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[VHFcontesting] The K5N Grid Activation Group's Plans for 2012

To: FFMA <FFMA@yahoogroups.com>, VHF Reflector <vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu>, VHF Contesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] The K5N Grid Activation Group's Plans for 2012
From: Marshall Williams <k5qe@sabinenet.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:31:16 -0500
List-post: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com">mailto:vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Hello everyone....the K5N Grid Activation Group wishes to announce our 
grid DXpedition plans for 2012.  There are some details that are not yet 
settled, but mostly here is the plan.  I want everyone to understand 
that this is more than just a plan.  Several thousand dollars of new 
equipment, some of it very specialized and / or purpose built, has been 
purchased.  We are in the process of integrating the gear now.

Note that exact frequencies and other such details are not yet decided.  
K5N used 50.215MHz when we were in Rocksprings, TX for the Great Winter 
DXpedition of 2011.  Most probably, Group 1 / K5N will use that 
frequency while we are in DL88.  Group 2 MAY chose to use 50.220MHz, but 
they have not yet made a final decision.  We will announce any final 
details at a later time.

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me OFF the 
reflector.  Thank you.....

73 Marshall K5QE
Member K5N Grid Activation Group
Member Grid Bandits

**********Begin Announcement**********

                                                                                
    The K5N Grid Activation Group Plans for 2012
                                                                                
                    A Grid Bandits DXpedition

The K5N Grid Activation group would like to make the following 
announcement of our plans for DXpeditions for the summer of 2012.  We 
plan to activate three rare grids in the Big Bend area of Texas.  We are 
planning to field two groups simultaneously.  Both groups plan to be 
operational on June 20th in the late afternoon until midnight on June 
24th.  There will be driving days on each side of those dates.

We really do want to work everyone in the FFMA world that needs these 
rare grids, so try to keep those dates open and hope for some really 
good Es openings.  We will operate FSK441 digital meteor scatter during 
the early morning and late evening hours when there is no Es.

Group 1 will make another assault on DL88 in the Big Bend National 
Park.  Maybe the third time will be the charm.  Group 1 will use the 
callsign K5N.  We will be taking the 2 x 6M5X antenna with full AZ / EL 
steering.  We plan to use a K3/10 with a medium power solid state 
amplifier for normal operations and a Pro2 with an M2 6M-1000 for EME 
operations.  We plan to try EME on the last two days for about 2 hours 
each day.  Because of the severe power budget problem, Group 1 will not 
operate from Midnight until 5AM.  Group 1 will have a BGAN terminal for 
Internet access(SEE BELOW).

Group 2 will set up on the DL79-DL89 grid line in the Big Bend Ranch 
State Park.  Group 2 will be using the callsign N5K and will be using a 
single 6M5X and an M2 6M-1000 solid state amp.  We believe that Group 2 
will have limited Internet access through a cell phone hookup.  Group 2 
has not yet published their operating times or frequencies, so stay 
tuned for that.

Our support staff will be Joey-W5TFW and JD-N0IRS.  Joey has agreed to 
serve as our QSL manager again this year.  PLEASE send your QSL cards to 
Joey with an SASE.  DO NOT send QSL cards to the traveling members as we 
will not have any blank QSL cards to fill out and return.  Our web and 
logo guru is JD-N0IRS.  JD has also been very helpful with the editing 
of the movies taken on site.  He is very good.  The results show up on 
the Grid Bandits web pages under DXpeditions.  Check them out at 
http://kcvhfgridbandits.com/kc_vhf_grid_bandits_042.htm.

CONCERNING THE INTERNET AT DL88
The only way that we have found to have Internet at DL88 is via an 
Inmersat BGAN terminal.  BGAN is expensive and the data plans for the 
terminal run $10/MB!!!  That means that we cannot use any kind of web 
based chat, such as PingJockey or ON4KST, because those run from 7KB to 
15KB per post!  We are planning to set up a private packet 
cluster....this because packet cluster posts are only a few bytes rather 
than 7-15KB per post.  If you are not familiar with the DX Packet 
Cluster, now would be a good time to look into it.  You need to get a 
decent Packet Cluster client and to learn a bit about it.  The N1MM 
logging program has a built in Packet Cluster client that is pretty easy 
to use.  It is important for us to have a private packet cluster, so 
that all our posts do not go out to the HF world AND so that ONLY people 
that want to talk to us will be seen by us.  Remember, BGAN data is very 
expensive, so we don't want to see posts that are not meant for Group 1.


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