W/VE Contest Focus Shifts to Topband For 2007 ARRL 160

By Jamie Dupree NS3T, radio-sport.net 

While most operators approach a contest weekend more worried about tweaking antennas, or installing the latest software update, the checklist for the ARRL 160 Meter Contest is a bit different for Gene Shea KB7Q.

"I run the contest from a cabin perched on a ridge at 6700 feet in the Gallatin Range just 15 miles north of Yellowstone Park flying a balloon vertical," says the Montana ham.

For Shea, that prep means "getting that 240 cubic foot tank of helium in the truck, having chains for all four wheels ready to go, bringing enough gasoline for the Honda generator and having at least four spare 6 foot balloons on hand."

Shea has finished 4th and 8th in low power the last two years and hopes he can do even higher in 2007.

"I've already been up there twice this fall and laid out seventy-five 1/4 wave radials for the balloon supported vertical to work against."

Shea and other low power entrants will have to overcome defending LP champ Fred Helwig K8FH, who will be back this year hoping for a repeat.

"I think the main difference between last year's effort and previous years was (my) new receiving array," said Helwig, "and the fact that I stayed awake and operated both nights."

Helwig's topband antennas include a quarter wave vertical with 90 radials and a horizontal loop up 70 feet. His ears are a DX Engineering four square.

"The receiving array is 1000 feet back in the woods, totally away from any phone or power lines," said Helwig. "It really hears well."

Obviously, single band contests of any type are different animals than a multi band affair like CQWW DX, and that means a different kind of strategy.

"I got in a routine of operating a run frequency for about an hour or so and then I would comb the band top to bottom S&P," said Helwig.

"I think this helped break up any monotony and really improved my multiplier total."

Second place in low power last year was Jim Lageson N0UR, who hopes to again operate from the QTH of K0SF in Minnesota.

As for strategy, Lageson says last year he "may have become too obsessed about holding a frequency." That was especially true as "Saturday night got ugly and I may have spent too much time trying to hold my ground."

Along with Helwig K8FH, defending champs from 2006 include Tom Rauch W8JI, who operated as W4AN in winning high power. The QRP victor was Jeff Briggs VY2ZM (K1ZM), who easily won the five-watt competition.

Briggs though will likely enter a different category this year, making the QRP section wide open.

"As for ARRL 160 meter, no QRP this year," said Briggs from his station on Prince Edward Island. "Probably a full power effort."

Briggs has certainly made it clear in past years that he is a force on Topband, currently holding the 160 single band record in CQWW for both phone and CW.

His antenna farm was stressed a bit at the end of October, when Hurricane Noelle rushed up through the Canadian Maritimes.

"I did have some damage," said Briggs, "but things are still usable."

As for Rauch W8JI, a well known Topband enthusiast, he told radio-sport.net that his title defense is up in the air.

"Unfortunately, I've been so busy with work and I had a leg operation, so there are no plans," said Rauch from his well-equipped station.

"Even as of today "(a week before the contest) I'm not positive who, if anyone, is going to operate from here."

Rauch won last year despite repeated visits from Murphy that sent Rauch back into the Stone Age of Contesting.

"I felt like quitting when the logging program kept crashing, but I sent with a keyer and logged on paper until I could reboot the computer over and over again," said Rauch.

"I kept reminding myself that no matter what went wrong I would not give in."

That mantra might be one that many contesters would want to adopt, for the ARRL 160 and any other test!