[AK-VHF] June VHF

[Edward R Cole]

Brandon,

Glad it was fun (educational).

Turnout in Soldotna was a little disappointing.  I think you found 
working FM on 2m in Anchorage had better results.  I could not hear 
you either at Rainbow (prob marginal) or Kincaid Park (a little 
surprising as we have worked KL4E/m from there on 2m).  Should have 
been able to do 432 from Baldy (??).  I tried KL6M on 432.2 USB with 
my 100w+16 dB yagi and he heard nothing yet later made it with 25w 
and my 10-dB vertical.  I think ac power was not plugged in for the 
stuff on the tower.  Using that probably would have improved odds for 432.

You need to talk with NL7B, Ken Karle (Fairbanks) about his winter 
rove over the same route you took.  He found some good sites on upper 
Susitna and Talkeetna area. I worked him both sites on 2m.

Having moved from Calif in 1979, I know the difference.  Need to find 
open sites, best with a little height.  50w min on all bands and 
yagis on 144 & 432.  Did you work anyone on 1296?  I did not turn on 
my1296 system though my 50w+ 20-dB yagi signal has been heard by KL4E 
at his home.

CQ VHF has seen a few AK participants (I will be in Longmont, CO with 
500w+Moxon on 6m).  No activity on 220 contests.  Next VHF contest is 
Sept. 8/9.  You should consider operating from Baldy, again.

We will be coming home thru Glennallen from Tok on Sept 8th, camping 
the night in Palmer, and traveling thru Anch./Turnagain Arm to arrive 
home Sept.9.  My mobile has 50w 2m/70cm FM or 150w 2m SSB, and 80w 6m 
SSB, all with whip antennas.  I hope to have my APRS tracking working.

I will be at Anch. Hamfest in Sept.

At 07:30 AM 6/11/2018, Brandon Clark wrote:
>Hello group,
>I wanted to thank everybody on the mailing list who was able to throw me a
>few contacts during my rover route this past weekend. I wasn't sure how
>much activity to expect for my first time up here, but it turned out to be
>a very, very fun day.
>I definitely had some lessons learned from the event. Number one would be
>to try and avoid losing two hours of Contest time by driving through (RF
>impenetrable) mountains. People really were not kidding when they mentioned
>the RVs and tourists as a traffic problem driving between Anchorage and
>Soldotna. Still, it was fun and a good lesson learned.
>Another lesson was about the trees. You're going to laugh when you read
>this, but this was the first time I've actually struggled with trees during
>a VHF contest. In California we just didn't have any of those, lol. Too
>dry. But foliage filled trees are definitely not your friend at VHF.
>I also need to find some better operating locations north of Matanuska. By
>the time I got up by Talkeetna there wasn't anybody on the air locally, and
>I couldn't get anything resembling line-of-sight back towards Anchorage to
>deploy my yagi antennas.
>There are a few more events coming up this year that I'm planning to do.
>August has the 222 MHz and up contest, July has the CQ worldwide VHF, and
>then there is another VHF contest in August. Stay tuned for announcements
>about those events, and thanks again.
>73
>Brandon
>______________________________________________________________
>ak-vhf mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ak-vhf
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:ak-vhf at mailman.qth.net
>
>This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

73, Ed - KL7UW
   http://www.kl7uw.com
Dubus-NA Business mail:
   dubususa at gmail.com