[MAMS] April MAD - results

[Zack Widup]

Conditions were generally poor. I don't have my log with me but I tried
first to work W0LGQ on 1296. Neither of us heard the other. I then tried to
work a couple people in St. Louis on 10368. We could just barely hear one
another's signals in there, not well enough to actually copy. I couldn't
hear the St. Louis beacon at all on 10368.900.

I then worked Wally W9OBG on 1296. We tried at first and couldn't hear one
another. Then we both heard W9ZIH running a CQ loop. Ron was pinning my
s-meter on 1296. So Wally and I just moved up 10 kHz from Ron's signal.
That way we knew where we were frequency-wise. Signals weren't too bad on
that band. We tried to work on 2304 but signals were just too weak. We
tried 10 GHz but nothing heard at either end.

Then I worked W9ZIH on 1296, 3456 and 10368. He was still pinning my
s-meter on 1296. The other bands were just marginal, with signals not what
we usually expect.

Then I worked W9SNR on 1296 through 5760. Signals were pretty good on 1296
and rapidly diminished as we went up the bands. 5760 was just out of the
noise and we couldn't hear each other on 10368. I never bothered with 24
GHz.

Jim had a great location for the south in EN62cc. It's a clear shot in most
directions from there except maybe to the northeast and north. I don't
think he was running more than 100 watts but he had the elevation of the
hill to help out.

I never heard K4TO or K8TQK either. I wasn't about to hear them on 144 MHz.
I found out on Monday night when I tried to work people in the 144 MHz
Spring Sprint using the same transverter still in my car from the MAD
weekend that it was the 432 MHz transverter! That explained a lot. I guess
N4PZ has a beacon on ~ 432.280.

As for the Sprint, I made a mad dash home to get the correct transverter
and made a mad dash back to the hill in EN50ue (not as high as the one in
EN50rl but a lot closer). I got 40 minutes in on the Sprint. I made 9
QSO's, the farthest being N0AKC in EN44.

Rain scatter season is here and it might be possible for some long-range
QSO's on 10 GHz via rainscatter. I might start keeping the equipment in my
car so I can head for a location that will give me a good shot via
rainscatter.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Dave Calvert <kb0pe at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello to the group,
> This MAD was exactly what we new before we started!  Heartburn was
> in the Black and seems to be its only color for years. . . . I got to the
> hill in
> EM49ua in Dow, IL. at 4:30am and set up my table with the 24 Gig equip
> and 2-marine batteries for the 24 Vdc and 3ft Dish on the North East side
> of the AT&T building and then drove around to the East side of the building
> to set up the 4ft. Dish for 5.7 Gig's.  I made a call on 144.260 in the
> direction
> of W0LGQ/EN21 so that we could try a few bands before 7am.  No luck
> on any of the uW bands!  He is 337 mile path with (as Zack would say)
> + attenuation!  Here is my log for this MAD activity:
>
> W9ZIH/ EN52 . . . . . . . 1296.1   CW 559    Ron,  at   8:11am
> N9NJY/ EM58bl . . . . .  1296.1 USB 5X6    Marcel at 8:56am
> "                         " . . .  . . 902.1  USB 5X8    "        "  at
> 8:59am
> K2DRH/ EN41VR . . . . 1296.1 CW 559      Bob    at   9:05am
> "                           ". . . . . . . . . .  USB 5X5    "      "  at
> 9:55am
> K0PFX/ EM48 . . . . . . . 1296.1 USB 5X3   "Mel at   10:17am
>
> I received a phone call from Zack that he was packing up due to high winds
> and the added + attenuation that he was dealing with in EN50rl !!!  I
> packed
> up everything and drove to EM58tg which is on the parking lot of SIU at
> Edwardsville and worked N9NJY for another 902.1 contact that was needed.
>
> I wanted to say that at the beginning of this MAD I was told by Ron - W9ZIH
> that he was running 1500 watts on 144.240 and wondered how loud he was
> compared to Jim - W9SNR.  I stopped and thought a second and said that Jim
> was much louder and stronger that he was on 2m. . .  I began wondering how
> much power was Jim running on 2m?  I new it was around 50 watts so I
> concluded that the path from St. Louis area to Chicago and into Michigan
> was
> the best for this early morning wasted trip hi hi.  It is aggravating for
> me so from
> now on I will pay attention to the conditions and try to work up into
> Michigan
> on 902, 1296, 2304, 3456 and higher.  I will be looking for you Mark for
> these
> contacts RR.
>
> I didn't even hear K4TO or K8TQK, were they on this morning??
> 73,
> Dave
>
>