[NLRS] January VHF results--long
Dave Aho
[email protected]
Tue, 27 Jan 2004 03:21:55 -0800 (PST)
Ok...once again it is summary time. And for those
that were wondering...I used CT 10.0 for logging for
the first time (not counting at W0AIH's that is) in my
contesting. I have found that my manual logging in
the heat of contesting is faster, but the dupe
checking is a whole lot easier...along with the end of
contest results/breakdown. It was a neat addition to
the shack...though unless I get a laptop, I probably
won't be using it for anything but the January VHF
contesting as the desktop is NOT getting brought along
for the portable contesting or dragged across the
house for HF work in the front room. I still have to
manually log my contacts into the permanent log, but
it does save me one step of making the submitted log
by hand. Most of these benifits you all know...but
for the most part I can manually log faster...oh and
the auto time stamp is nice. Anyhow on to the bulk
but to be different I will do my story first...*L*
It all started Thursday day. On my way to work I
noticed my bathroom sink water lines were frozen...the
heat tape was working and plugged in. after I got home
from work at 3am, I tried to run the hot water in the
tub to clear the lines as this usually works, and did
some preliminary setup for the weekend. I then
noticed that the bathroom floor was wet
(carpeted...don't ask it's how the house came)...I
figured it was a blown fitting on the frozen line to
the sink, so I proceeded to tear the bathroom apart
that early morning. no results...so I got 3 hours of
sleep, got up and did the crawl around under the house
bit, found that the belly fabric had ripped under the
bathroom, and the insulation was hanging free...lines
exposed to the air. I went and got insulation/duct
tape/and stuff to fix everything. Darrell (KB9LVK)
and I teched out the leak problem and figured out that
the leak was not a blown line, but a series of
hairline cracks in the fiberglass tub...off to the
store to get a patch kit. A foot of patching later
the tub was sealed, and the sink lines were
reconnected. The water was turned back on via the
valves at the water heater and voila! NO WATER
PRESSURE! By this time it was getting a tad late and
the antennas and such were not in the air. ( I try and
set up Friday in case of problems) Time was taken to
run lines thru the window and erect antennas. Got
everything in the air, tested the SWR's on 4 of the 5
antennas, and found the 2 meter to be 4:1 across the
board (it was flat matched last time I ran it (albeit
alone and not on a close stack))...all the others were
below 1.4:1. Tried tuning the balun which didn't
work, and then swapped the 220 coax over and it
metered out fine...so a new coax line was run and
connected...measured 1.3:1..woohoo! in business.
Twas getting dark, so I tore into the water problem
and ran a hair dryer on the feed to the water
heater...not fun holding a flashlight with ones teeth
and hairdrying stuff in a space only 2 feet high under
the trailer. Gave up...no shower since Thursday
morning. Saturday came around and I got up early
again after doing the inside setup and tearing the
closet where the water heater is apart, etc... got to
bed at 5am and got up at 9am. Hairdried the feedline
for the water for two hours, no water. contest time
T-minus 30 minutes, so go wash at Darrell's (across
the road), and get the stuff ready to go. Contest hit
and off running at a snails pace Yeah!!! Conditions
were lousy. Granted I am living in a black hole in
Eau Claire. A huge ridge not 1/8 mile away, and only
a decent shot to the south for me along the river.
Apparently the 14 element homebrew 2 meter yagi is
loud! I got some decent grid distances with that.
Thanks to K9WKJ for some audio reports, which resulted
in an apparently better sounding audio on the
FT-736R/Heil Proset+. I now know where it should be
set for punch as my contacts became more frequent, and
less of the agn agn?? responses. Beautiful sound
coming out of W0GHZ. Darrell (KB9LVK) was impressed
also, as he worked Gary with his copper loop antenna
out of our collective black hole here. No 6 meter
opening, but there was one TRYING to break to the ESE.
I kept hearing K3EAR and N2PA in spurts throughout
the early morning hours. The high point was bagging
EN74 on a weak CW contact early morning Sunday.
Sunday day seemed to be better for contacts all
around, but the bands were still graveyard quiet.
Signals were good coming in from the SE toward EN53,
54, 63, & 64. Lots of QSB on the bands. I worked
W0ZQ and W9JN...while pointing at EN34. I was hearing
W9JN better than W0ZQ. I figure I was getting xmit
and RX reflection off the ridge I was trying to plow
through to the West. At the very last hour I finally
worked KB0ZKX. Bruce (W9FZ/R) did a command
performance up in EN45 with the Northern MN crowd and
also with us here in Eau Claire. Very good job, and
Excellent sounding equipment. Too bad we had no time
to tweak the 1296 for a qso, but it was only seconds
instead of minutes left. My thanks to everyone out
there, it was a very fun weekend. Oh and I forgot, the
ground line for the house was froze, so a heater was
pointed at it and a few hours later I had water
pressure again and a long HOT shower was taken after
the contest...better than any ice cold beer I have
ever had...*L* So all ended well, though it seemed
that disaster was looming throughout the weekend with
everything...water, weather, band conditions. Anyhow,
now that you are all falling asleep after that
narrative, here is the score:
ARRL VHF SWEEPSTAKES -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator (SO3R)
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: Mixed Mode
State: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS GRIDS
50 38 38 10
144 60 60 13
222 17 34 5
432 27 54 7
1.2 8 32 1
-----------------------------------
Totals 150 218 36 = 7,848
Equipment Description:
Yaesu FT-736R (144, 220, 432, 1296)
RCI 5054 (50 MHz) with a MFJ-969 tuner
Radio Shack HTX 242 (146.550 FM only)
Heil Proset Plus
MFJ 482B grandmaster/bencher + homebrew
keyline/audioline switchbox.
NTE and Yaesu rotors
and of course the porta-tower
Homebrew antennas for everything:
50Mhz : stretched 11 foot 4-element yagi
stretched 8 foot 3-element yagi (switched)
144 SSB: 14-element TV boom &.188" alum rod yagi
144 FM: 4-element horizontal polarized yagi
222 : 10-element TV boom/element yagi
432 : 18-element 3/8 solid rod hit-em-with-it yagi
1296 : 31-element 1/8" rod "ugly yagi"
Club Affiliation: NORTHERN LIGHTS RADIO SOCIETY
=====
I modulate, therefore I am!
...73, and all that jazz,
Dave...N9TTX
Always remember: "It could be worse.....it could be raining."
Marty Feldman from "Young Frankenstein"
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