[NLRS] Upcoming AU and a few other notes

[Mike A. King - KM0T]

Hey all,

Been doing some tower maintinance here in EN13 and have had the tower laid
down for the last week.  Been working on the 3456 transverter box, etc. etc.
Fixed a relay control cable that the rabbits chewed thru...was sending 150
watts of 902 Mhz to the 1296 antennas...that did not work so well, but its
good now.  Also, apparently for the last year or so, I have only been
getting about 2 watts to my 3456 Mhz loopers.  So, those of you who thought
I was stronger before, were right.  However, I still worked everyone that
was tried!  Goes to show you if you all get those 40 watt Toshiba amps
going, what kind of damage you can do!

Anyway, it does not look good for getting it back up for this prehaps
"unprecedented" AU opening that we may have.

I do however have my dish tower, which has a 144 MHZ yagi on it, but it is
VERTICALLY polarized for FM.

I dont mind running the SWR a bit high, but I was wondering if anyone out
there has any real data on using a Vertically polarized yagi for AU event.
I recall speaking with Terry, W0VB about it as he was working on his array
and was going to give it a go.  I believe Terry indicates it works for long
haul, but cuts out the local QRM due to the polarization cancellation.

Terry, if your reading this, have you tried it yet and have anything to
indicate yet?  Also, anyone else have comments?

Being so windy down here, not sure if the tower will get back up, but I can
fire up the other one!

If this turns out to be anything like the Persieds meteor shower AU event a
few years ago (where everyone was on to work the meteor shower - but the AU
was so awesome, it did not matter!)  then we should be ready to take
advantage of it!

73

Mike - KM0T

Oh- Congrats Pat on the award!  Just by coincidence yesterday as well, I
finally got my ARRL 2001 2nd place Single Op HP plaque for the June VHF
contest.  It took a long time, but was worth it!

Had a good time at the hamfest and at the NLRS booth, thanks to all who put
it on!