2006 ARRL Field Day
The radio used was my Icom 756 Pro-2 (with a spare Pro-2 in my car). We used AD4ESs laptop computer to log (Writelog) and generate CW. A paddle was used in parallel to send manually. The radio was connected to the antenna through an ICE 419B bandpass filter, electronically tracked to the radio. An external Mirage Wattmeter was in line to verify output power as well as reflected power. An I-Mate was used along with a Heil Proset Plus-2 headset / mike.
Antennas were a TH6DXX at 38 feet, on the top of a trailer tower, and initially a Gap Titan, located 10 feet in the river. It was very clear that there was a problem with the Gap, and we elected to put up a 40M inverted vee on the tower. The Gap did not play on 40 and although the VSRW was low on 80M, we could not hear a signal on that band. The TH6DXX was rope rotated.
With 11 minutes to go in the contest, and severe weather threatening, Jeff pointed the TH6DXX straight north and we had a pileup of 31 QSOs in that short period, including the needed Delaware QSO. We managed a clean sweep, with DX as far as VK4. At the end of the contest, the skies unleashed with a squall hitting us. Thankfully, no one was hit by lightning. -- K9ES
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