12/06/2005 | N8CPA This was my greatest effort since my first entry 10 years ago. But I think the delay of my entry until Saturday daylight due to family obligations, plus the nature of my antenna, seriously affected my Q count. I only half participated, really. But I still had fun!

I used what I call an Awkward L, so named because it's designed to be a 40M inverted VEE, but oriented like an L. The east-west leg has a somewhat shallow apex angle at 45ft above ground. The more accute angle of the VEE runs north west.

I get some interesting results, particularly when force feeding it for 80/160 operation. It tunes for a flat SWR, but the resulting launch angle is known only to God. I seriously doubt it could be called a cloud warmer, but it appears to irritate something up there. Among my easiest and most distant contacts were ME and STX. Among the most difficult were WV and points farther south along a 180 degree heading, and ON in the exactly opposite direction. And I got precisely nothing in the Rockies and beyond. So, I'll take the 41.5% mutilplier count as a rough index of the antenna's effectiveness on 160. Considering that I cut it for 40, it cut for me a huge slice of contest enjoyment.

I thank the 84 stations I managed to work within those limitations. And I anticipate working even more of you next weekend as time permits. 73 until then. Steve -- N8CPA