Hi All,
I suspect lots of folks are working the Clipperton gang so my working them too is not such a big deal. However, I snagged them on, not only 40 and 30, but also 80 and 160 CW. The antenna I was using is the unique thing--an R8 vertical, which is only really supposed to go down to 40 meters! I did use the KPA500 and KAT500, but only at about 200 watts on those bands. I was afraid to try anything higher, but didn't need it! However, the KAT500 gave me a nice match--1:1 on 80, and about 1.4:1 on 160. I give all the credit to the KAT500 tuner, even though my ERP was probably pretty darn low--maybe even QRP off the antenna! Great tuner! Those folks on Clipperton probably have some pretty decent antennas too. They were LOUD!
I'll probably get chided for trying 80 and 160 with my R8, but I think I kept the power low enough not to do any harm. I did the same thing for the VP6DX DXpedition--even on SSB--worked them on 20 band slots. Otherwise, I pretty much stay clear of those two bands. It's fun, though, to see what you can "get away with" sometimes. Anyway, I'd never be able to do that without a really FB tuner like the KAT500, even though I'm just "matching" 50 ohms at the rig and not really "tuning" the antenna to anything remotely efficient. When I worked the VP6DX DXpedition I was using a manual tuner (but a pretty good one--an old Ten-Tec), but it took several minutes to finally find an acceptable match. With the KAT500 it was only a matter of a few seconds.
Kudos to the folks at Elecraft! Dave W7AQK ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
