[3830] TBDC W2GD Multi-Op HP

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                    Stew Perry Topband Challenge

Call: W2GD
Operator(s): W1GD, K2TW, N2HM, W2CG, W2GD, W2NO
Station: W2GD

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 12.9

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 565  Total Score = 2,799

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Station Location: On Barnagat Bay near West Creek, NJ, 20 miles north of
Atlantic City
Run Position:  K3, IC746 RX only, Alpha 99, 1.4 KW
Mult. Position:  FT1000MP MK5
ACOM 2S1 Interlock Switch.  
Contest Software:  Win-Test
TX Antenna:  2 element Vertical Wire Beams NE and W/SW @ 240 feet on A 300 foot
Rohn 55G tower  (back-up inverted-L still damaged and on the ground)
RX Antennas: Beverages NE 900' (2 ele phased array), East/West 560' (unterm), 
South/North 465'(unterm), SW 560', West 560', and NW 560'

COMMENTS - "Murphy" Visits Murphy Drive Once Again  (Warning: A rather long
story)
 
 
As reported earlier this month, the W2GD/N2CW 160M station co-located at
WYRS-FM sustained significant wind and flood damage during Super Storm Sandy
back in October.  Ongoing repairs to site infrastructure at the time of the
ARRL 160 prevented our participation for the first time in several decades. 
You can read about the site damage at: 
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/3830/2012-12/msg00192.html 
 
Our procrastination installing 160 antennas this season probably saved our
bacon.  If we'd raised the three element 160M TX array in October on the
weekend before CQWW PH, which we'd often done in years past, we probably would
have had to rebuild everything.  Hurricane Sandy was a historically powerful
storm, and would have easily ripped the antenna to pieces ... it's no where
near as robust as TF4M's "Arctic King". 
 
On Friday and Saturday, December 14 & 15, members of the SJDXA and our core 160
CW Team held work parties to test cabling, raise the TX array onto place on the
300 foot tower and make repairs to beverages and cabling systems.  Follow-up
work parties were also held this past Friday and Saturday, just prior to the
Stew Perry.  
 
Before arriving last Saturday morning, all of the beverages and cabling had
been repaired and tested, so we were positioned to focus our work party efforts
on final configuration, cabling and tuning of the 3 ele. TX array (two element
vertical beams that shared delta loop reflector which fires NE and WSW).  
 
Unfortunately the week preceding the Stew a strong coastal storm with 80 mph
winds pummeled the site.  When we arrived Saturday morning what we (K2TW, W1GD,
W2CG, W2GD, N2HM) found out in the marsh was an unexpected "mess".  A 300 foot
rope that pulls away the center of the NE vertical sloping dipole DE had
snapped in the high winds.  When it let go the main NE tower pull rope (secured
to a pulley suspended from a yardarm at 240 feet) became snagged around tower
obstructions at 100, 200 and 220 feet, and could not be pulled free of the
tower from the ground.  To make things really miserable, instead of the hoped
for snow storm we had to deal with a cold hard rain.   Yuck!  
 
Once W2CG found the other end of the snapped rope several hundred feet away in
the marsh (and spliced it back together), yours truly climbed the tower in a
heavy rain to unsnag the main pull rope (which supports the NE sloper and delta
loop reflector)....there being no alternative way to make the NE antenna
functional for the Stew.  Climbing Rohn 55G in rubber wadding boots is not
exactly the safest thing to do but with 2 feet of standing water around the
tower (and the tide still rising), there was no feasible way to put on climbing
boots.  I just took my time climbing, moving the rope around the three
obstructions as I ascended to 220 feet, and then slowly retreated down the
tower to 80 feet to direct the ground crew while rerouting the bottom leg of
the delta loop reflector around guy wire obstructions.  Totally saturated
gloves made this task difficult....and cold. 
 
Later while testing the delta loop, we discovered a new problem in one of the
hardline connectors which had tested OK just 3 weeks earlier (all of the cables
to the tower had been submerged in salt water for an extended period during the
big October storm).  Disassembling and reassembling the 7/8 inch hardline
connector somehow cleared the problem. We proceeded with array tuning at the
100W level .....a procedure that we'll change in the future to include high
power testing (the reason why will be self-evident as you read further).  
 
After spending five plus hours out in what can only be described as harsh
conditions the team had completed installation and testing of the NE driven
element and the delta loop reflector.  Attempts to improve the geometry of the
SW driven element were abandoned due to the weather....all five of us were
suffering from borderline hypothermia after spending so much time in the cold
rain and treading around in two feet of frigid saltwater.  We gladly retreated
back to the station building to get dry and warm....... hoping for the best.
 
The station setup team lead by W2NO had managed to resolve almost all of the
station wiring and networking issues by our target 2130 UTC start time.  But a
nagging issue with a keying line required troubleshooting and then some cable
prep work so we delayed our start until 2200 UTC.  While waiting we observed
signals from EU were coming through at well above average signal levels before
our local sunset and the repaired beverages were performing well.  There was
every reason to think we would later make a good showing in the Stew as our
final prep for the CQ160 CW just weeks away.
 
But then disaster stuck.  After 5 minutes of high power operation, 'Murphy'
paid a visit which brought our fledgling TBDC operation to an immediate halt. 
In the time it took to make 11 qsos, the SWR on both the NE and SW driven
elements had gone sky high.  The amp tripped whenever we tried to run over 175
watts using the NE array, and immediately tripped when we tried to fire the SW
option.  Damn......
 
