12/27/2006 | HK0GU This was my first 160m contest ever. Unfortunately I had only limited time because my plane left on Saturday morning.
I worked the contest with my IC-706MK2G running 100W into an Inverted L (12m "fishing rod") and managed to work 274 stations. All in all I made more than 1400 QSOs on top band for the first time from Providencia Island, most of them with USA stations. Condx during the contest were fair. The contest started too early for me so I had to struggle to get the first QSOs into my log. After three hours it went better. And - my antenna stood upright the whole night. The days before I had to erect it almost every morning, because it fell into the wood due to strong winds during the nights. A hard piece of work to get the wire and guide rope out of the wood on the steep slope.
The QTH was a good DX spot with free "shot" from northwest over east to southwest. But exposed to the storms and rain too. One night my laptop computer "swam" away and I had to went back to the roots (I had to use the keyer and open a paper log for two days), then it worked again after drying in front of the fan. -- DL7VOG