Good morning all,
I got home late after the contest. All the equipment is buried in the 10" of
new snow from yesterday and about 14" over the weekend.
Cooler heads and common sense prevailed and we decided not to haul the 12,000
pound behemoth off the hill in those conditions. The roads were horrible on the
way home as well.
Somewhat disappointed about the overall results. It has been confirmed that
Murphy is not afraid of the cold and snow. The interface on the 6M amp was the
first to go and the preamp on 2M went next..... all before Saturday morning.
The 2M beam has probably seen it's last trip. It was problematic at the
beginning on the contest and the entire array had to be brought back down for
the fix.The soldering gun (240W) couldn't handle the job in the cold WX and a
quick trip to a local neighbor saved the day with a propane torch.
Propagation was abysmal. A brief opening to the upper mid west was welcomed and
short lived. The 6M amp not in service hurt us there as well.
I can't really report any additional enhancement except for the snow. It did
help us make contacts via snow scatter on the upper bands so that was one
shining star.
The location should be good but maybe not in Jan. -13F were recorded by the
home owner and that just made things very difficult. It took forever to cook
dinner at 9:30PM when we had finished up most of the outside work. Beer is a
useless commodity below 0F unless you chug it. We found whiskey (Canadian to be
exact) to be much better at handling the cold. Those guys up north know a thing
or two.
Wire, cables, extension cords etc... all cease to be the normal device we are
use to at reasonable temps. They become a rigid products that refused to yield
to our will.
Score were less then anticipated but we still had fun and lots of laughs.
If you worked us, thanks. If not, there will be a next time just maybe not in
the dead of winter.
Many thanks go to the crew that help this come together; Roland and Dave to be
singled out. Without their efforts, we would have been home where it was warm.
73,
Paul, KE1LI
Team Hamcow
www.hamcow.net
Pixs should be posted soon
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