Sprint from the end-zone

k7ss at aloha.net k7ss at aloha.net
Sun Feb 4 21:37:41 EST 1996


>>>Howdy from Maui,
>>>
>>>A last minute decision to do the NA Sprint SSB from Hawaii found me  at the
>>>Maui AH6AZ SUPERSTATION with my little 706 and a battery, connected
>>>to a 5 element yagi on 20 and a full size 3 element 40 yagi!!!!
>>>
>>>No headphones, no boommike, no filters, no reading glasses, no
computer...just your basic miniature xcvr no frills 4 hour contest.
>>>
>>>Even though the station is beyond power lines, there was a s5 inverter noise
>>>coming from somewhere in the neighborhood. It was s9 on 40 and only a
>>>handful of signals made it over the top of the noise.  
>>>
>>>Could not read my scratching in the logs without my spex, so excuse me if
I called you twice (or more) Started on 20 .. the band sounded empty with
the exception of those alwaysloud no matter where you are..K6LL, W0UA, N6HC,
K7UP and ALL the FIVES.
>>>Band must have been under solar attack, never heard any w1-2-3!!
>>>
>>>First hour was a respectable 80 Qs, but this was not going to be one of the 
>>>classic NA weekends! after mining the second layer for the next hour, i went
>>>to 40..and the inverter!  
>>>
>>>Found out it was a HAM neighbor, so ran over to his house and told him
>>>the problem, which was instantly fixed...ran back to 40 and started peeling 
>>>off the biggies...gotta say W9RE was AMAZINGLY loud! as well as N6HC
>>>K6LL VE7NTT and ALL the FIVES..  never heard W1-2-3!  flare??
>>>
>>>Ended the test by trying to work ANYONE on 75. Moved W0UA to 3854 and
>>>heard him pleading with some ragchewer that he had a quick sked and would
be gone in a flash...and then proceeded to take a good three minutes trying
to hear my report!  SOme great comedy !! "Ill be gone in just a second..
>>>Danny whats yur number???   your number???  HANG ON..I'm going...
>>>your number???..."  saw that my full size loop was only getting about 10
>>>watts into it, but he was still hearing me (great ears)  he got my number
as 217 and it was 218 (leave a hole in the log)..   went off freq and tuned
and now had a full 100 watts at 6pm local in Hawaii trying to crack the 75
meter QRM/QRN on the mainland... did manage 8 Cal QSOs and WA OR and MT, and
found W0UA and confirmed "218" 
>>>
>>>Net 228 Qsos 
>>>706 is NOT a contest radio, but does well in a pinch
>>>First domestic contest with NO w1-2-3, (except the first week of NR in 1959)
>>>
>>>See you on CW, with NO inverter, and WITH earphones and filters
>>>
>>>Aloha
>>>
>>>Danny K7SS/KH6
>>>
>>
>
Danny Eskenazi and Diane Leveque
"k7ss at wolfenet.com"
"k7ss at aloha.net" til March 17th 1996


>From w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths)  Mon Feb  5 09:01:08 1996
From: w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths) (Stan Griffiths)
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 01:01:08 -0800
Subject: Tower rating question
Message-ID: <199602050901.BAA26607 at desiree.teleport.com>

>Hi all...
>  I just lost my Aluma 60'motorized crank-up in the recent windstorms 
>here on 
>Long Island. Fortunately, I am covered by my homeowners insurance. 

Hi Jeff,

You are indeed fortunate.  If I were your insurance adjuster, you wouldn't
be covered because I am willing to bet the tower specs were exceeded
somewhere.  I have listened to a LOT of tower horror stories and the worst
ones involve crankups and right after that, towers made of aluminum.  An
aluminum crankup would be my worst nightmare and now it is probably yours, too.

>Naturally, I am looking to replace the whole thing (antennas gone too), 
>and am considering a Tri-ex LM470E motorized crank-up, which should be 
>better able to hold the antennas than the aluminum job, or so I think. And 
>that leads to my question. 

The good news is that you are thinking steel instead of aluminum.  The bad
news is you are still thinking crankup.

>  The advertising material from Tri-ex states the tower will handle 30sf 
>at 50mph, 15sf at 70mph. I called the engineer, and he says that the 
>50mph rating is NOT a rating, just a comparison for my "information," and 
>that the 70mph rating is what he stands behind. Although quite a friendly 
>and knowledgeable soul, I can't actually get him to commit to anything. 

