[FARC] Contesting Station Open House

[Bob Moroney]

Interesting account, Jim, sounds like you had a good time with your 
"little gun" setup.  Carolyn and I were at the MDFMA Hamfest over in 
Howard County on Sunday morning, and one of the tailgaters had an Icom 
706 tuned up to a 40m freq. where someone was running stations like 
crazy in that CW contest.  Your call could have been among them.  
Reports of CW's demise are indeed greatly exaggerated, from what I heard 
on Sunday.

73, Bob K9CMR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
M and J Gillespie wrote:
> Bob,
> It would indeed be great to visit W3LPL and see what a "big gun"set up 
> is like. I did enjoy Bob's (WX3B) presentation at the last club meeting.
> While my setup if meager and far from a "big gun" operation (100 watts 
> or less)to a long wire seven feet above ground fixed to a wooden 
> fence), I did get into the CQ Magazine WPX (CW)contest.  In less than 
> a total of two hours at the rig, I worked 45 stations.  I heard and 
> worked at least one station on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. 
> When I turned to 10 meters on Sunday afternoon, there were at least a 
> dozen stations. On ten meters running only fifteen watts, I worked two 
> stations in Alabama, one in central Florida, one in Texas, and one in 
> Huntingtown, MD (Calvert County). I heard other ten meter stations but 
> they were extremely weak and I could not make out their complete 
> calls. A half hour after turning on 10 meters, I could not hear any 
> more stations. On 20 meters which has seemingly been completely dead 
> at night, I worked KH6 in Hawaii at 11:55 PM EDT. On Sunday afternoon 
> 20 meters was open to Europe.  I had worked five continents and needed 
> only Asia for Worked All Continents in the contest.  I listened on 20 
> and in 15 minutes I heard and worked 4L0A in Georgia (Asiatic 
> Georgia!). That completed my one day WAC. So!  The bands must be open 
> many times but no one is there to work it! Although there seem to be 
> no new sunspots,things seem to be improving and I have faith that "Old 
> Sol" will get his spots soon!
>
> Have fun!
> Jim,, K3DQ
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Moroney" <windbrkr at erols.com>
> To: "FARC Mail List" <farc at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 6:19 PM
> Subject: [FARC] Contesting Station Open House
>
>
>> If you think you might have been bitten by the contesting bug during 
>> the presentation by Jim WX3B at last week's meeting, you may also be 
>> interested in the following:
>>
>> Frank W3LPL, who has built up one of the premier Ham Radio contesting 
>> stations in the U.S. (perhaps even on the planet) will soon be 
>> hosting his annual "Open House" for Ham Radio operators interested in 
>> DX and contesting.  The date this year is Saturday, June 21st.  
>> Things should be underway by Noon.
>> If you want to learn more about contesting with the PVRC and/or just 
>> gawk at all the towers, beams, wire antennas and rigs, stop by the 
>> W3LPL QTH on the 21st.  It's not too far from the Howard County 
>> Fairgrounds.  See QRZ for the exact address.
>>
>> 73, Bob K9CMR