ARRL DX Phone Contest

In a prior life  I became interested in contests and Dx' ing. This weekend was a big one. With my new stealth antenna I managed 27 contacts. What a confidence builder! This was with the help of my five year old tuning the radio, the antenna tuner, pressing the PTT for me. what a blast! The antenna worked fairly well as I made all those contacts in about 2 hours of casual operating.

The most interesting aspect is propagation. I can recall years ago that 10 meters would be dead after sundown . . . except during the 10 meter contest, then paths no one had any idea were there opened. Still my favorite band (10 meters) because it seems very much true that if you can
hear them, you can work them regardless of power or antenna.

Another Stealth Antenna

Still looking for the killer antenna which will stay under the RADAR. My current one is a three band trap vertical to replace my single wire up the palm tree. I used 1/2" copper pipe, 1/2" sch 40 pvc pipe for the insulators and coax traps. One for 10 meters and one for 15 meters. I am planing on installing a 20 meter trap and adding a wire to the top for 30 or 40 meters. The whole thing is about 12 feet tall. When I painted it black, it all but disappeared. Only been using it for a couple of days. I am finally getting some responses to my calls. 

I am a little wary of posting photos as who knows who may be looking at this site!