Is that rating cranked up or cranked down?  Don't assume anything.  A good
reason why he won't stand behind the more aggessive ratings is simply
because he does not have confidence in his tower.  He should know its true
capability better than anyone.  Listen to him and get it in writing.  He is
vague and evasive because he is responsible for what he tells you and he
feels like he is going out on a limb (which he is).

>  Does anyone here have any experience with this tower? I am planning to 
>put up another KLM KT34-XA, and try a KLM 40M-4 (4el 40) instead of my 
>destroyed 40-2CD. Total windload is 21sf, total antenna wt is 156 lbs.

Like a lot of single tower installations, you are planning to stack two
beams.  When you get the written commitment from the tower manufacturer,
make sure he understands that one of the antennas will be significantly
ABOVE the top of the tower on a mast.  This will affect his answer.  I
believe most tower square footage ratings assume the entire wind load is
within a foot or two of the top of  the tower.

>  The popular US Tower HDX572 is also rated 30sf at 50mph, but NOT rated 
>at 70mph, and just a bit too expensive. I wonder how they compare. 

Again, you are asking someone to give you an opinion of a potentially very
dangerous situation.  Smart qualified engineers will either charge you an
arm and leg for that opinion or won't give it to you.  They have to build up
their legal defense funds some way because if they hand out opinions on this
subject, they will certainly be hauled into court eventually.  You may as
well round file the opinions you get from other than smart qualified engineers.

>Any insight here would be most appreciated. Perhaps you could tell me 
>of some other successful similar installations that would give me some 
>perspective. My contest station is off 
>the air, waiting for the insurance check to arrive,and I'm anxious to make 
>final decisions so that I can begin to get back on track.
>
>Thanks & 73 de JEFF WA2SYN
>
>wa2syn at li.net

I have several important questions I would love to have you answer about
your Alumina tower that failed so I can build my knowledge base about tower
failures:

1.  Was this a guyed tower?
2.  Was it cranked up at the time?
3.  Did the wind loading of the antennas exceed the rating of the tower?
4.  Did the design of the installation take into account that part of the
antenna load was well above the top of the tower?
5.  Were there any signs of metal fatigue that could have indicated the
tower was weakened well before actual failure?
6.  Where and how did it actually fail?  Fold over at the base?  Crumple
into a heap?  Guy system failure?
7.  Was it iced at the time?
8.  How strong would you estimate the winds were?

These are tough questions, but answering them will fill in a lot of gaps in
our knowledge about what not to do when it is our turn.  The answers to
these may be somewhat embarassing to you so I can't blame you if you just
ignore this message.

I DO have one STRONG piece of advice, though I doubt you will like it:
Abandon the idea of using a crankup and consider using well guyed Rohn 55.
It probably won't cost any more than the crankup you are considering.  Since
I am not a smart qualified engineer, be sure to have my suggestion double
checked by someone who is.

I really hate to hear it when someone loses their antennas.  I guess no one
was hurt.  Good luck, Jeff, and be careful.

Stan  W7NI at teleport.com


>From Jimmy R. Floyd" <floydjr at Interpath.com  Mon Feb  5 14:52:01 1996
From: Jimmy R. Floyd" <floydjr at Interpath.com (Jimmy R. Floyd)
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 1996 10:52:01 -0400
Subject: CQ 160 Mtr CW Contest 96 Scores V
Message-ID: <199602051556.KAA25461 at mail-hub.interpath.net>

1996 CQ 160 METER CW CONTEST
Raw Scores

Compiled by
WA4ZXA

Date Posted 02/05/96


IMPORTANT NOTICE!!
Please do not submit scores to CQ-Contest Reflector. Send them to me
or the 3830 Reflector. 



CALL               HRS           SCORE       Q'S      PTS     ST/VE    DX
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Single/OP/QRP

K0GU                             42,222      278       681      52     10
KA1CZF                           34,272      300                46      5
VE7CQK                              680       20        85       7      1


