VHF Contest Farm Report

Wed Jun 14 11:40:09 EDT 1995

1995 June VHF Contest Summary from 'The Farm'.
The Farm is a 200 acre farm north of Cedar Rapids, IA.  grid EN42
Some of the richest farmland in the nation for growing antennas.
It is the homestead of KD9KX and his contest dog, Buster.

The results are for the base and rover operation.

BASE RESULTS:
call K0VM

The preliminary results (this without the 6 meter logs) is as follows:

Band        OSOs            QSO Pts            Mult         Score

144         64              64                 25           1,600
220         18              36                 15             540
432         33              66                 16           1,056
1296         6              18                  6             108

Total      121             184                 62          11,408    

Not a bad effort so far... 

73s......

Ron
swd_rrn at cca.rockwell.com

ROVER RESULTS:
call K0DAS

     OK fans of farm radio - Here are the results of the K0DAS/KA0YSQ Rover 
     expedition last weekend (film at a later date):

     The numbers are in order:  Band, QSO's, and Grids

     GRID=EN42; Score=897
     A   5       5
     B  18      13
     C   1       1
     D   7       4

     GRID=EN41; Score=2485
     A   9       7
     B  28      16
     C   4       4
     D  10       7
     E   2       1

     GRID=EN31; Score=1326
     A   3       3
     B  15      10
     C   6       6
     D   6       5
     E   3       2

     GRID=EN30; Score=1034
     A   4       3
     B   7       6
     C   5       5
     D   8       6
     E   2       1
     F   1       1

     GRID=EN40; Score=1972
     A   9       8
     B  15      10
     C   6       6
     D   8       6
     E   2       1

     Total Rover Score:  7,714 points

     Last years Rover Score of approx 8,100 won the Midwest Division so we 
     may have a shot at it this year.  (The score is the sum of the scores 
     for each grid that you operate from).

     Summary:  We carried rigs and antennas for all bands 50 MHz thru 2304 
     MHz.  We operated 2m and 6m while on the go between setups.  Made 
     contacts on all bands except 903.  903 was attempted with only two 
     stations:  K0VM and AA9D.  The lone 2304 contact was not made until we 
     were about as far from Cedar Rapids as we got.  However we had an 
     excellent site and W0RAP had discovered an antenna pointing error that 
     had probably prevented QSO's on earlier, closer attempts.  We ran 0.5 
     watts to a loop yagi, Bob ran 4.5 watts to a similar antenna on his 
     garage roof.

     Best DX was probably the VE6's on 6 meters or the Miami Fl stations.  
     On 2 we worked en71 to the east and em47 to the south and en25 to the 
     north.  Propagation was nothing to write home about.

     We spent the night in the company of 50 other "hams" - actually they 
     were 60 lb porkers on the Teggatz farmstead.  We only were checked out 
     by one party - a farm wife came by to see what was going on when we 
     were in en40.

     The 2m horizontal dipole was placed at approx 14 ft for good signals 
     while on the move.  However, it struck a power cable across the street 
     in the town of Libertyville, IA and from that point on was vertically 
     polarized and only 13 ft high.  At EN40 a splint was found and duct 
     tape applied to restore 2m mobile for the run back to Cedar Rapids.  
     We were ok earlier going down the interstates clearing the overpasses, 
     so we wonder how many semi's pass through Libertyville, IA.

     At en30 we could not quickly locate a field "turn-in", so we simply 
     stopped on the road and put up antennas.  In fact the only vehicle on 
     the road came driving by only moments after the antennas were lifted 
     into the air.  Had we been a minute or two later, I'm afraid we would 
     have had much shorter yagis on 144 and 220.

     73's
     de K0DAS

Submitted by AA0WO, Bill Frede
fredeb at norand.com

>From David_Shipman at mindlink.bc.ca (David Shipman)  Wed Jun 14 16:54:03 1995
From: David_Shipman at mindlink.bc.ca (David Shipman) (David Shipman)
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 08:54:03 -0700
Subject: Field Day
Message-ID: <m0sLulY-0005CNC at deep.rsoft.bc.ca>

Perhaps someone can help me with the following:-

Our local radio club (North Shore Amateur Radio Club)intends to use CT for 
Field Day this year.

In looking at 8.45 v 9.20 it appears 8.45 does not have the novice bands and 
is more useful to a Canadian 1A station in that band changes are less prone 
to error by the less experienced operators.

Does CT handle the 15 minute band change rule. If it does I have not 
discovered it yet.

Foreign stations (ie non ARRL/Canadian) can send RS(T) and QTH. CT does not 
appear to accept these in that the second character of the class expects A 
through E, while the section only accepts valid sections.

Any input on the above will be appreciated. Thanks

                     David Shipman, VE7CFD

>From k8mr at barf80.nshore.org (Jim Stahl)  Wed Jun 14 16:14:43 1995
From: k8mr at barf80.nshore.org (Jim Stahl) (Jim Stahl)
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 95 11:14:43 EDT
Subject: K8MR VHF CONTEST SCORE
Message-ID: <9uyo7c2w165w at barf80.nshore.org>

    K8MR    EN91   S/O

   50      120   48   TR-6                 A50-5S @ 80 ft
  144      139   32   TS-830S/TV-502/70W   13B2 @ 75 ft
  432       65   26   TS-830S/DEM 432-28   12L  @ 65 ft

Total      324  106   41,234

This was my first time on 432.  I bought the DownEast Microwave
transverter kit at Dayton, and finished putting it together about
two weeks ago.  I had a couple of local QSOs, but Friday evening
N2LXD on a mountain 100 miles away was barely audible.  I then
found that omissions in the first of two DEM instruction sets had
led me to leave out a molded inductor in the receiver front end. 
That left the GASFET floating at DC, and therefore grossly
misbiased.  I installed the missing inductor Saturday morning,
after which the transverter worked fine.

Conditions were fair to poor here.  The only Es heard was a 5
minute opening to EM73-74 at 2120 Sat. and to the south/southwest
from 2330 to 0100Z.  Nothing northwest of TX/AR was heard.  The
packetcluster had some openings from FL to EM79 Sunday night, but
they didn't make it up here.  In addition QRN levels on 6 were a
factor Saturday, though the storms missed me.

Two was average.  I suspect the same was true on 432.  I missed
two adjoining grids on 432, EN92 and EN81.  I guess WA8WZG (EN81)
isn't going to win this one!

I agressively operated two radios simultaneously (quite legal and
ethically fine on VHF), CQing with the voice keyer on 2 and
occasionally on 432, while CQing live on 6.  It definitely helps
the score and keeps the interest up.

Neatest QSOs: Sunday morning one of my occasional CQs on 146.55
was answered by AD8Y/bicycle mobile, about 4 miles away.  After
working him, he asked if I wanted a QSO with his two companions! 
It turns out the 3 riders were all hams (2 extras and one
advanced) who used their HTs for intercom.  I invited them to
stop by, which they did about an hour later.  We spent about half
an hour chatting, showed them the shack, explained VHF contests,
etc.  And I discovered their HTs were dual banders, so after they
left I made three more quick QSOs on 446.00!

K8MFO (EN90) Score:

    50     137   54
   144      77   32
   432      14    7   (Sick radio)

Jim  K8MR    k8mr at barf80.nshore.org

----------------------------
Jim Stahl
InterNet: k8mr at barf80.nshore.org
Basic Amateur Radio Frequency, BARF-80 +1 216/237-8208
"Totally devoted to Amateur Radio" - 24 Hrs a day 8/N/1 14.4k-300 baud