YAESU FTDX10. RGv RainGutter-5 Antenna. LDG RC-RT-100 REMOTE ATU.
MFJ-949E ATU. N1MM. FB on putting a few CW stations into my 160M
log, especially with a compromised antenna system. 73

Thanks for many repeats and stations hanging with me especially
KH6AQ who hung with me to get the QSO(s).

My 9 year old son was really excited to have me make some 160m
contacts.  I ended up getting 5 and had a great time!

always enjoy this contest

Trying out a different antenna design - an elevated vertically
polarized Inverted Lazy-L with two counterpoises 6.5-7ft above
ground, then from feedpoint the 135ft radiator (17ga bare
aluminum fence wire) goes 41ft up to elev=48ft, then 94ft angled
down to elev=12ft at end.  The counterpoises are shortened til
the antenna is resonant, and SWR down the 200ft RG8X to the tuner
in the shack is less than 2:1.  One of the counterpoises is the
outer shield of the coax, with Palomar Engrs clamp-choke at 128ft
from the feedpoint.  Reach out via email if you want more on
this. There are approx 3 dupes that will need to be removed.

Operated from home station this year instead of as a mobile like
the last few years.  Barefoot IC-7300 to my wire vertical system
set up as a base loaded 160 meter 1/8 wave inverted L over 18
elevated radials (14 35 feet and 4 70 feet) nominally 8 feet
above ground level.  Inverted L nominally 33 feet vertical and 33
feet horizontal with inductive coil shunt match at feed point.
Got a late start Friday night due to other commitments, spent
first four hours of the contest in the dark with a headlamp
deploying the radials, which are normally taken down and stowed
for compliance with XYL requested landscape impact
considerations.

Overall band conditions seemed good, but as others have noted,
little propagation to the west coast.  Furthest contacts to west
were Utah and Arizona.  Only a relative few St. Somewheres on,
did not hear any one from across the pond.  Only W6s worked were
in other states, seem to be a lot of them the past few years.
Had a personal best hourly rate in any CW contest ever my first
hour - 78 Qs.


Hope I don't have many busted Qs from those sending thier call
signs and exchanges at insanely fast speeds, especially when
sending the characters s,h,4,5,and 6 in their call sign. There
should be a speed limit set on that practice.  I suspect that the
vast majority of everyone's busted Qs in CW contests are due to
this issue. Also curious if a station in Nova Scotia will end up
with everyone who worked him be denied multiplier credit and/or a
busted QSO for the MAR section because he sent NS vice MAR in his
exchange Happened to me, I copied and reported what he sent in
my submitted log.

All the best to everyone for the holidays, looking forward to the
Big Stew just after Christmas and CQWW 160 CW in January!

Chris, AJ1G
Stonington CT

I was delighted and honored to have worked N1ZZ, renown Contester during the contest.  He evidently
made my call out in his pile-up and gave me deferential treatment, slowing slightly to accommodate
me. Thanks, Dan!  He was right near the frequency I expected.

only Check LOG

FTDX101D

Yaesu FT-897 90W Endfed wire
My first top band contest

I enjoyed the contest.

I enjoyed the contest.

I enjoyed the contest and Thank you for picking up my weak signal

I QRV on a single OP low power. This year the condition was
very bad than the last year.
I QSOed with only 11stations 572 points in 2024,
I QSOed with only 11stations 108 points in 2023,
I QSOed with 25stations 480 points in 2022,
I QSOed with 25stations 736 points in 2021,
I QSOed with 58stations 986 points in 2020
I QSOed with 71stations 2832 points in 2019,
I QSOed with only 25stations 1680 points in 2018,
I QSOed with only 25stations 768 points in 2017,
I QSOed with 42stations 986 points in 2016,
I QSOed with only 10stations 126 points in 2015,
I QSOed with only 11stations 110 points in 2014,
I QSOed with only 16stations only 330 points in 2013.
I QSOed with only 47 stations only 2580 points in 2012.
First day, When the sun set time in JA,
We JA could hear only west coast the U.S.A. stations,
The condision was very very poor!
It is very difficult to get answer from U.S.A. station
in the first day.
I used my MV (Micro Vertical antenna) 12mHigh on my blcony +
Elecraft K2 tranceiver.
My MV antenna was only 3.6m length and it was up only 12m
high from my balcony of my small condminium.
I was surprised that I could QSO many U.S.A. stations with
my MV antenna!

