[MAMS] January 2013 MAD EN73 report

[Lloyd Ellsworth]

January 2013 Microwave Activity Day report from EN73 NE8I/r
 
Weather and roads looked like they might be reasonable. Roads were reasonable. Drove down to St Johns US127 and M21 EN73ra. Pool car parking lot. With the January contest comming up, decided to try out a few things. Best to test out paths, and everykthing before a contest. Not during. Left the house at sunrise. 8:15AM.  Checked out distant TV stations, and conditions were definetly up. Sky, nice and clear. Got down the hill on M115. Pea soup fog. Freezing fog type. Which stuck to everything, coated everything and made driving very slow. Fun driving. Woods were pretty. Mt Pleasant, the fog started to lift. First sunny, then cloudy. Made it to St Johns about 9:30. 
 
On were K8MD EN82 K8JA EN82 and KF8QL EN72. Found out that the 1296 front end needs work, or a good pre amp. Have, but did not bring along. Unable to make the path to KF8QL on 1296. Tried with K8MD, he was about s5. Should have been much stronger. Just made it with K8JA. They had no problem hearing me and the 1W. Looked for the usual 1296 beacons. Nothing. 2304, Mark was his usual really stong. So, more work to do. 
 
Currently, getting rover ready for the January contest. if the roads, and weather is reasonable. TC and along Lake Michigan Saturday. Sunday, the HP swap and EN82. Then West ojn I-96 to GR and back home. If the weather or roads are bad, then changes will happen. Will have the usual collection of equipment and bands. I do not have 4WD or snow tires. So, that limits things. 
 
February MAD. Will be like this month. Depends on weather and roads. 
 
Working on a 902 beacon. Seems to be running ok on the bench. Waiting for a 902.3 xtal. Lots of bench projects. 
 
I noticed in the latest QST issue, K9JK and his contest results write up. At the end, he paraphased my quote about we make activity happen. Yep. We certainly do. 
 
73, Lloyd NE8I/r
EN73 etc
 
EN73 etc