SOME JUNE '95 ARRL VHF CONTEST RUMOURED SCORES: by WZ1V
CALL N2WK W2SZ/1 AA9D N8FMD W3CCX K3YTL W4IY WD3R/2
GRID FN03 FN32 EN52 FM08 FN21 FN11 FMO8 FN21
CLASS M/U M/U M/U M/U M/U M/U M/U M/U
6 474/126 576/110 341/130 350/81 341/60 368/65 376/93 387/63
2 497/61 769/52 372/58 577/73 523/61 654/62 467/60 497/54
222 194/45 173/31 96/41 103/42 114/36 92/30 83/32 76/26
432 258/45 297/37 177/45 227/44 179/40 167/41 154/37 144/34
903 102/28 69/23 22/14 19/14 35/16 28/17 12/9 14/9
1296 123/28 99/27 35/14 43/21 53/20 39/16 40/15 24/10
2304 67/18 56/18 8/8 16/10 5/3 1/1 7/6
3456 45/13 45/13 10/8 8/7
5760 25/7 25/8 12/8 5/5
10G 37/5 28/8 9/7 9/6
24G 8/2 11/6 2/2 2/2
Light 14/2 0/0 3/2 12/1
TOTAL 1844/380 2148/333 1087/337 1331/276 1285/263 1353/234 1133/247 1149/202
Score 1266920 1148517 541,222 502,596 492,862 412,074 363,831 296,132
CALL W0UC/9 WB0GGM KD0DW K1TR K3MQH KB5IUA W1QK WA2TEO K1RZ
GRID EN44 EN34 DN70 FN44 FM19 EL29 FN31 FN31 FM19
CLAS M/U M/U M/U M/U M/L M/L M/L S S
6 273/136 219/119 292/98 228/50 423/90 408/151 168/31 272/81 234/69
2 264/56 194/56 110/32 227/34 839/64 121/39 347/35 398/50 293/52
222 24/14 35/21 17/10 40/18 143/43 11/9 56/19 86/30 66/32
432 63/25 63/25 56/13 75/24 280/40 40/18 81/23 122/36 116/33
903 3/3 2/1 7/4 29/17 21/16
1296 17/11 24/12 15/5 11/7 39/14 38/17
2304 8/5 2/1 6/3
3456 2/1
5760
10G 1/1 4/2
TOT 644/245 544/239 498/163 594/140 1685/243 580/217 651/108 952/232 768/219
Scor 188,895 171,363 112,000 106,820 520,676 136,927 85,212 304,000 233,000
CALL WD8ISK AA2UK KN5S N1DPM K2UOP/8 WB2DNE W5KFT KD1DU KH6CP/1
GRID EM98 FM29 DM62 FN32 FM09 FM19 EM00 FN31 FN33
CLAS S S S S S S S S QRP/P
6 179/72 99/36 558/208 84/32 109/41 104/35 421/165 123/29 60/17
2 174/54 249/43 19/12 173/28 165/42 205/47 39/19 276/29 111/18
222 63/37 56/23 58/23 45/23 48/22 56/18 42/14
432 97/45 98/28 83/26 82/31 108/34 7/6 71/23 66/21
903 18/13 19/10 29/14 20/14 13/8 17/9
1296 31/18 39/14 42/17 32/15 32/15 26/11 27/14
2304 6/6 4/2 10/8 1/1 10/8
3456 5/3 7/5
5760 4/3
10G 1/1 5/4
24G 1/1
TOT 568/245 564/156 577/220 484/151 455/168 497/153 468/193 565/118 350/114
Scor 206,780 131,976 126,940 122,612 116,256 109,701 91,675 90,860 71,478
K9JK/R 514/298 20,465 12 GRIDS ABCD9E | ALSO W1TKZ FN33 M/U:
ND3F/R 513/251 20,100 12 GRIDS ABCD9E | BANDS ABCD9EFGHIJ
NG0X/R ???/??? 13,453 6 GRIDS ABDE | A=177/31 B=258/31 C=56/21
KA1ZE/R 349/211 12,396 11 GRIDS ABCD9E | D=92/25 F=4/4 OTHERS=1/1
KE9QT/R 239/192 12,173 6 GRIDS ABCD9EF | TOT: 593/118 = 90,742
NOTE: These are mostly raw, unduped scores. If you chop my note off, you
should be able to print this on 1 page with a small font, possibly for
inclusion in a newsletter. (import with no margins and/or shrink-copy).