Put your comments here.
Use multiple lines if needed.

I enjoyed the contest.

I used Power less than 5W.

operated second night only

Single base loaded vertical in an HOA with no RX antennas.  re-entering contesting after 15 years
was an eye opener especially learning N1MM= use and radio interfacingthe week before the test.  Big
changes to the better .    S7 noise level was not too bad for the HOA location but made things a
little tougher from back in the Country QTH days.
All contest was simply Search & Pounce as I did not feel comfortable enough with all the necessary
function keys in N1MM+  for doing Running this time.  Still had fun though but gave up early due to
PC lockup and the radio/amp locked in full transmit mode!  ran to the He Shed to power down through
the snow and in the dark and by the time I reestablished a stable operating environment
again.......
Gotta love Windoze 11 (NOT)

Only operated about an hour total. Used an 80m dipole with an external tuner again this year.  Not a
good idea.  Thanks to the stations that were patient enough to listen for me in the noise.  Nice to
make some CW contacts on 160m.

Fun time.  Had a bit of an issue at first with the KAT500 acting up on key down, and lost a bit of
time with that.  Turned out to be another PL259 for another antenna had come loose (how I do not
know) and once tightened 160M played just fine.

Could not tell you whether condx were good or bad.  At QRP levels, it all feels like the band is not
cooperating, but I had a very hard time getting west of the Mississippi.  Many thanks for the
hundreds who dug me out.  

My neighbor in the state south of me, N4XD, kept me striving, but he was just unbeatable.  Really
well done!

73 es thanks for a very enjoyable contest.

K3CCR is the club station at the Collington continuing-care
retirement community at FM 18OW in MD, just east of DC. For 2025
ARRL 160 M, I (N3UM) was the only CW op; I did SOHP U. I hoped to
beat my 2024 ARRL 160 M score claim of 88.7 M. Nope; I got 1.04 X
the Qs in 12.6 vs 15.4 hrs BIC, but just 0.853 X the mults. The
cause; no good sigs from W. of CO & NM. I got only AZ & UT in W7,
and EB in W6. A fast start; 2200-2359Z I ran for 174 Qs at 88/hr.
Then 0003-0210Z I clicked spots for 117 Qs in 2.1 hrs, 56/hr. I
ran agn 0214-0243 for 36 Qs, 74/hr. An 18-min. BK, then 0301-0341Z
I clicked for 33 Qs at 49/hr. I did a fast short run 0344-3403Z;
20 Qs at 66/hr, then none. I clicked 0408-0458Z for 28 Qs, 36/hr.
I then had 408 Qs vs 412 in 2024 at 0604Z QRT, and 57 sects vs 61.
So, I quit at 0458Z to sleep & close gaps the 2nd night. Back on
2212Z-0002Z I ran for 99 Qs, 50/hr. Bandmap sparse; waited 18-min,
then 0020-0142Z I clicked for 48 Qs in 81 min, 36/hr; slow. I kept
trying till 0348Z seeking good sigs from W6 & W7; none heard. I
got 42 Qs, 26 running, for 607 total, 26 more than in 2024. But,
there was no hope of getting 11 more total mults to equal my 2024
total with band near dead to W6 & W7, so I quit at 0348Z to sleep.

Had Big Fun

66 ft piece of wire into a tree, with Dentron tuner at the base
K3 radio.  no separate Rx antenna.

HOA op using "raingutter" antenna for 160m

"This was more of a domestic contest with few DX QSOs in the log."

Geat Contest BUT speeds over 25wpm too fast for most.

Flex 8600
Antennas: Dipoles

Since my first ARRL 160 contest in 1971 (just the second running
of the contest), I have never seen conditions as poor as they
were the first night this year.  They were better the second
night, but still no EU even heard and only one JA, JE1BMJ, worked
and no others heard. Many thanks to Han for the call.

Thanks to all who pulled me out of the noise.

