacts, as a "Giver of Points".
Two hours later, I got the text from Cara to come pick her up. In the meantime, I had made 68 QSOs. I worked up the East coast as far down as South Carolina. Towards the West, I worked IN, IL, IA, MO and WI. Not bad for an antenna that was really never designed to work on 160 Meters!
After I came home, I tuned around for a little bit and worked a few more. It was getting close to Midnight, and it was time for me to hit the sack. I pulled the "Big Switch" and turned in, quite content to have a bunch of new 160 Meter contacts in the log.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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