SIGNOFF
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Bob Richardson FidoNet 2:2502/21
The Radio Shack - BBS +44 1947 897551 HamNet 12:250/104
Whitby, England Internet bob@radshack.demon.co.uk
>From James White <0006492564@mcimail.com> Fri Feb 24 02:51:00 1995
From: James White <0006492564@mcimail.com> (James White)
Subject: de K1ZX; (long) the W1CW saga continues........
Message-ID: <41950224025114/0006492564PK1EM@MCIMAIL.COM>
.........how can someone not love contesting? Our 3.8M multi 2 effort last
weekend was one of my funnest contest weekends ever.........
The ARRL DX CW contest saga starts about 6 weeks ago when WC4E agrees to
sell one of his 4 Element ten meter beams and to loan his other to the W1CW
station. After W1CW redesigns the structural characteristics of the bought
beam - including a mod made with washers made from "semi-precious" metals ,
I call it the $1.60 mod - the beam is brought to the top of the big tower
(135 feet)......and at that point another first occurs...........
I am standing on top of the f***ing tower! What in the h*** am I doing up
here? I must be mad, this is the bottom of the goddamn sunspot cycle and I
am standing on the top plate with my belt wrapped around the mast pipe, I
must be nuts. Why am I doing this? After some twists and turns and flips
the beam finds a new home at abouts 141 feet, above the now immortalized 40
meter beam........god I love that forty, please don't let this antenna mess
up the wonderful performance the 40-2CD has shown.
The new ten meter beam at the highpoint of the antenna farm - some 4
wavelengths up - is a selection based on performance experienced by KC2X's
ten meter yagi, up almost as high, as very successfully used in the last 10
meter contest. Jeff's loaner beam is sidemounted up about 45 feet fixed at
the Caribbean.
Of course ten is dead without a contest being on so it is determined over
the next few weeks that yes, the beam appears to be working well - it hears
1.5 watt beacons........but will it "play" come the ARRL DX?
The existing antennas all appear to be working fine - won't make the mistake
of not checking them after the nightmare of the CQ WW CW weekend!
That leaves just one more antenna project before the contest.........the
erection of the Hemi 426 15 meter 4 element YO designed - W1CW reinforced
yagi. The yagi is finished, lengths are committed, bolts are tightened -
elements pruned........its showtime.
The ringrotor has been installed at the 98 foot level on the 135 foot tower,
just above the second set of guys....all that is left is to muscle the beam
up. An antenna squad/crew/team is assembled on Saturday of the weekend
before the contest...we will do the erection of the beam and then start
hooking up the gear and the computers so there will be no rushing before 00
zulu next Friday night.
I climb up the tower and install the tram line and run the ropes for the
raising...it is one of the windiest days I have ever experienced on the
tower and I am reminded of preparations for the ARRL DX of a cycle or two
ago when it was always windy this time of year...after it is "winter"...
didn't used to wear shorts in February though.
The winds show no sign of fading - we tram the beam up about 40 feet up and
check the SWR, it appears fine. Well, it appears the beam is ready...but the
weather is not oblidging-rather than risk bodily harm (the boom IS 35 1/2
foot on this thing) I tell the guys I cannot do it... it is just too
dangerous.
Saddened at the Hemi not making it up, I am determined we will get the
stations up and running and we redirect our efforts. We are going to run
multi-2 and will have 3 full stations available. Station 1 is 10 and 40
meters, stn 2 is 15 and 80, and stn 3 is 20 and 160. Three full stations
complete with networking computers makes no small job getting all your ducks
in a row! We work on into the evening and get 2 of the stations QRV.
Sunday comes and I go over to W1CW for some more prep work...it is
considerably calmer albeit a light rain threatening. After about an hour of
relatively nice WX I call WC4E up and ask him if we can maybe give the 426
erection one more shot. Jeff is great, he dumps his Sunday visit with his
Dad, jumps in his car and an hour later we are again going vertical. Anyone
who has had the pleasure of operating with Jeff knows you don't get anymore
a team player than him..........plus he can operate, too!
We tram the beam up into place, I climb up and lower the beam into the ring
rotors saddle and hook up the coax...moment of truth coming, yes its
working.....phew....after over a year from the pile of yagi elements and
booms and the transformation into a beam - it is up! YES, this is
great...coax is hooked up rotor is hooked up....heah give her a twirl and
let me savor the view..................WHAT - OH NO SHI*.........STOP STOP
STOP
.....I cannot believe it.......the beam is too big to turn without hitting
the guy wires..........talk about a real letdown. Well, the beam is pointed
sorta West, we bring the beam to a West heading and leave it for now...it
will be useful for Pacific mults, mebbe....... Totally bummed out I climb
down the 100 feet and we agree its a good time for dinner, we enjoy a W1YL
dinner and I tell myself that I cannot let this get me down - the contest is
next week and I will have the KT34A at 65 feet as an antenna for 15 meters
... all is not lost.
After dinner I go into the shack and turn on 15 I hear a KH6 calling CQ and
ask him for a report, he gives a very favourable report, we sign and then it
starts........
First a ZL calls me on the KH6's freq, then another ZL and then an
FO5.....all unsolicitied. I am relieved, the new antenna must work...now to
figure out how to get it turning before the WPX CW :-)
On Wednesday night we get together to set up station number three and at the
end of the evening all the computers and rigs have been tried out and seem
to be running fine.....we are just about ready....there will be no chinese
fire drill just before the contest with everyone fighting over RG213
jumpers!
Friday afternoon arrives, its almost partytime, and G4BKI is late......Paul,
our Packet expert, gets stuck in the drivetime traffic. We are not yet
getting our packet feeds. Paul shows at 23:30, phew. He is also our 20 meter
op...so we start the contest with me on 20 while Paul gets the packet system
going. He is successful and with the help of AC4NJ we proceed to have a
very fruitful packet assisted weekend.
This was the first contest so far where I felt relatively comfortable about
our stations performance-no ever present disasters were about to happen....
we could just plain make QSOs.......ah, fun!
We had problems on 160 the first night, turns out the FT1000 had a bug of
some sort...the operator gave up after only making 2 QSOs...not wanting to
give up any ground I sat down in front of the Yaesu and diddled the knobs (I
had no idea of what I was doing) - with a positive attitude I proceeded to
make 20 QSOs over the 05-08z period...running back and forth from my 80
meter position two rooms away :-)..........whenever I saw a coupla 160 spots
on the packet screen I would dump 80 in favour of 160...work the packet
spots, see what else was there, and ten minutes later run back to 80 and
hope I could regain a CQ frequency ;->
WC4E had 40 and 10 meter duties...he opened up for us with over a 100 QSOs
in the first hour on 40, and did us proud on ten with 146 QSOs - including
every LU and ZS who showed themselves, one JA and 80 Europeans! Yes, the 10
meter beam did work well way up there. I am interested to hear of other EU
10 meter totals, especially from New England.
Oh yeah, the 15 meter beam...well it worked good too, I used it occasionally
to clear my CQ frequency when the W gang encroached........got a call from
that FO5 again, too.......whilst running I figured out why the guy wire
QRN....at the time of the tower's erection for ease we moved the location
for the top guys down from the top of the tower to the first "joint".... it
looks like we will be lengthening and raising them back to the top.
N7BG was a savior for us...Tony passed through town on Saturday evening and
went on to relieve us so we all could get some sleep on Saturday night. As
always the hospitality was x-fb, but then again having parents who are not
only hams but contesters too is indeed a blessing.
Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad!
de K1ZX............ready for WPX CW !!!
......no, I don't do "the phone"
k1zx@mcimail.com
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