Ken Harker WM5R
2009 ARRL International DX Contest, Phone, K5TR (WM5R, op. ) SOSB/15


Claimed Score

Band QSOs Mults
15SSB 359 72
Totals 359 72

Claimed score77,544

The station at K5TR:
 15 meters:
   - six element 36' boom Yagi at 70', rotatable
   - six element 36' boom Yagi at 35', fixed NE
   - four element Cushcraft Yagi at 50', fixed SE
   - two element Force 12 2/2 WARC band antenna at 60', fixed SE

 Radio 1:  Kenwood TS-850SAT, Ameritron AL-1500
 Radio 2:  Kenwood TS-850SAT, Ameritron AL-1500
 Headset:  Heil Proset HC-4
 DVK:      W9XT Contest Card
 Software: TR Log 6.78
 Other:    Ameritron RCS-8V antenna switches, ICE bandpass
           filters, Top Ten Devices Band Decoders, homebrew
           audio switchbox

Conditions seemed promising just before the start of the contest, with loud JAs coming in. But, it was not to be. The opening to Japan started to close right before the contest start and conditions to the west and northwest were awful all weekend. I worked only seven JAs all contest, and no other stations in east Asia. Saturday's morning opening to Europe was much better than Sunday's, but neither were very deep or lasted very long. Aside from two very weak Hungarians, I worked nobody in eastern Europe, and made only two QSOs to all of Scandinavia. Two Israelis and a station on Crete were nice surprises, but I never heard a station in the Balkans or north Africa.

George set me up with two radios, one of which used a WARC band antenna designed for 17 meters and 12 meters on an 8' boom that happened to have acceptable (2:1 or so) SWR over much of the band. That became my S&P rig to South America. It worked surprisingly well for what it was.

About one out of every six QSOs was a zero-pointer this year.


 

Contest Logging was done with TR LOG contest logging software. The following reports and log were created using TR LOG's post-contest processor.


Last Updated 26 June 2020
wm5r@wm5r.org