A Pleasant Surprise

Like many other IHF members, I live in a condo, thereby limiting my ability to erect large antenna arrays.  I live on the top floor of the building, and have managed to install a low-visibility short (14 foot) non-resonant vertical on the building’s roof, with a few radials spread out on the flat surface.  I have an AH-730 automatic antenna tuner located at the base of the vertical, and run the cables down to my shack through one of the building’s air ducts.  The radio is an IC-7300, putting out 100 watts.  I had never entered a contest before 2024, and assumed that my “little pistol” station wouldn’t stand a chance against the “big gun” stations with their tall towers, stacked beams, kilowatts of power, and highly-skilled CW operators.  However, when I joined IHF in early 2024, I noticed that many other club members were entering contests “just for the fun of it”, so I thought that I would give it a try. (For the whole story in Downloads, click here.)