[AK-VHF] AK-VHF Net: 29 Jan - 146.52 FM

[Brandon Clark]

Hello group,

The trip went pretty well, although I ran into more issues than I expected. To start, when I got to Shem Pete Lake I got North and East mixed up (lazy routefinding on my part, and fatigue), so I set up camp with a sizeable hill to the south-east. That blocked a lot of lower-48 signals that I needed for the contest, and prevented good VHF/UHF reception to Wasilla.

Also, right before the event I put together a 2m/70cm j pole and didn't have time to test it. When I hooked it up for the Saturday net there was a high SWR issue, so I had to switch to a backup 5/8 wave that didn't give me nearly good enough reception. I could hit the repeaters well enough, and chatted up a few people on there, but repeater contacts don't count.

My HF antenna was a new one that I built, based around an LDG 4:1 unun. Electrically it is a non-resonant vertical antenna, utilizing a tuner to work multiple bands. The 4:1 unun brings the impedance down to within range of my autotuner. It worked well, but I needed a taller support for it than the fiberglass fishing pole that I brought along. The radiating element was strung out at about 45 degrees, instead of vertical. I also should have spread out the ground wires a little more, but I got lazy and didn't want to trudge out a whole lawn worth of snow to set up the ground wires. (I have a plan to address that next year.)

Also (and very surprisingly) the tuner couldn't match that antenna on the 6 meter band. I couldn't get in on there to try PSK31 with the group. Goes to show: always be sure your gear is adequately tested before going afield.

Anyway, WDF contacts were pretty light with the bad location, minimal VHF capability, and hill to the south-east. Nonetheless, I managed to wrangle a few contacts on 20 meters using PSK31. With my compromised antenna setup and the tree-covered hill in the way I decided to fall back on a strictly-POTA activation, and ran FT8 most of the day. I ended up with about 50 contacts in total, covering the US, Canada, Japan, and Asiatic Russia. Not bad for compromised antennas, portable gear, and a campsite in the middle of nowhere.

Photos of the activation can be viewed at:
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZRP1cXZmjCIS6JWRP4K2O9hRuvzFbGRc4qV

The link above also has a map of the grids I worked. In a few weeks I'll be putting together a full write-up of the activation on my website. I also got a ton of videos from camp and the trail, so I'm looking into getting those available on Vimeo around the same time. Stay tuned.
73,

Brandon Clark, KL7BSC
https://brandonclarklabs.com/

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‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Saturday, January 29th, 2022 at 21:13, Ed Cole kl7uw at acsalaska.net wrote:

> Net Report:
>
> 146.52 FM (noise was S4/5 which is unusually high):
>
> KL7XJ - S5 on yagi, S7 on vertical
>
> KL7HJ - S9 on yagi*, S5 on vertical
>
> KL6M - S7 on yagi, S5 on vertical
>
> -
>
> off back of the beam
>
> 223.50 FM
>
> KL7XJ - 2bars
>
> KL6M - 2bars
>
> Never activated 6m SSB because talked too long on 223.50
>
> attempts to reach KL7BSC/Nancy Lake area unsuccessful at 10:45
>
> decided to shovel snow in afternoon (knee deep) so did no more ham radio.
>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>
> On 1/28/2022 8:40 PM, Ed Cole wrote:
>
>> Being the last Saturday of January the net will be held on 146.52 FM
>>
>> starting at 9:30 am. I will also monitor 223.50 FM.
>>
>> We have a new member (93) to the Group, Craig-KL7HG from Sterling that
>>
>> is a new ham with a dual-band HT (no external antenna, yet). I met
>>
>> Craig for lunch on Thursday to give him some info on our club & net and
>>
>> some general info for getting started in ham radio. He may try to check
>>
>> in on 2m, tomorrow. KL7GRM or KL7RHJ may hear him.
>>
>> We will dove-tail 6m-SSB on 50.125 after the net at 10:30 and at 10:45 I
>>
>> will be attempting to work KL7BSC/KL7 on 50.250/psk31 in the Nancy Lake
>>
>> area who is working the WinterFieldDay (WFD). He will be using an HF
>>
>> vertical on 6m with 100w. Brandon has posted his plans to the list a
>>
>> few days ago.
>>
>> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>>
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