AA4LR #1 Southeast Division, Low Power, ARRL 160m

View of the shunt feed wires going up the tower.

I can't believe it. Before the 2010 ARRL 160m contest, I noticed that a score over 100,000 in the Southeast division might possibly win the Low Power category. As a result, I put in a pretty full effort with 100 watts and my modest antenna. I scored over 100,000, and I hoped it would last through the judging.

When the claimed scores came out on the 3830scores mailing list, it looked like I came in second place to WA1FCN in Alabama by only a couple of thousand points. We both had 689 QSOs, but he had one more multiplier -- 79 to my 78.

Well, the results database has been published. Looks like I came out on top. While WA1FCN had more multipliers, it looks like more of his QSOs were thrown out in the adjudication. I lost nine, but he lost 24, which put me ahead almost 2,000 points.

Not my first division leader low-power win -- the other came in 1989 in the ARRL Sweepstakes Phone. That was right after hurricane Hugo, and a lot of Caribbean stations were off the air.

I still can't believe it.

40 Years of Radio

September 3rd brought forth some fond memories for me. It stands out in my mind because of the evening of September 3rd, 1971. I received my first radio, a Heathkit GR-81, Christmas 1970. My first logbook entries are from January 9th, 1971, since it took us a while to build, especially considering that the band "A" coil we got with the kit was defective.

For many months, I used the GR-81 with nothing more than a bit of magnet wire wound around my attic bedroom. This worked, but it wasn't very effective. I listened to some local AM stations, and a few shortwave stations. The GR-81 wasn't very sensitive on band "D", where most of the shortwave broadcast bands are, so I concentrated on broadcast band DXing.

With the summer ending and school about to start, I managed to take a trip to the electronics store and buy some wire. I believe at that time, I bought a 25 foot spool of very small speaker cord and completely unzipped it. In my youthful frugalness, I had computed that this resulted in a cheaper acquisition of 50 feet of wire than buying a 50 foot spool outright.

That 50 feet of wire went out the window of my attic bedroom, across the roof of the garage, and was anchored to a climbable tree on the other side of the yard. In retrospect, it couldn't have been horribly effective -- it was too low to the ground, being only 10-15 feet high for most of it's length.

However, it was outdoors -- this being my first outdoor antenna. The results were pretty dramatic, compared with the indoor magnet wire. That evening, I started at the top end of the AM broadcast band (band "B" on the old GR-81), and worked my way toward the bottom. I must have logged about 40 different stations, many of them new.

This experience made an impression on me. For the next several years, I always attempted to do this AM "countdown" around labor day weekend. In addition to signaling the start of the school year, it was also the start of the radio season.

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years. I still have that radio, and it's still in good working condition. And somewhere in my files I have that first logbook.