Is an end fed wire antenna enough of an antenna to get on the air in a major contest? In this follow up to the WPX SSB contest I answer this question and give you my perspective of using a 80/160 end fed wire antenna in the CQ WPX Contest 2025.
Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge is one of the few contest where distance worked translates to scores. This together with the challenge of digging stations out of the noise is what makes 160 meter contests attractive to me. Here is the update from te 2019 edition of the “pre-Stew” contest.
Results are out and the High Power Single Band 160 meter SM record was broken by SE0X in CQWW CW 2018. In addition SE0X ranked #4 in Europe and #7 World.
A new temporary skimmer antenna has been installed at the SE0X skimmer site. I didn’t expect much from the small and simple PA0RDT active mini-whip antenna, but its good performance, especially on 160 meter, surprised me in the ARRL DX contest.
It seems like CQWW CW will be a single band effort! The Topband Vertical at SE0X didn’t even make it through the first storm of the season. This week it was discovered to be resting on the ground after a few days of rough weather with storm. One of the guy line supports didn’t hold
A new year with new challenges just started. This weekend we got snow and temperatures below the freezing point for the first time this winter. On Saturday I spent some time making sure antennas where in shape for the colder season. I checked and adjusted tension of the 160 meter vertical guys and everything else
I missed the Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge last Christmas so I really looked forward to it this year. To have time to repair the North East Pennant and to be able to fix any other issues with antennas I arrived early to SE0X.
The top band vertical at SE0X was put in place just in time for CQWW CW. This year the antenna is a little stronger (and longer). The bottom section is now made of a 60 millimeter aluminium tube with 3 millimeter wall thickness and I added a more robust delrin isolator. The total heigh of the
The top loaded 160 meter Top Band vertical TX antenna has been deployed for the winter DX and contest season. This year the antenna is based on an 18 meter aluminum vertical with three top loading wires. The ground system consists of two elevated radials bent to follow the shore line. Both radials are raised
When the final results where published for the 2011 edition of the CQ-160 CW Contest I was happy to see that SEØX had beaten the previous SM record in SOHP Assisted. The previous record holder was SM2M operated by SM2LIY with a score of 453.128 in the 2009 CQ-160 CW contest. The final result of