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2005 IARU HF World Championships

07/17/2005 | K8AJS This edition of the IARU HF World Championship was an opportunity to exercise
the new K8AJS QTH. I missed this event last year because we were
moving, but the off-time was worth it, as my new property is still not huge,
but it IS twice as large as the small lot where I previously lived.

This contest marked another opportunity to not only participate in the IARU
HF event, but to compete in the contest-within-a-contest created by N0AX for
the "off-years" of the WRTC competitions, the "WRTC-Style" team competition.
This year, N8IW and I were the team named "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
and we put together an operation for the team event. Equipment included an
FT1000MP and an FT1000MP Mark V, antennas were a 3-element quad for 20-15-10
and a home-built Carolina Windom for 160-80-40.

We had planned to run a couple of amplifiers to compete in the Multi-Single
High Power category, but Tuesday before the contest was when my Ameritron
ALS-600 amp inexplicably decided to quit delivering power, so we changed
plans and operated low power. There's a category for that in Ward's team
competition, so we could be competitive there, but low power isn't an option
for Multi-Single in the overall contest. It would be harder to make a mark
there. In addition, the team competition limits antennas, to level the
playing field for that event.

Propagation for the contest was disappointing, to say the least. I was hoping
for great things, as conditions for a couple of weeks up to the contest had
been very good, with frequent morning openings in to Asia, and European
opportunities through much of the day. Unfortunately, contest weekend would
have nothing like that, as we dug and scratched through the QSB and noise for
the contacts we got. No JA openings this year, we can only look to the future.
Nevertheless, we had a good time, got some great experience running networked
computers in a multi-transmitter setup, and made enough contacts to feel that
our effort was worthwhile.

Next year will come soon, and I'll have another opportunity to give this
contest the big effort. -- K8AJS


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