A little bit of fun on top band in Stew Perry

Difficult as it might be to believe, my inverted v system for 80m/40m/30m actually has some resonance on 160 metres. Resonance, as you know, does not automatically equal good performance. If you could see how the 80 metre v is dog-legged around my garden, you might have a greater appreciation of what I mean! Being able to operate on top band does not mean being able to operate well. But in order to put my system to the test I had a go at the Stew Perry contest on 160 metres last night.

I did okay. I worked 45 QSOs. I managed to work as far away as Lithuania, and worked Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Finland and a few QSOs into the UK. I was entering on a non-competitive basis, although I may well submit a log in any case. A few stations had difficulty hearing me and needed either my callsign or locator square repeated. The Italian station had a lot of trouble copying my square and the QSO took a couple of minutes. Aside from that, it was quite enjoyable. I participated for about two to three hours, on and off. My total claimed score (according to my N1MM+ log) is 129 points.

Below is a video taken early in the night and features a QSO being made: