[MAMS] April 2011 Microwave Activity Day

[Zack Widup]

Well, it wasn't a good day. I got to the hilltop a little after 1 PM
CDT. The wind up there was hitting gusts of 50 mph by my guess. It
didn't seem so bad in the lowlands but on the hill, at least 100 feet
above average terrain and with nothing to shield from the wind, it was
bad.

My dish antenna blew over at least 4 times. No apparent damage to the
dish. I had it braced against the car on the windward side, a trick
that has worked before, but today the wind was too much. It actually
went sailing over my car at one point.

That wasn't the worst. I had a small table set up with the equipment
on it. The wind blew the table over at one point. The IF rig pitched
front first onto the rocks. It broke the squelch control shaft but
that was no great loss as I never use the squelch anyway. My keyer
paddles also broke. The 902 antenna seemed to be staying up so I
thought I would at least try to work Wally W9OBG on 902. I called him
for a bit on 902.1 and he said he didn't hear anything. Then he called
me and I heard him clearly, exactly on frequency. I called again and
he heard nothing. Then I got out my All-Band Power Meter and checked
and it indicated no RF out on 902. Since the new 902 transverter
hadn't fallen, I suspected the IF rig of being damaged.

I'm about to check everything out and find out what's brokwn. I'll try
this again on a day when there is less wind. And I have to try to
figure out where to get new plastic paddles for a Brown Bros. keyer.
I'll probably end up making something.

73, Zack W9SZ


On 3/31/11, Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com> wrote:
> I might be able to participate in the morning. Don't know yet. If so,
> I'll be at the usual spot in EN50rl.
>
> If anyone is willing, I can be there for sure around 1 pm CDT on
> Saturday. In fact, I am going to try to make a sked with W9OBG at that
> time to try out new 902 MHz transverter and see if we can work on 3456
> and 10G.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Lloyd Ellsworth <l10368r1 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>> This Saturday. April 2011 Microwave Activity Day. Dawn to Noonish. Time to
>> check out that Microwave gear. New rover sites, paths etc. Create some
>> microwave activity.
>>
>> 902+ MHz, Coordinate on 144.260. Alternate 432.120.
>>
>> I will be out and about. EN74, EN64.
>>
>> Starting Monday April 11, 7-11PM local. 2M Sprint.
>> Tuesday April 19 222 Sprint.
>> Wednesday April 27 432 Sprint.
>> If my rover spot is open. Plan to be on.
>>
>> 73, Lloyd NE8I/r
>> EN74 etc
>>
>>
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>