You could sense the feeling of despair and defeat in the room.  We looked at
each other and silently asked ourselves the question "what now"?  It was clear
something had failed in both of the feedlines going to the TX array.   What
were the odds.......
 
It was dark, damp, cold, and the wind was increasing outdoors....so no one was
terribly eager to jump right up and make the 550 foot trek back out to the
tower to investigate.  I could tell some team members were entertaining the
thought of just packing it in and heading home.....we all felt exhausted from
the many hours already spent in the marsh earlier in the day.  Most of us were
just starting to feel warm and "normal" again after changing into dry clothes.

 
We somewhat reluctantly began a group discussion about what to do next and how
to approach the problem.  With 230+ years of experience in the room, there was
no shortage of suggestions.  Eventually we agreed to test the feedlines from
the shack outward, knowing the fault could be anywhere in four discrete cable
segments (50 foot RG213 runs from shack to hardline connections located in the
crawl space of the station bldg, two 500 foot runs of 7/8 inch Andrews Heliax
out to the tower base, 50' RG8X extension cables added to the driven element
feedlines, and finally the 225 foot RG8X driven element feedlines).  Using a
VOM we measured the two feedlines in the shack, the SW element line was a dead
short and the NE driven read about 120 ohms.  Not a very encouraging starting
point.  
 
K2TW and I gathered together some LED lights, a KW dummy load, VOM, wrenches,
wire brushes etc.  and ventured down into the building's dark and dank crawl
space.  The RG213 cables to the hardline connections tested OK on the dummy
load at 1 KW.   We then disassembled the two 7/8 inch heliax connectors. 
Despite being submerged in saltwater for several days following Hurricane
Sandy, the inside of the connectors were in pristine clean and dry condition. 
The potential easy 'fixes' were behind us.....a trip out to the tower would now
be needed to continue the search for the source of the faults.
 
At this point (2320 UTC)  the team decided to take a break and get back on the
air running 100W using the NE antenna.  We also took the opportunity to order
some dinner since we were all starved.  It was encouraging to have so many EU
stations respond to our low power CQs.  We even logged our longest distance
contact (with UU4JMG) during the next hour.  On the plus side, the NE array was
exhibiting very good forward gain (the models suggest it has 8 dbi over salt
water)  and the expected F/B.  The downside, we knew it would be a long night
without a TX antenna that favored stations to our west once EU sunrise arrived.
 Our delay in repairing the backup Inverted L was proving to be a serious
tactical error.
 
After enjoying several slices of hot pizza and some coffee, at 0200 z  I
convinced W2CG to make the trek out to the tower with me to continue cable
tests.  Armed with LED lamps, the KW dummy load, a knife, wrenches and tape we
trudged out and put the dummy load on the two hardline runs.  Everyone enjoyed
a moment of tremendous relief when both of the 500 foot 7/8 heliax runs tested
good at a KW output (replacing these cables was not something any of us wanted
to contemplate).  The problem was finally isolated to the RG8X cabling and we
ultimately determined water had gotten into the extension RG8X cable PL259s and
quickly shorted out after just a few minutes of operation at high power.  CG and
I pulled the extension 8X cables out of both driven element lines and we were
finally good to go at full power.  SUCCESS!  
 
By now we'd missed 3+ hours of prime time propagation to EU so there was no
possibility of posting a competitive multi-op score.  Nonetheless at 0242 UTC
we restarted the operation, this time running full power.  For the most part
everything remained stable .  Although the best opening to EU was well behind
us, we enjoyed some very good mini EU runs from time to time over the next
several hours. under less than great conditions.  Signals from the western USA
were reasonably good and stations seemed to respond immediately when called on
the less than optimized W/SW array.  But we didn't exactly enjoy a pipeline to
KH6 or anywhere else in the Pacific during the deep night.  Never heard a VK,
ZL or JA this weekend.  
 
But all in all we felt very good with our final QSO total and score given the
problems we had overcome over the course of the prior 20 hours.  
 
After sunrise, we cleaned up the site and headed out to breakfast for our
customary operation debrief.   
 
Here are some of the positive aspects of the Stew effort mentioned by team
members over breakfast:
 
We had managed to get the station put together and on the air, despite
unexpected storm damage and the worst weather conditions we've dealt with since
the 2000 CQ160 CW operation (ice/snow).  
We stuck with it (didn't quit) and successfully made emergency repairs when it
would have been just as easy to head home.
Confirmed performance of the NE TX array - we were competitively loud into EU
at both low and high power.  This antenna is ready for CQ160 CW. 
Confirmed the six beverages were performing properly after repairs to damage
sustained during Hurricane Sandy.
There were no line noise issues at all....this is always a threat in tis salt
rich environment.
 
And we also came up with a few things to do differently next time:
 
Always test the TX antennas at both low and HIGH power.  Faults would have been
identified sooner and repairs made under far more favorable conditions if we'd
done this.  Lesson learned.
We need a backup TX antenna in the event one of the primary gain array's fail. 
  We'll repair the L before the CQ160 CW.
The unexpected damage and poor weather conditions didn't allow us to complete
final installation of the W/SW TX array (some tree and rope work remain to be
done).  We'll need to be prepared on CQ160 CW weekend to complete this item
under potentially adverse weather conditions.
We still need to make a final decision on which antennas to use for diversity
reception.  
 
If you've manged to read this entire report, you know our team is composed of
diehard 160 guys who are willing to do whatever is necessary to be competitive
(or you may now think we're just plain crazy).   
 
Look forward to workng everyone in the 2013 CQ160 CW.
 
73,
 
John, W2GD (for the Team)


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