N4OGW/5 SSCWLP

[R. Torsten Clay]

N4OGW/5 SS CW Low Power
Los Alamos, NM

approximate breakdown from memory:

Band		Q
80		85	dipole @ 40'  too low!!
40		346	dipole @ 40', discone
20		495	5el LPDA @ 80', dipole @ 40'
15		0	Radio broken on 15!
10		0
-------------------------
		926  76 --> 140,752  (missed WY, NWT)

operated about 23 hours
one radio: Omni6 + TR 

SS from the "weedlot":

I'm spending the fall working at Los Alamos National lab (I'm a grad student
in physics). As I've only got a puny indoor wire at my apartment, I spent
the last week calling people in town looking for some antennas to use.
Turns out there are lots of hams here, but few care much about hf. I finally
found a guy who also works at the lab, who is involved with a group doing
ionosperic/space science stuff. He said they had an antenna range (the
"weedlot") that I might be able to use.	
	I managed to get permission (turns out the student in charge of the
lab is interested in ham radio), although I would have to unplug for a
few minutes several times during the weekend for an experiment when a 
satellite came into view. Pretty nice group- they also let me borrow a
pentium pc for the weekend. They have quite an antenna collection: a 5el
lpda at 80ft, a discone (unfortunately didn't cover 80m), 20 ft dish,
and lots of other misc. junk antennas (mostly vhf+) sitting around. I 
was hoping to put my dipole up on the big tower, but had to settle for 
trees instead. Turns out the dipole was too low for 80m- every east coast 
qso on 80 was a challenge. The discone performed like a vertical; the dipole 
was usually better until an hour or so after sunset, when the discone took 
over.
	Just before the start I was warming up on 15m (599++ from east coast!),
when I notice that everyone I heard sounded really bad- would drift up the
band for a few seconds, then jump back down. Turns out my radio was broken
on 15- real bad, as that's where the lpda worked best! I guess I could have
gone ahead and used it, but I would have cleared a hole a few khz wide!
14mhz was just above the lower cutoff on the lp, but it still worked great.
There was a satellite pass right at 2100z, so I had to try to find a hole
in 20m at 2110- impossible! Without 15m or a good 80m antenna it was pretty
much a 2 band contest.
	Never heard WY or NWT.  A KL7 did call me on 40, so I was getting
out in that direction. Had a rain/ice storm Sunday afternoon with 
some thunder, so I lost about 45 miutes there.

Tor
n4ogw at uiuc.edu


	

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