K3 + PGXL, Inv vee with top at 68'

Wish I could have done better but with the QSB and S9 noise level I guess I did ok.

I operated remotely from Williams, Arizona using a modest transmit
antenna (30' tall inverted L over 30 not-long-enough radials). On the
plus side I could hear well. I have a 700ft NE beverage in the trees
but the transmit antenna seemed to work well on its own. It was
interesting to experience the widely varying receive capabilities of
other stations. The very strong stations that could not hear me, the
weak stations who could. The stations who could hear me in the same
states as those who couldn't.

I only managed to work a little over 4 hours in the contest but it
was fun, and I appreciate the QSOs. 73, Dana

Conditions were quite good except that no Europeans were heard or worked. Transmitting antenna is a
54 foot vertical with 40 full-sized 160M radials. 6 bi-directional Beverages receive JA, S.Am, EU,
ZL, E, W directions. Radio is a K3 modified to K3S, with an ACOM 2020S amplifier. Major computer
problems caused a lot of lost time and lost logged QSOs the first night.`These were fixed during the
day on Saturday. Being called by 9M6A during the last hour was a big surprise. 81 States/Sections
were worked including all USA sections - missing only VI and 3 Canadian sections (NL,ONN, TER). 14
countries were worked

Antenna just 162 ft wire with 400 pf cap in series, two ground
radials.  Used a Loop on Ground with DX Engineering NCC-2 box to
help with RX noise level.  Not sure how much that helped.   The
160M contest is fun.  No Europe worked or heard.  Missing all 6th
call area sections, worked only 3 7th calll area and 6 of the
Canada sections.

great fun as always

fun contest

Been a long time since I've been on a 160 contest. Salt water damage from high tides/ hurricane high
water. The problems of having an antenna on a salt marsh... The HI-Z 8 element array was helpful but
I only participated Saturday night. Heard no EU, unusual for here. Maybe condx was better fri
night.

Nice to hear old friends calls on 160 again.

73,

Gary
KA1J

This was my first contest I ever did!
I had a lot of fun!
I look forward to getting the certificate!
I will be doing more contests!
Thank you!

I sure don't understand the need or the use of stations that want to run such high cw speeds. I know
of a lot of people that just skip over them and just completely ignore them. Those folks could get a
lot more contacts if they would slow down. 
I'd love to see ARRL set a speed limit on their contests!!!!

Did not do quite as well as last year, but the contest was still fun.  Conditions were especially
good Friday evening.

This was my first time on 160m and I had a great time. Lots of people running power, but 75w and a
wire still got through.

73

Flex 6600
Antennas: Butternut, Inverted L

30-40 watts to a 45' T-top vertical. Lots of activity and decent condx. Thanks for the Fun! 73, Dan
ke0tt

Worked whomever I could hear on vertical

Well, I pretty much missed a great opportunity.  The band and
activity sounded great.  With only very limited time to operate,
I got on and immediatley found out that my inverted-L had
developed a 10+:1 SWR.  Sigh ....  A little investigation the
next day showed that the wire may have broken up in a tree where
it has become tangled.  C'est la vie, but there is time to
replace it before the next one.

90w (beat up old DX-100 & R-390a) 1/4w vertical. got to say "hi" to some fellow
  OT top banders.

Hadn't operated on 160 before, and had only a G5RV antenna with a high SWR - but made a few contacts
and had fun!

Another contest and yet another bunch of solar disturbances with
main feature an 8.1 M class flare.  Gotta say it provided some
surprises like K1LZ and K3CT who had DX like aurora
signals calling and wrking my 100w stn with a wire homebrew
random lenght ant. strung around my yard with apex at 43'
Normally I can't work any one that sounds like that and K5KU
was one of those who I heard the whole contest at ESP without
so much as a  from him. Even guys in close by WA. were ESP!

Antennas:

Maybe it's the fact that my 160m antenna is in poor shape (most
of the radials are gone), but the activity isn't what I
remembered from the last time I was on for this one.  Or maybe
it's the solar cycle.  Anyway, thanks for the QSO's!

