1st Annual Dayton Internet DX Contest

[N3ADL at aol.com]

The 1st Annual Dayton Internet DX Contest is a go for this year....
Rules follow....


DX must be wearing ID
(deduct 2 pts for DX with ID and HT on his belt and 2m 4el yagi on hat)

QSO must not interupt DX QSO in progress
( NO NETS, LISTS, or LIDS....or deduct 5 points)

You MUST buy said DX a beer in one of the hospitality suites.
(10 point bonus if you buy/bring him a Yuengling Black and Tan)(if ICE COLD
add 20)

100 point bonus IF he buys you a beer....

500 point bonus for opposite sex QSO's

DX must autograph SOMETHING to verify QSO

Save autograph in case of log descrepancies or dispute

Scoring is total countries worked per day... Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Dupes OK if on different day
ADD or Subtract bonuses or penaltys for final score....

The W4 will take score reports and summarize...


See you in Dayton
                                         73 de Doug

>From w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths)  Fri Apr 26 21:48:07 1996
From: w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths) (Stan Griffiths)
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 13:48:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Loos Tension Guage
Message-ID: <199604262048.NAA20908 at desiree.teleport.com>

I sent away for the catalog and brochures on the Loos Tension guage and
after looking at the brochures and catalog and seeing how it works, some
questions came to mind about its use with EHS cable.

For those of you who either own one or have the literature, you can see that
it does not measure tension in the cable directly.  Rather, it measures the
diffculty involved in putting a slight kink in the cable.  This will be
proportional to the tension in the cable, and, if done correctly, can give
you an idea of what the tension in the cable is.  Anyone who has worked with
EHS cable and the more flexible wire rope knows there is a great deal of
difference in how hard it is to kink EHS cable as compared to wire rope.

So I called Loos and asked if it was OK to use the guage on EHS cable.  The
receptionist gave me another lady to talk to.  The second lady had never
heard of EHS cable and only knew about sailboat rigging and a cable she
called "1 x 19".  It turns out that 1 X 19 is a stranded cable that has 19
strands in it.  Normal EHS cable is 1 X 7.  I just took a close look at a
sample of 3/16 and 1/4 inch wire rope and they are both composed of 7 major
strands each composed of 19 individual wires.  The lady at Loos did tell me
that their guages were not good to use with "rod rigging".  When I asked
here what rod rigging was she told me it was solid rods used for sailboat
mast stays which is essentially a single strand guy wire.  She told me my
questions were really too deep for her and I should call back later and talk
to "Barry" who was out of town for the next few days.

When I finally got to talk with Barry, he told me that the inventor of the
Loos guage is now about 90 years old, but I could talk to him if I wanted
to.  He would give me his phone number.  I passed.  Barry was somewhat
familiar with EHS cable when I described it as the type of wire that power
companies use to guy power poles.  He said that he believed Loos tension
guages could be used with with EHS wire but they would have to be calibrated
specifically for it.  In other words, the calibration charts supplied with
the Loos guage are not for use with EHS cable.  There are no calibraton
charts for EHS cable and one would have to be made for each EHS cable size
by using a dynomometer and making a calibration chart by comparing Loos
tension guage measurements against dynomometer readings.

So it looks like what needs to be done is a calibration chart needs to be
made by someone who has an accurate dynomometer, a Loos tension guage, and a
few towers with various types and sizes of guy wire.  Without doing that, it
looks like we are back to guessing . . .  Here is my guess.  I would guess
that a Loos tension guage calibrated for 1 X 19 sailboat rigging will be
fairly close when used on wire rope of the same outside diameter but not
very close when used with EHS cable of the same outside diameter.  I will
further guess that the Loos guage will show EHS cable to be under
significantly more tension that it really is if you use the chart intended
for 1 X 19 saleboat rigging.  But this is only a guess . . .

Another guess is that it can be used with Phillystran also but yet another
chart may have to be made for each size of that.  I would guess that
Phillystan will show results very similar to the very flexibe wire rope.

So what do the power companies, telephone companies, and CATV companies do
to measure the tension in their guys and support cables?  I don't know the
answer to this question and maybe someone out there who does know could tell us?

Stan  w7ni at teleport.com
Aloha, OR


>From De Syam <syam at Glue.umd.edu>  Fri Apr 26 21:58:24 1996
From: De Syam <syam at Glue.umd.edu> (De Syam)
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 16:58:24 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Rain Static
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960426165221.13491B-100000 at logo.eng.umd.edu>

I have no idea about the physics of what happens when the raindrop 
strikes the element, but I can state the following points from personal 
experience:

1) The severity of the precip static is not proportional to the amount of 
rainfall, but appears to be associated with the propensity of the storm 
to contain lightning.

2) The precip static is never a problem with my quad antenna.

3) Precip static is often noted even when there is no rain falling, but 
when there is a thunderstorm in the area.

I leave it to those more technically inclined to analyze why. 

                                    Very 73,

                                  Fred Laun, K3ZO