[50mhz] DX-pedition to DL79

[Michael Urich]

Okay it doesn't sound near as glamorous as some of the
South Pacific locations but its a far cry cheaper.
�
I've been talking about making a trip out to DL-79 for
some time now.  And the ARRL January VHF contest is
rapidly approaching.�I had considered doing this for
the Sept contest but its just too darn hot that time
of year. DL-79 is one of the more rare grids in the
US.� You can go to the ICOM grid map and look just
west of Big Bend National Park and see where DL-79 is
actually at.
www.icomamerica.com/downloads/usgridsq.pdf 
�
Well it looks as though the trip may be a GO so I'd
like to know who else would like to go?� My plans are
very liquid at the moment depending upon whom all goes
and what resources they bring to the table.� 
�
For starters we can get a portable tower trailer from
Big Bend Amateur radio club http://www.bigbendarc.com�
http://www.bigbendarc.com/fd-2001/mvc-003.jpg�so all
we would need to bring is antennas and feedline and
radios of course.� Depending upon the horizontal
pattern of the antennas we may not even have to use
the ole armstrong rotor to spin them much.

I can carry myself and three others in my car but we
would still need someone with a pickup van or other
vehicle for carrying supplies and gear as well as any
other bodies.  The other option would be to rent a 15
passenger van from Capps, yank the rear seat out which
would give us plenty of room for 8 plus most of the
gear.  

As for the itinerary.  Leave Houston Friday AM and
drive to Alpine TX, its about 10 hours.  Meet up with
BBARC, pick up the trailer and spend the night in
Alpine.  Get up Sat AM get last minute supplies, sodas
/ water / ice / etc load up and head south about 90
minutes to Cibolo Creek Ranch.
http://www.cibolocreekranch.com/ 

The contest begins at noon so we should have plenty of
time to get there, get set up and get on the air.  We
will work the contest through about 6 PM on Sunday
begin breaking down and return to Alpine Sunday
evening, return the trailer and sleep there.  Get up
Mon AM and return to Houston.

You can find the ranch by going their web-site or to
mapquest.com and entering Shafter TX and looking about
2 miles north or topozone.com and entering the
following coordinates 29.8796�N, 104.2725�W (NAD27). 
These coordinates are for the maintenance building at
the airstrip.

Sleeping arrangements, Friday & Sunday night we'll get
motel rooms at the Best Western in Alpine.  Saturday
night will be tents and sleeping bags so be
forewarned.

Food, Fri/Mon hit whatever along the road.  On Sat AM
we can buy lunch meat / bread / fruit / whatever you
want load up coolers for Sat & Sun meals.  Plan on no
or minimal cooking.

I have four, roomy two person tents and plenty of
coolers for both supplies / ice and water. You will be
on your own for any sleeping bags or inflatable
mattress's.

Operations, I want to focus on 50 & 144 SSB but I am
open to operate 222 and 432 as well. 

Rigs, I have a FT-100 which will cover 50, 144 & 432
and I also have a FT-736R with 50, 144 & 432.  I can
operate 100 watts on 50 MHz with the FT-100 both only
about 25 watts on the other bands with either radio. 
I have a 3 ele yagi for 50 MHz and a 10 ele yagi for
144.  Obviously any donations of better equipment are
welcome especially more power.

Speaking of Power, I'd like to operate off batteries
which can be kept charged with the vehicles.  This
will elimante generators.  We can use invertors for
the laptops.

I also intend to operate under the club call of K5HOU
or possibly NU5M (unless someone objects) and have
already worked up a special contest QSL card since I'm
sure we'll get besieged for QSL requests.  Logging, I
would love to do computerized logging and I will
spring for the club to add the VHF contest module to
our N3FJP software logging package if we don't already
have it. http://www.n3fjp.com I will need some help
from David, N2OZK, and whomever to bring me up to
speed on how to network the computers like we did FD
last summer. Also I want to ensure we take good photos
and keep a diary and submit an article to QST, CQ &
CQ-VHF.

Advise / suggestions.  If you have any experience that
would help make this successful let me know.

The bottom line.  If you want to participate expect to
spend anywhere from $200-300 per person.  We will work
out an equitable manner to compensate drivers who take
their own vehicle so the fuel costs are not entirely
out of their pocket.  If we wind up renting a van
we'll have to work out that cost as well.

We'll chat more on the repeater(s) and plan on having
a meeting during the hamfest.

Mike KA5CVH
ka5cvh@arrl.net


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