[MAMS] Fwd: MAD ??

[Zack Widup]

Looks like the trip to Kenosha was profitable!

I just drove to the EN50rl hill again today (Sunday) and worked Wally
W9OBG on 3456. We had previously worked on 902, 1296, 2304 and 5760.
He got the bugs out of his 3456 transverter and we worked with S9
signals both ways.

We tried 10368 with nothing heard on either side. Not sure what the problem was.

I also wanted to compare a Yagi I got for 902 at Dayton for $8. It is
on a 5 foot boom. My looper is on a 7 foot boom. I hooked up the new
902 antenna and transmitted and Wally could not hear me. I put on my
regular loop Yagi and he could hear me fine with it. The new 902
antenna might make a nice Rover antenna for short haul work but I
don't think I will use it for the longer-haul attempts.

I need to remember to take sunscreen next weekend! I have quite a sunburn.

73, Zack W9SZ


On 6/5/11, W9SNR - Jim <w9snr at comcast.net> wrote:
> It was a pretty busy day for me.  Got to EN62cc a bit after 7 AM.  Found
> K2YAZ on 2M.  Tried 1296, but didn't make it on that band.  That seemed a
> bit fishy, so we went up to 2304, where we did make contact.  I heard Bob on
> 3456, but he could not hear my 3W peanut whistle.  K8MD broke in during that
> run, so after finishing with Bob, I worked Mark on 902-2304, but NG on 3456.
> Then K8TQK broke in, so we tried 1296 after I finished with Mark.  By that
> time, the band conditions were going down, so we didn't make it on 1296.
> Just before I started to tear down, W9SZ called on 2M from EN50rl.  We made
> contacts on all of Zack's bands 1296-10G. Signals were OK up to 5760 but
> dropped off on 10 GHz.  (5760 was down since I used a lossy tri-band feed on
> that band).
>
> After hearing that NE8I was going to be near the Michigan lakeshore all
> afternoon, I decided to go to the lakefront park in Kenosha, WI (EN62cn).
> Conditions directly over the lake that afternoon were MUCH better than
> anything I found that morning from EN62cc.  Lloyd was LOUD on all bands from
> 903-10G, except for 1296.  The drop in 1296 signals was so bad that I later
> tried jumpering around the 1296 preamp, but that confirmed that the preamp
> was still working.  When I tried working Bob on 1296, I was hearing him S9+,
> but he said my signals were weak.  It looked like a bad case of one-way
> propagation on that band.  I had no trouble working Bob on the other  mW
> bands we tried.  He was even fairly strong on 10 GHz.
>
> Lloyd also setup his 4W beacon on 24 GHz.  I listened for it for about 45
> minutes, but nothing heard despite the very good signals on 10 GHz.  While
> listening for Lloyd's beacon, I took the opportunity to drag out my 1152 MHz
> harmonic generator.  I could hear it all the way up to 24 GHz by just laying
> the box on the windshield, under the dish. The 24 GHz marker was right where
> I expected it to be, so I was at least able to confirm that the 24 GHz
> receiver was working and that the LO was on frequency.
>
> I'm eager to try Kenosha again on an upcoming MAD.  It's not that far away,
> about 1.5 hour drive, plus another half hour for lunch.  All I need is the
> assurance that there will be enough activity to the East to justify the
> trip.
>
> 73 - Jim
> W9SNR
>