[NLRS] January Contest results (long)
Gary Danelius
[email protected]
Thu, 24 Jan 2002 01:48:28 cst
I operated Low Power Portable at the park in NE Minneapolis
just North of I-35W and West of the Hwy 36 intersection.
I was on the air from about from 2:30 to 5PM Saturday
and 1 to 5:30PM Sunday. I spent way to much time moving
equipment in and out the truck and setting up the
antennas. I will have to improve this for next time.
Results by band:
Band QSO's Grids
50 17 2
144 37 2
223 8 2
432 23 2
902 2 1
1296 3 1
2304 3 1
10250 5 2
24150 2 2
______ _______
100 15 Total points 3240
I lost over a 1000 points because I couldn't find anyone to
work in EN35 on 902, 1296 or 2304. I also missed the rovers.
they were out of my range during the few hours I was on the air.
Thanks to Lenny, K0SHF, Brain, KC0HTB, and Mike, KB0OZN,
for coming by to work me on 10 and 24 GHz.
Also Thanks to Lenny and John, KB0ZEV, for the loaning me
equipment for 6, 223, and 432.
Equipment was the following:
50-10W to a Squalo. 144-10W to a vertical (I couldn't hear anything
on the beam Saturday. I had hoped to work a few mults here).
222-an HT with a rubber duck ant. 432-3W to a 22 el K1FO on Saturday
(It lost a few elements on the way home when the tripod tipped over and
dumped the antennas over the side of the truck). Sunday I used
a 8 el Quagi. 902-6W to a 10 el VJB beam. 1296- 1/2W to a 45 el
looper (I could barely hear Gary, W0GHZ's, 100+W through the
oscillations of the preamp. It didn't like the cold weather).
2304-1W to a 2' dish (great signals here from ZQ, GHZ and SHF).
10 GHz-Gunnplexer and horns. 24 GHz-Gunnplexer and a 11 dB horn.
I had more visits, but better luck then Lenny has had with the police.
Saturday I saw a couple of patrol cars drive by, but they didn't stop.
I suppose it was to cold for them to want to get out of the car.
Sunday was a different story. First one officer drove up while I
was busy with a contact. He pulled along side the truck and
rolled down his window. I got the hint and got out of the truck
to talk to him. I told him I was a ham working in a contest,
he replied, "that's what I thought". He said have fun and left. A few
hours later, as it was getting dark, I had a second car arrive with
two officer this time. Since someone had call in about my operations,
these two were a bit more serious, wanting to see and checking
out my drivers license. I also showed him the amateur license
and explained what I was doing. Of course he said, "can't you do
that from home?" There didn't seem to be any point trying to explain
the low power portable rules to him. I did forget to mention the
emergency preparedness aspect of a portable operation.
After telling me that it was "probably illegal" to have the mast
with the 6M squalo taped to a sign post, he asked me to take
down some of the antennas so it looked like I was going
to leave soon. They seemed satisfied and left after about 15
minutes.
Lessons learned:
Keep the antennas small, easier to set up and they will
attract less attention.
Get all the radios packaged for easy installation and
removal from the vehicle. I guess I didn't pay enough
attention to Jim, K0MHC's, talk last year at Aurora.
Get all the transverters integrated so that I don't have to
hook them up one at a time.
Build more loaner transverters so that I can be sure to
get the EN35 mult. Also bring 3456 and 5760 to work GHZ.
I had fun and would do it again. After all, that's the only way
for many of you to get the EN35 mult on the higher bands.
Be sure to send in you entries and mark the NLRS.
73, Gary WB0LJC
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