Thanks for all the QSOs. Here are the bottom lines:

CW:	1318 QSOs	39 W/VE	81 countries	841,800 points
SSB:	1021 QSOs	29 W/VE	70 countries	475,101 points

  
Left: Our Inverted Vee @ 38 meters (125 ft)
Right: Our Asia Beverage is 354 meters long (1160 ft)

As mentioned before we tried out some new things and want to share our observations:

1. Direct comparison of a TenTec ORION to a Yaesu FT-1000MP

Configuration Carsten, DL6LAU, from Appellofunk Hamburg (http://www.appellofunk.de), who is selling TenTec in Germany, loaned us a TenTec ORION for the contest. The ORION was used as the main radio. The Yaesu FT-1000MP was sitting next to the ORION. All receiving antennas were split up between the TenTec and the Yaesu by CN8WW-style 3 dB deviders, thus both radios received the very same RF input. Both radios were (manually) tuned to the same frequency, and the audio output was given to a CN8WW-style audio mixer. The left ear heard the TenTec, while the right ear heard the FT-1000MP. When transmitting on the TenTec, the Yaesu was muted to save its life ;-)

Observations We received a number of direct inquires about this comparison - some of you are anxiously waiting for our report. Sorry, but we decided to postpone our final report until after the CQ 160 SSB Contest (February 28-29). We had used the TenTec ORION at its DEFAULT SETTINGS. We ran into noise problems making the Orion appear much, much noisier than the Yaesu FT-1000MP. At a certain point into the contest (Saturday evening during an electricity power failure) we even took the ORION out of service and finished the contest on my two FT-1000MP's. Only after the contest was over it was brought to our attention that the (default) AGC settings are far, far away from reality for 160 meters and HAVE to be manually adjusted before the radio can be used effectively on this band! Here is what Bill, W4ZV, wrote us (after the contest): "I can say with certainty that Orion's default AGC Threshold settings are far too sensitive for 160. Threshold is set for 3 uV as default, and the lowest I ever had it in the CQ 160 was probably 30 uV, and sometimes higher. You can easily observe this by tuning to a quiet part of the band and adjusting Threshold to the maximum 192 uV. It will become very quiet (unless there is extremely high storm QRN) at 192 uV. You then adjust it down until the background noise is an acceptable level. [...] The AGC is the most different aspect of Orion and many guys have made the same mistake. [...] Orion really takes a little time to understand. [...] The manual is also at fault for recommending AGC settings for weak signals that are far too low for 160." We decided to try the comparison AGAIN during the CQ 160 SSB Contest (February 28-29) - with adjusted AGC settings as recommended - before we would give a more detailed summary. Unfortunately the radio was delayed on transportation, and we got it only after the contest... Sorry, no final reporting possible.

2. Diversity reception on the TenTec ORION

Configuration We wanted to investigate how useful it is to have both receivers of the TenTec connected to different receive antennas. We had good results with diversity reception at CN8WW - doing it with two operators to hear different signals from different directions. It would be interesting to see, if the ORION's diversity reception on the same headphone can help to pull very weak signals out of the noise on 160 meters...

Observations We did not test this. The CN8WW Audio Mixer operates MONO, not STEREO, and we did neither have the time to make a special audio cable nor find a quick solution to make the receive antennas available on the second input of the Orion. Maybe in SSB...

3. Direct comparison of a K9AY Loop to Beverage antennas

Configuration At my home location I cannot put up Beverages, so I have to deal with a K9AY Loop. But I must say, I am very happy with the K9AY Loop. It would be very interesting to hear the difference between that Loop and     A. a real Beverage (1160ft/355m) towards Japan/Asia, and     B. *TWO* phased 880ft/278m real Beverages towards the USA.

Observations Of course, the DX winner is: "The Beverages". But the K9AY Loop requires much, much less space, material and setup time. Most DX stations were audible on the K9AY Loop as well, most Europeans were louder on the K9AY Loop than on the Beverages. There were even times, when DX stations were louder on the K9AY Loop as on the Beverages - when those signals were coming in on high angles especially during the Grayline. We can give this statement very clearly, because we had used diversity reception for quite a while: Radio 1 and the Beverage in the left ear, Radio 2 and the K9AY Loop in the right ear. Both radios tuned to the same frequency. Thus a real realtime comparison. We can truely recommend a K9AY Loop to ANY station interested in Lowband activities, be it in a downtown location or on a DX-pedition!

4. Direct comparison of TWO phased Beverages to ONE single Beverage

Configuration Towards the USA we had put up *TWO* phased 880ft/278m Beverages 300ft/90m apart. Both antennas were fed with an equal length of RG58 coax to a central point, where a simple T-connector was installed, and another RG58 coax went to the shack. We installed a relay directly behind the T-connector on the way to one Beverage. Normally both Beverages would be operated in phase. By opening the relay, just ONE Beverage would be used.

Observations Practice proves theory: Phasing two Beverages gives about the expected 3 dB forward gain and better signal reduction to the broadside. This was tested by opening and closing the relay many times, when listening to stations. In ALL CASES the phased Beverages showed the expected behaviour.

5. Direct comparison of an Inverted-L antenna to a 2-ele Inverted-V at 26 meters.

Configuration The plan was: A friendly company in the neighborhood gives us a 85ft/26m tail-lift (7.5 ton truck) for the weekend, we mount a 60ft/18m boom and two wire elements to the platform, while still on the ground, and then just watch it going up in no time. The Inverted-L was planned to be 20m vertical (Aluminium tubes), the rest as a wire sloping back down. There would be a few radials lying on the ground.

Observations Because we could not have the tail-lift before Friday afternoon 1200z (only four hours daylight left), we were forced to change plans. Instead we took my 30m mobile tower, which is normally not intended for use at wintertime, put another 8m tube on the top and put one single Inverted Vee at 38m height. Only after firing with a gas heater on the air compressors for a while we were finally able to raise the tower to its full length, but during the contest the compressors were not able to keep the pressure and the tower kept slowly coming down to 16 meters height... Due to the lack of time we decided to use the tail-lift only as a support for a wire vertical. We hung down some 26 meters of wire from a 6m pipe mounted horizontally to the platform at the top of the tail-lift, installed four top load wires, and laid some 30-40 radials on the ground, each ~20m long. We found the system to have some 25 Ohms and decided to feed the antenna directly with 50 Ohm coax. Thus we did not have a directional antenna with forward gain, just one Vertical and one Inverted Vee. We did not invest much time in comparing these antennas. Again practice proved theory: Closer-by European stations were louder on the Inverted Vee, while from a certain distance signals on the Vertical would be better. To take advantage from both radiation patterns, we combined both antennas over a WX0B StackMatch for almost 100% of the time.

Any comments welcome. Please email us.