I had a lot of fun getting back into the swing of contest
operating.  The last major CW activity was Field Day, but it
didn't take too long to get back into the swing of things with a
couple short pileups around 160/hr.  I was only able to operate
the first night as I am flying out for a Hawaii vacation.  I
didn't hear or see an EU stations in the midwest.

I had put up a 1/4 wave inverted L wire in tall trees on our farm north of Lawrence for the contest.
It worked really well. It came down last week in the snowstorm. Unable to get out there to fix, so
to hand out a few Qs used the rain gutter on our home again. Oddly a low SWR without using the
tuner.

Despite a minimal antenna and my tired old TS-850 at 50 watts, worked
many people "S & P" including PJ2T, K1KI CT, VA2WA QC, and KP4AA.

Conditions seemed down Friday night with east coast stations weak and unworkable. Definitely short
range as NØNB noted. Better Saturday evening and worked many W2, W3s and K1KI CT. Copied several W6
and N7EPD WWA but no luck. High K index and geomagnetic activity didn't help. Appreciate everyone
digging my weak signal out. All contacts were "hand made." Ie. hand key, paper log.

Station:  K3/100 to ladder line fed doublet at 40 feet at the apex.

Friday evening was a lot of noise and the band was clearly short.  I started out S&P and quite a
number of stations never answered my calls.  Trying to run with my doublet and 100 Watts didn't have
stellar results.

Saturday night was considerably improved conditions with much lower noise and the band was quite a
bit longer.  For the first time in several years no stations outside of CONUS/VE were heard at this
station.  Running a frequency Saturday evening was met with considerably more success.

As there was some QSB Saturday evening, I was most aggravated but some stations that apparently spun
the knob immediately after their report was sent as calls for repeats went unanswered.  Well, if you
believe you worked me and find that you're not in the log, well, there you go!

There are a lot of reasons other than operator incompetence to ask for a repeat. If you get
penalized for not being in my log, did that three seconds you saved to get to the next station up
the band really prove to be a benefit?

By the same token, if you don't hear the TU and aren't sure if your report was copied, ask!

A friend reported the same experience in this event.  This is poor operating practice.  Please
refrain from spinning the dial too quickly.

12TH ARRL 160 METER CONTEST

Always a fun contest! 391 Qs with 10 DX in 9 hours. Worked all USA east of the Rockies, one CAL
section, no WWA, no OR,  MT nor ID, no Europe. I never heard them above the lousy S9 noise at my
QTH. I only did 4 hours on Friday night because I had to rise at 4 am to drive to the Ocala Hamfest
to set up my booth.  Thanks to all the top band participants.  73.  Dan, N1ZZ

very short time to operate, main rig PS died. Came up with LiFePO
battery and ran QRP. still fun, best DX was AZ with 10 watts

Thanks to Dave, K1TTT, for the use of his First Class station!

Great participation in dismal conditions!
Very few trans-continental QSO's, only 4 (weak) Europeans!

returned from c6a late Thursday and was unable
to resolve antenna switching issues before test.
Ran LP and with West array acting up.  Conditions
were fairly rough here.

2025 Dec ARRL 160M Contest

A last minute operation to hand out a few points.  Just 400W to a 55' "L" loaded vertical used on TX
and RX,  Worked K7RAT 2 hours after my SR but didn't log him until a couple of minutes passed the
contest end.

Antennas:

Good conditions made for a fun contest. Really enjoyed this one!