_\\///_
secretary: (' O O ') North East Weak Signal group, ARRL affil.
---------------ooO-(_)-Ooo--------------------------------------------
| 73 de Ron WZ1V, email: klimas@uhavax.hartford.edu |
| Grid FN31mp 6-1296 BBS: 203-768-4758 (weeknights/weekends only) |
| N.E.W.S. group Web Page: http://www.ultranet.com/~bellvill/news.html |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>From jbwolf@most.magec.com (James B. Wolf) Fri Jun 23 20:09:05 1995
From: jbwolf@most.magec.com (James B. Wolf) (James B. Wolf)
Subject: Parallel port CW keying layout?
Message-ID: <9506231909.AA03058@ss4.uiv>
>I can't find my manual and want to send CW with the
>parallel port for FD. Can anyone give me the layout?
>
>I'm going to key a solid-state rig, no grid-block.
>
>-Gerry, AK4L
>
> 2N4401 or equiv
DB25M pin1 O---------E\___/C----------O (+)
npn |
| B
DB25M pin17 O---/\/\/\---| XMIT Key input
1K
DB25M pin 18 O--------------------------O (-)
FOR LPT PORT CT Keying
Hope that helps
Jim, KR9U
--------------------------------------
James B. Wolf Phone:219-429-4638
Mail Stop:25-71 Fax:8215 Email: jbwolf@most.magec.com
MESC, 1313 Production Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
>From Swanson, Glenn, KB1GW" <gswanson@arrl.org Fri Jun 23 20:14:00 1995
From: Swanson, Glenn, KB1GW" <gswanson@arrl.org (Swanson, Glenn, KB1GW)
Subject: RFI and a voice keyer...
Message-ID: <2FEB157F@arrl.org>
Greetings fellow contesters.
The following should be useful to some contesters who own the MFJ (Model
432) voice keyer.
After we published a Product Review of the MFJ-432 voice memory keyer, a few
people mentioned that they had RFI problems with their MFJ-432s. The Product
Review testing had been done with outdoor antennas, and we did not notice
any RFI problems--even at a multi-multi contest operation. RFI was not a
problem at W1AW either, even during a code practice transmission with
multiple kilowatt transmitters in operation (the bulletin antennas are 100
feet or more from the station).
We conducted some additional tests on the MFJ-432 using a typical 100 watt
transceiver and an indoor dipole about 6 feet away at its closest point.
Sure enough, RFI could be described as severe, even at low power levels.
We easily eliminated the indoor-antenna RFI problem by wrapping the
MFJ-432's input and output audio/PTT cables around a pair of FT- 140-43
toroid cores. Since we used an internal battery to power the Keyer, we
didn't have power supply cables to contend with. Your installation may
require a third core if using a power supply.
Install the cores by winding 5 to 8 turns of cable around them and as close
to the Keyer box as possible. Once installed, we were able to run up to
full power on 20 meters with the antenna's closest point only five feet away
from the MFJ-432 Voice Memory Keyer.
FT-140-43 cores are available from Amidon, Palomar Engineers, Ocean State
Electronics and other QST advertisers.
Since some may not get QST (shame!), here is the info for a few vendors:
Amidon Inc.
