15 February 2020, Arrl Int’l Dx Contest is just about to start at 00:00 UTC (2 AM local time).
10 hours before…. Jumped into car, went to grocery shop for subsistence food and beer and pushed the pedal to the metal hurrying to country location.Got there, sent the first beer into oblivion and start raising back previous tested 2 elements 7 Mhz delta loop. 1 hour and job done but when measured it something was wrong, so a big WTF was heard miles away.Second beer sent to the oblivion and looking to wire joints I’ve noticed an oxidized surface, cleaned it up and remeasured. Another big WTF was banging out loud but just as a happy emotional response this time.Sat down to my trusted IC-7300 and realized that is 5 PM already but when spotted JA, VK in 7 mhz at this unusual time I couldn’t resist and a third WTF was required……….Fast forward……..
00:30 UTC woke up and a moderate headache was buzzing me up… was it the beer or too many WTF’s ?. Made 200 contacts till 6 AM but fatigue shown it’s signs so I got plenty of pauses during.During the day I rest myself and tested another common mode choke which raised F/B ratio with another 1 S point (donnot explain why, maybe some parasitic coupling to coax braid ?).
Saturday 8 pm UTC started again until 4 am Sunday. Same good propagation but a lot of NA station were doing grills , barbeque or parental jobs since they were calling me in waves , sometimes 20 minutes no station and sometimes 4 qso’s per minute. YR2V station posted same feeling about so it wasn’t just me to feel it this way.
Got 491 qso’s and 51 NA/ VE counties so is not good / not bad after 20 years or so pause as a ham.
Looking forward for next year, and congratulations to YR2V for nice result.
Cheers all, 73’s !
ARRL official results : 23’rd place world DX and 1’st place Romania SOSB 40 meters band.
I would say that until next great antenna, 2 elements delta loop at 2 meters (6.6 feet) above the ground at 10 meters height is not bad at all for 40 meters band. 73’s