Conditions were a bit squirrelly this year compared to last two years.
A and K values were still high, as was solar flux at the start.
I noticed drastic signal fades and peaks over long periods of time
throughout all areas of the U.S.. NE U.S. would peak and hold for a while
and then those signals would fade and SW U.S. would peak for a while and
repeat. It did not help that the inverted L I just put up two weeks ago is
not quite resonant in band yet. Last attempt 2 days before the contest to
tune the antenna into the bottom of the band was not 100% successful.
SWR maximum dip did move up 75Khz to 1.750, but rises to 3.1 at 1.800, and
to 4.5:1 at 1.860Mhz. I used my MFJ 949E tuner the entire contest. The
antenna is only 22' vertical to knee, and the 110' horizontal leg being so
close to ground, and the first 60' of the horizontal leg travels over
the radial field of the 6BTV, has additional impedance altering artifacts
to address. Still a work in process! I did manage a few runs totaling 132
Qs of the 392. No EU DX was heard here at all. PJ2T was loud here both nights
and is usually a slam dunk for me on 160. No dice this time. Best I got was
an occasional  AGN when no one else was calling. Only CA station heard here
both nights was N6RO. I am usually able to hear and work K7RAT in OR. but not
this time around. I heard some undecipherable dits&dahs when I went to Tree's
spotted freq. Got a smile on my face when NA7TB called in during one of my runs.
I later worked UT while S&Ping. Those were my only sections in 7 land worked.
The one that got away... I kept checking KH6AQ's spotted freq off and on, and
calling him off and on. Finally I hit his frequency on a high, no one I could
hear was calling, so I gave it a whirl. After a couple calls he came back to me
but he had an E in place of T. A couple back and forths and he had my call good.
Now I could tell a fade was coming, sent my report and he responded TN I sent
RRR three times, and again he responded TN We did this samne back and forth
two more times as prop has now taken a dive. His last over to me was sri no cpy.
I never worked so hard for a no contact, but I greatly appreciated his persistence.
Goal was 500 plus Qs, as I've done in the past. After the Friday/Satuday first
shift I knew it would be a stretch to hit 500, as things really slowed down earlier
for me, before midnight. I needed to be at 300 Qs minimum after the first shift
and I was only at 255. Saturday/Sunday shift was even slower as I could not find
many new stations to work, and run attempts were usually 3 Qs and done, so time to
move on!  73, Gene N9TF.  K3S 100 watts to 22' vertical inverted L.

Very challenging with QRP to poor antenna!

Short time... caught a nasty bug

Antenna 80 M doublet w/ ends tied together & fed to MFJ 989 tuner random
wire post.  It sort of worked. Got as far as Virginia from Colorado.  NO2D

Poor conditions with G1/R2 disruptions. Weak CA stations
and pileups for VE4-6. Only one EU G6XX and venerable KH6AQ operating
from a beach.
New dramas from Flex as their new (paid) release caused crashes and
removed adjustment to APF, making it useless.

This was a last minute 160-Meter Multi-OP run from WA6TQT in ANZA.
The goal was to set a new record for ORG section and SW Division - DONE!
Saturday evening conditions did not seem nearly as robust as Friday evening,
however another 80+ QSOs made it into the log
LooK for a write-up on this GiG at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com

FT1000MP MarkV, PA Acom1500 - 1kW, dipol, beverage

I took part in the contest mainly to try out some new antennas. I noticed a lot of poor-quality
signals on the band, but the most horrible one was LY4A – I am attaching a photo of the signal
from 12-06, 0531 Z.

OPERATOR ON7EH

TNX 73!

IC-781, KW, ant inverted L @15 m. No RX ant..

One of my favorite contests of the year. 
Lots of activity. Thanks for all the Qs. See you in the next one. 

73

Serge
VA3SB

QSO Count=191

1st Night Ran 100W as many breaks to feed the stove.
USB issues meant loosing SDR Rx intermittent

A couple of hours efforts.  100 Watts on a DXa dipole.

160 contest was a lot of fun again this year.

Great fun as always. Simply added a 100 foot wire to my 40m 1/4 wave vertical and let the
superstations do all the work!

A big thanks to Ken, K4LA, for the use of his PEI superstation for this contest!  It was so great to
have all state of the art equipment and the two phased verticals!  Thanks for the QSOs, and for
bearing with me to get the calls through!

Very nice to see the band so alive with signals.  Good cndx and great operators made for a very fun
Top Band contest.

Lazy-H Vertical antenna below 50 ft.  No separate receiving
antenna.

First time in this contest!

Thanks for the 160M contacts. Band was very quiet. Used Inverted
L with raised radials. 73 - Dan, W1QK

Thanks to ARRL, and all of you who participated, for making this event possible!  A very nice event
with more participation than I had expected.  Thanks also to everyone for their patience as I tried
to pull calls out of my high noise level.

I had not really planned to operate a lot of hours, but as usual, once I started it was easy to just
continue.  The second night was my first attempt at SO2V using the IC7610 in a CW contest, and I
very much enjoyed it, and I learned a lot.  

