June ARRL VHF Contest scores summary in newsletter format

klimas at uhavax.hartford.edu klimas at uhavax.hartford.edu
Fri Jun 23 16:08:14 EDT 1995


           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 at 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 at most.magec.com (James B. Wolf)  Fri Jun 23 20:09:05 1995
From: jbwolf at most.magec.com (James B. Wolf) (James B. Wolf)
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 14:09:05 -0500
Subject: Parallel port CW keying layout?
Message-ID: <9506231909.AA03058 at 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 at most.magec.com
MESC, 1313 Production Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
   


>From Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW" <gswanson at arrl.org  Fri Jun 23 20:14:00 1995
From: Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW" <gswanson at arrl.org (Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW)
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 95 15:14:00 EDT
Subject: RFI and a voice keyer...
Message-ID: <2FEB157F at 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 at arrl.org
 

>From dnorris at gn2.getnet.com (Dean Norris)  Sat Jun 24 01:03:31 1995
From: dnorris at gn2.getnet.com (Dean Norris) (Dean Norris)
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 17:03:31 -0700
Subject: Contest Free Zone ??
Message-ID: <199506240004.RAA28058 at 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 at mcimail.com>  Sat Jun 24 02:25:00 1995
From: Steve Sacco <0006901972 at mcimail.com> (Steve Sacco)
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 95 20:25 EST
Subject: More on Lightning. (Ugh)
Message-ID: <92950624012529/0006901972DC3EM at 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 at mcimail.com


>From GOOSE WD8LLD <GOOSTER at delphi.com>  Sat Jun 24 04:45:32 1995
From: GOOSE WD8LLD <GOOSTER at delphi.com> (GOOSE WD8LLD)
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 23:45:32 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: more lightning stuff
Message-ID: <01HS2AYESYDE8YB00V at 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 at delphi.com"

>From Gary Schwartz <garyk9gs at solaria.sol.net>  Thu Jun 22 13:03:10 1995
From: Gary Schwartz <garyk9gs at solaria.sol.net> (Gary Schwartz)
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 07:03:10 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: radial wire
Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9506220705.A3757-a100000 at 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 at solaria.sol.net |
        | Society of Midwest Contesters   Packet:K9GS at WA9KEC.WI.USA.NOAM |
        | Greater Milwaukee DX Association Member                        |
        |________________________________________________________________|






>From Floydjr <floydjr at nando.net>  Sat Jun 24 05:15:34 1995
From: Floydjr <floydjr at nando.net> (Floydjr)
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 1995 00:15:34 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: FD Hours
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.90.950624001009.7065A-100000 at 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 at nando.net

73's Jim // WA4ZXA


>From Satoshi Nakamura <je1jkl at st.rim.or.jp>  Sun Jun 25 13:33:03 1995
From: Satoshi Nakamura <je1jkl at st.rim.or.jp> (Satoshi Nakamura)
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 21:33:03 +0900
Subject: CTSVR Uni-Hat Antenna
Message-ID: <9506251233.AA00327 at 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 at st.rim.or.jp



More information about the CQ-Contest mailing list