3122 Alpine Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92704
(714) 850-4660
Ocean State Electronics
PO Box 1458
6 Industrial Drive
Westerly, RI 02891
(401) 596-3080
Palomar Engineers
PO Box 462222
Escondido, CA 92046
(619) 747-3343
The above telephone numbers are accurate as of 23 June 95.
73! Glenn Swanson, KB1GW
e-mail: gswanson@arrl.org
>From dnorris@gn2.getnet.com (Dean Norris) Sat Jun 24 01:03:31 1995
From: dnorris@gn2.getnet.com (Dean Norris) (Dean Norris)
Subject: Contest Free Zone ??
Message-ID: <199506240004.RAA28058@gn2.getnet.com>
>Right, we're not on the bands that much. Contesters spend the vast
>majority of their time building (and re-building) their station, ending up
>with the best stations in ham radio. After all that hard work "off-line"
>we deserve the small fraction of the total available time that we take up
>(on the air).
>
>Rich Boyd KE3Q
>
>
>
>
DESERVE???
Boy, this shud bring out the LPG
pretend this is a signature file
>From Steve Sacco <0006901972@mcimail.com> Sat Jun 24 02:25:00 1995
From: Steve Sacco <0006901972@mcimail.com> (Steve Sacco)
Subject: More on Lightning. (Ugh)
Message-ID: <92950624012529/0006901972DC3EM@MCIMAIL.COM>
I'll try to kill to birds with one stone (strike?) here...
First, here's a snippet of a comment just received which serves to
reinforce a point I was trying to make in my long-winded post:
"On [sic] the one above knows the route lightning will take. I say [sic]
a neighbors tree that was 10 ft shorter than my tower and less than 50 ft
from my tower hit, the lightning then...."
Okay! Now I ask you: is this person just BEGGING to be a VICTIM, or what?
They are fairly SHOUTING "I'm going to repudiate any responsibility I have
to protect myself, my family, and my property, and leave it to 'the one
above', because I don't want to learn about this lightning stuff. "
LET'S GET REAL! For starters, the tree is *FULL* of water, and most
likely has a nice, deep, juicy tap root which reaches directly into the
ground water supply! This sounds like one bodaceous ground rod to me!
THIS IS *SCIENCE* (and NOT EVEN *ROCKET SCIENCE*) !!!!! LIGHTNING FOLLOWS
THE LAWS OF PHYSICS! YOU *CAN* CONTROL THE ROUTE LIGHTNING WILL TAKE, IF
YOU ARM YOURSELF WITH THE KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED TO DO SO. IT'S *THAT SIMPLE*.
The other bird to kill (that's a pretty cruel saying, now that I think
about it) was that I should have mentioned a few other topics covered in
the Polyphaser book "Grounds..."
The answer to this query is covered in great detail:
"I have an ez way 50 ft tower which telescopes and tilts with the pivot of
the tilt about ten feet above the ground. My problem is that I run my coax
to the ground level and along the side of my house to the shack. I have
replaced the coax and rotator cable three times due to my dogs biting or
otherwise compromising the cable. I wonder if I ran the coax down the side
of the tower to a point approximately ten feet from the ground (the pivot
pt) and over to the eves of the house (approximately 18')..."
Lightning follows the Laws of Physics. When it is presented with a choice
of paths, such as going down a tower, or down your coax and control cable,
it divides itself proportionally by the respective impedances - for example,
if it has two paths, and one has half the impedance to ground, that leg
will get twice the current. "Grounds" says to ground all coax shields at
the base of the tower, and then run the cable back up from that. This way,
you are CONTROLLING and GUIDING its path to ground rather than praying that
you will not have too much damage done by giving it a pretty nice path
straight into your shack.
I would look into burying the cable a few inches underground. That should
keep it safe from the dogs, and will also shield it from stray RF and
induced charges from lightning. I would not depend on that for one second
for lightning protection, though. There's this boffo RG8 available that's
designed for direct burial. It has a special jacket, and flooded outer
braid to keep out moisture. I picked up 100' or so from The Wireman a
year ago. This stuff is TOUGH! It's been laying out on the ground (I got
too busy with other tower/antenna work to dig a trench for it) in the
Florida sun, and it looks as good as new! This could be buried without ANY
worries.