The 160 antennas here are a temporary setup, and I clearly need to improve my receiving antenna,
particularly towards Europe.  Something else to add to my project list.

Thanks again to all, and enjoy the hobby!

Craig, W2NTN

FlexRadio 6600M
Antennas: 160M Loop

-The 1/4-wave direct fed antenna did quite well. I couldn't work the weak ones but had plenty of mid
to very strong stations to work. A 2-hour run was made late Friday/Saturday morning with a decent
rate.
-My amp doesn't cover 160 so I ran 100-watts. It gets the job done but I'm definitely looking to
upgrade the amplifer before next year.
-The noise level has consistently been S-1 to S-3 making for great hearing conditions. The
loop-on-ground (LOG) antenna wasn't needed.
-Some running stations need to set their CQ repeat time to more than 1 second.

CW SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER THAN FT8

Just 100 watts and a 43 foot vertical in a "retirement" community. I appreciated those that listened
for and responded to my peanut whistle. Had fun. Hoping for a better antenna next year.

Big fun with a dipole up about 25 feet and 100 W.

This is one of my favorite contests. Conditions
seemed pretty good on both evenings, but I think
Saturday night was a bit better because I could
hear CA, NV, and UT as well as KH6. Thanks for
the QSOs and 73, Ron (W8RU).

Noisy band here but still lots of fun.

Twelve inches heavy wet snow took down the high wire at 15 feet.
Put up new random wire at 4 to 5 feet.  Thanks to all that heard
the mini-signal.

Strange conditions and weird short openings.

My thanks to Doug, Chris, and Bill (and any others I forgot) for
suggesting the use of a shorted full-sized G5RV as an antenna on
160 meters at the last RDXA BoD meeting.  This suggestion solved
a long-standing problem here at WA2CHV. With the shorted feed
line connected to the long-wire output from my Dentron antenna
tuner I was able to obtain excellent matches, each with good
bandwidth across the cw portion of the band. 58 Q's with an
antenna barely 15 ft above the ground! A more permanent
installation is next up. I worked fellow cave men Bob, WA2QAU,
and Doug, N2BEG.  Doug was my best DX. ;-).

Battled the cold and even a bit of snow building a helically wound vertical with just minutes to
spare before the contest started. Still needs a bit of tuning, but it was good enough to get on
160m.  Seemed like tough conditions? Hardly ever heard anyone in the western half of USA, and no DX
except for Caribbean.

Excellent conditions both nights
Antenna 160/40 L vertical 90 ft length

My 1st 160m contest, I'm surprised how many stations there were

This was a fun contest...
I added 18" to each side of the dipole which helped a bunch at the low end of the band.
The band noise was fair at around S5.
Too bad the conditions didn't play well to the Northeast.
Thanks for our QSOs...
Bill

As usual, I had fun during this good 160 Meter band opportunity.
Was not as successful as I was hoping - such as not being able to
contact into the W0 region.

I didn't have much time for the contest but once I got my antenna working it was hard to leave the
contest!  I used a Flex 3000 at about 75 watts into an inverted vee configured as a top loaded
vertical.  I also ran some extra radials out in the yard, that helped considerably.  Thanks for a
great contest!

73,
Kerry, WD5ABC

My score/QSOs/multipliers were all down from last year due to missing out on the first 3.5 hours of
the contest due to other commitments but kept plugging away and had a great time as usual.  Very
little QRN from lightning as well as local noise which was a pleasant surprise.  Missed numerous
western US multipliers and signals to the west coast were not strong.  My almost 46 year old
transceiver was ill a week ago but was able to repair it and it worked flawlessly during the
contest.  Thanks to everyone that operated just a little or a lot during the contest.
73, Don (wd8dsb)

This was a last minute 160-Meter QRP entry from WA6TQT in between shifts
for the NX6T operation, to take a QRP 1st-place just for showing up.
Saturday evening conditions did not seem as robust as Friday evening,
which is why I only made 31 QSOs.
LooK for a write-up on this GiG at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com

Skookumlogger, Flex 6600M, 40M EDZ fed with ladder k