Beam Steering in Combat

				  or

     How to Use Software Radio and an Array of Short Verticals in
	    the 2007 Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge

Combine some of the best propagation that I've ever heard with some of
the worst (but not *the* worst) QRN I've ever heard, and you get the
2007 Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge.  Before the contest began,
my S-meter was reading S0 in the wide AM position on *all* of the
Beverages, which I think is a first for this location.  The nasty
noise that plagued the 330 and 360 degree Beverages during the CQ WW
CW and ARRL 160 tests had gone away.

There were several signals on the air by local noon.  Around 1820Z I
heard VE3MGY CQing, and I assumed he was looking for Canada Day
contacts.  I call him and he gave me a grid square.  So I said "oops"
and I started the Stew Perry test early.  In 30 minutes I worked 15
stations, which seems like a reasonable rate for the daytime.

Starting around 0500Z I had a nice run of Russian stations, with
several contacts worth 16 or more points.  This was also the first
time I've worked a grid square starting with "L".  Is there a
Worked-All-Grids award?

During the Russian run, the QRN started to get quite obnoxious.  By
0600Z, only the stronger European stations were workable.  Note that
the typically strong Europeans were literally S9.

I had a nice JA run, if you can call two JAs in a row a "run".

Heard CE1/K7CA work ZL3IX, but I didn't hear any ZLs CQing.  Heard
VK6VZ after sunrise, but he was too weak to work.  For some reason, I
just don't hear VK/ZL from this location very well.  Maybe the 100
foot rise south and west of my property attenuates VK/ZL signals.

I used the Electronic Steerable Phased Array and computer again as a
second receiver.  The array definitely works, but the long Beverages
and ICOM radio still have a slight edge on copy of the very weakest
signals.  On the other hand, the phased array does not have a high
angle side lobe which is frequently an advantage.  Unfortunately, in
this contest, the QRN seemed to be coming from the same direction as
the desired signals.  I added "point and click" so that I don't have
to touch the keyboard on the phased array computer to "turn" the
antenna.  I still need to build an audio routing box to simplify two
receiver operation.

DX worked: (2) 9A, CE, CT, CU, (25) DL, (3) EI, ES, (6) F, (15) G, (5)
GM, (2) GW, (4) HA, HB , (2) HP, (5) I, (3) JA, (3) KH, KL, KP, KV,
LA, (3) LY, OE, (2) OH, (10) OK, (3) OM, (2) ON, (2) OZ, P4, (5) PA,
(5) S5, (6) SM, SP, SV, (3) TF, UA2, (8) UA, (8) UR for a total of 147
DX QSOs.