Back to "Grounds"...
Other topics include:
How far apart to place your ground rods, and WHY.
How to place your ground radials for maximum protection and grounding. YES,
IT DOES MATTER!
How to provide adequate grounding given a no-soil mountaintop.
How to design and implement a common-point grounding scheme for cabling
coming into the shack.
The 'anatomy' of a lightning strike, including a description of the
function of "step leaders".
Finally, (and I'll be the first to admit that this is on an intuitive level
for me, since I don't have the knowledge or equipment to measure it), I
think that if you keep in mind what you learn about what comprises an
excellent ground, you can easily use that knowledge for the opposite: how
to impede the path of lightning. For example, it nearly goes without
saying that you should avoid any sharp bends in your ground wires, because
that increases the inductance (therefore impedance) of the lead. However,
knowing that, you may want to gather up a few turns of rotor cable just
before the rotor, under the theory that you are presenting lightning with
a less favorable path to ground (through the rotor) than it might otherwise
take. How may turns? I have no idea, but the more turns, the more
inductance, right? This kind of "reverse logic" is nearly as useful as
the original lesson.
I've though about this a bit, and think that the real reason why there's
so little interest in really learning about lightning protection and
installing proper grounding is that it does not provide any immediate
reinforcement for the time/effort/money expended on the project. Examples
include:
A ground system doesn't have any cool lights that glow in the dark
(although it may prevent YOU from glowing in the dark someday), and it
doesn't make you any louder (we're not talking about RF grounding here).
You can't really see (or show anyone) your system ("pssst, Mac! Wanna see
my ground rods?") after you're done, so, once again, there's no
reinforcement.
There's no guarantee that you will DEFINATELY get hit by lightning, so
there's no DEFINATE need to provide adequate protection. (Although being a
realist, that statement means to me that there's not guarantee that you
definately WILL NOT get hit, and therefore is ample reason to do the
grounding thing).
Finally, the reason which most bothers me, is this: You can't TEST your
design, or the completed project. After I first read "Grounds", I was very
depressed; it seemed that what it was saying was: "no matter what you do,
it's not enough". Actually, it WAS saying that! You can ALWAYS have a
better ground, just like you can always find a way to spend more money.
The problem is figuring out what kind of installation will give you a
sporting chance. The book goes into detail about how to properly measure
ground (not at DC, or even 60Hz, but at low [ <1MHz] RF frequencies!). AS
IF I or anyone I know has THAT kind of equipment! It took several re-
readings before I caught on to the "control" angle of the book, which is
the most important story the book tells, in my opinion. As to "how much is
enough", I followed the general recommendations in the book as best as I
could. I never did any conductivity measurements.
I see that this is now nearly 6.7K bytes, and that is too long.
I hope these comments have proven useful some folks on the CONTEST
reflector!
Gud luck for any US/VE types doing FD! KC2X will be QRV as the Osceola
County ARES/RACES group, with mostly Tech and Tech + at the controls. Be
gentle if you hear us.
73,
Steve Sacco KC2X
Narcoosee, Florida
ssacco@mcimail.com
>From GOOSE WD8LLD <GOOSTER@delphi.com> Sat Jun 24 04:45:32 1995
From: GOOSE WD8LLD <GOOSTER@delphi.com> (GOOSE WD8LLD)
Subject: more lightning stuff
Message-ID: <01HS2AYESYDE8YB00V@delphi.com>
After reading all the info that is being passed around about grounding
towers etc. I think that I should brring up one more point regarding
grounded vs. floating towers. If you are going to take the view that
insulating the tower above ground will protect you, there is one other thing
you must consider. During an electrical storm an insulated tower will
charge, much like a capicitor, with static. If there is no way to bleed off
the charge eventually it will discharge via attracting a lightning strike,
or by creating an EMP pulse back through the coax into the shack.
