02/20/2006 | KA5VCQ I participated in the DX contests from Iraq last year as SO1R low power. This year, since my deployment helped build a nice station, I tried SO2R and had a blast. It helps to pass the time when the pace is slow.

My antenna farm consisted of a vertical and dipole. I planned to put another dipole up using the existing antenna's hoist rope. During the take down I lost hold of the rope and it fell from the tree. It took me over an hour to shoot a line into the tree with my slingshot. In fact, it was dark and I was about to give up when I reached a higher branch. During daylight the next day I did some angle calculations and found out I'd reached almost 80 feet. That's a 40-foot improvement and it seemed to help alot. My low band performance was respectable this time LOL.

Running (or trying to do so) didn't work out for me, so it was a purely S&P effort. I do miss the pileups I experienced last year from Iraq but I'm thankful to be back in the USA this time.

Thanks to all my EU friends who were patient when QSB/QRM made things tough.

73,

SGT Korey Chandler--KA5VCQ
Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg, NC

SO2R with Icom Pro3 and Kenwood TS-2000,
W5XD MK-1100 Multikeyer SO2R controller,
Writelog 10.55,
Hustler 6BTV vertical, 2ea. 80m dipoles. -- KA5VCQ