That is why all the AM broadcasters with series fed towers employ a static
drain coil to bleed off this static so that they can protect the transmitter
from an unexpected hit. I employ this method in my series fed 160
quarter/wave vertical. Granted, I took a hit about three days ago
during a thunderstorm and so did every other tower in the neighborhood, whic
was quite unusual. However, I only sustained damage to the rheostat inside
the T2X, which is coming down for repair anyway. Gotta figure a way to
protect it this summer. Nothing else was damaged by this hit.
A lot of the brodcast people are now also using a static
drain assembly manufactured by "Cortana" on the top of their towers to
bleed off this static buildup in the tower before it discharges somewhere
they don't want it. These are not practical on ham towers, however,
because of the size and thewind load it would cause when mounted at the
top of a mast. These things really do work, though!
I therefore agree with the general concensus that unless you absolutely
need an insulated tower for a particular purpose (like a vertical antenna),
gorund it. It is much easier to protect yourself this way.orry for the
bandwidth but maybe this will shed more light on the subject.
73..........de Goose, WD8LLD "gooster@delphi.com"
>From Gary Schwartz <garyk9gs@solaria.sol.net> Thu Jun 22 13:03:10 1995
From: Gary Schwartz <garyk9gs@solaria.sol.net> (Gary Schwartz)
Subject: radial wire
Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9506220705.A3757-a100000@solaria.mil.wi.us>
On Thu, 22 Jun 1995, Frank Donovan wrote:
> Speaking of radial wire, I need about 5000 feet of insulated wire for a new
> 80M 4 square array. I'd prefer number 16 or larger. Can anyone suggest a
> source, or obtain it locally and arrange UPS shipping to me?
>
> Thanx!
> Frank
> W3LPL
Try looking in the Yellow Pages for a company that re-builds electric
motors. For a quantity like 5K feet, I'll bet they'd be interested in
selling some.
73,
Gary K9GS
________________________________________________________________
| |
| Gary Schwartz K9GS E-Mail: garyk9gs@solaria.sol.net |
| Society of Midwest Contesters Packet:K9GS@WA9KEC.WI.USA.NOAM |
| Greater Milwaukee DX Association Member |
|________________________________________________________________|
>From Floydjr <floydjr@nando.net> Sat Jun 24 05:15:34 1995
From: Floydjr <floydjr@nando.net> (Floydjr)
Subject: FD Hours
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.90.950624001009.7065A-100000@merlin.nando.net>
Just wondering what 24 hr period that some of the FD stations going to
use. I will be 1D so I can only work 24 hrs. Thought about starting about
1900 or 2000. I figure most stations will start taking down about 1900 or
2000 on Sunday. Let me know what everyone is going to do. I like to
always work last hour of a contest but I am afraid no one will be there.
Please respond with direct email and lets save bandwidth on the relector.
Tnx.
floydjr@nando.net
73's Jim // WA4ZXA
>From Satoshi Nakamura <je1jkl@st.rim.or.jp> Sun Jun 25 13:33:03 1995
From: Satoshi Nakamura <je1jkl@st.rim.or.jp> (Satoshi Nakamura)
Subject: CTSVR Uni-Hat Antenna
Message-ID: <9506251233.AA00327@je1jkl.st.rim.or.jp>
I have been looking for a compact, easy-to-build and yet high
efficient 80/160m antenna for my contest station 9M6NA. I got a
brochure of CTSVR Uni-Hat Antenna at Dayton Hamvention, and found it
very attractive to me. I would like to hear the comment on the
antenna from anyone who has tried it out.
Your reply to my address (not to the reflector) will be appreciated.
73, Saty
Satoshi Nakamura (Saty JE1JKL/9M6NA/NH6J)
je1jkl@st.rim.or.jp
|