Single/OP/HP

VP9AD                         1,220,880     1630                58     62
ON4UN                         1,133,370     1275      8995      47     79
VE3EJ                           743,971     1287      6953      59     48
G0IVZ                           542,016      863      5646      41     55
VE9AA                           443,515      678      4145      56     51
WB9Z                            430,008     1123                59     55
KC8MK                           416,193     1084                58     54
AA5BL                           411,000     1165                57     50
W3GH  (W9XR)                    353,052     1057                58     50
W4MYA               16          331,886      925      3286      54     44
WZ3Q                            309,309      963                54     47
K1IU                10          250,357      570      2581      51     46
K8FC                            195,608      703                57     41
K1KI                 5          180,928      412                50     38
K2WK                 8          177,570      503                51     39
K3JT                            173,512      808                56     26
WR30                            172,172      746      2002      56     30
NW6N                            162,488      669                55     21
C31LJ               12          157,006      512                14     44
K3ZO                 9          151,890      524                50     33
N6ZZ                            148,068      675                55     26
NC0P                            144,780      770                    76
OZ1AXG               8          143,496      350      1993      17     55
W8CAR                           140,778      687      1782      52     27
K0EJ                13          131,978      637      1714      52     25
NI8L                12          131,824      638      1712      52     25
OI6YF  (OH6YF)                  129,584      439      2314       6     50
N3RR                10          122,122      498                47     30
AI7B                            120,085      634      1645      56     17
KR4DL                           103,842      461      1282      52     29
VE6KRR                           95,703      350      1679      52      5
KF3P                 6           91,500      432      1220      51     24
WB9HRO              13           91,242      506                58     16
WV5S                             89,836      480                55     19
VE6JY                            81,114      245                53     13
AB5YG                            81,114      518      1229      51     15
K9JF/7              15           75,768      451      1114      56     12
K9MA                 5           62,510      333                54     16
VE7IN                            55,047      182                47     12
K8MR                 4           51,035      370                49     10
N4BP                             48,768      302       762          64
KC0EI                            47,100      347                52      7
N8ATR                            44,840      180       590      47     29
W5ASP                6           41,667      321                    57
N4OGW/9              3           32,480      215                46     12
WE9V  (KS9K)         3           25,596      180       474      43     11
N8RR                 2           17,360       84                34     18


Single/OP/LP

K7SV                            217,168      816                58     40
KM9P                18          179,742      750                    87
VE6WQ                           120,734      366      1802      55     12
W5FO                            117,068      621                56     18
K04EW               18          103,464      602                55     17
WA6KUI                           80,036      501                54     14
WO1N                             79,560      420      1105      52     20
K7FR                             77,452      478      1156      56     11
KU8E                17           72,964      430      1073      50     18
WX9E                11           59,085      387                54     11
K9WIE               12           54,492      422       956      52      5
AA7BG                            33,276      218                50      9
NW8F                             32,791      281       643      43      7
N2BIM                            32,214      225                47     12
WA8YRS               7           31,311      288       639          49
W3CPB                9           30,381      213                46     11
W7TSQ               11           28,875      188       525      47      8
AL7PT                            26,221      512                45      6
KM0L                             23,348      191       449      45      7
WA7VNI              21           18,630      159       405          46
KE5FI               10           17,850      141       350      42      9
DL7ANQ               8           16,492      121       532       1     31
WA7BNM               5           16,468      153                42      4
K5NA                 4           14,085      135       313      40      5
KJ6HO                            12,768      118       304      36      6
NM1Q                 3            6,238       71                28      3


Mutlit-OP

W2GD                            837,000     1515                58     70
WW2Y                            824,000     1438                59     65
W1KM                            789,538     1380                58     60
KY1H                            551,464     1273      4754      58     58
DK1NO                           482,349      799      4683      35     68
AB4RU                           462,735     1108      3955      59     58
K3WW                            448,690     1088                58     52
SL3ZV                           376,112      758      4274      24     64
N4RJ                            276,262      918                55     43
AA3B                            206,804      760      2132      58     39
WD9INF                          202,895      940                56     29
N6DX                            200,260      733      2356      57     28
G4BUO                           198,922      416      2518      29     50
WX0B                            176,064      801                55     29
WA3WJD                          172,408      635      1874      57     35
K8DO                25          157,850      872                57     20
K7OX                            133,200      674      1850          72
K6XO/7                          116,178      694                56     11
KC7U                12          105,975      489      1413      55     20
K3KO                            101,634      511                53     25
DL8OBC                           85,332      348      1641      13     39
KC7KUH                           81,575      494      1255      54     11
W6GO                             57,120      309       840      55     13
AA8SM                            43,859      309       719      49     12
AB6FO                            40,016      225       656      49     12
N7AVK                            25,000      125                42     11
WB0O                              1,404       17                    12

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL SCORES!!!! DO NOT TRY TO SEND ME LOGS!!! I do not
have anything to do with CQ Magazine or this contest. 

Remember that I do not change anything sent to me. If the scores are
wrong then you need to send email to the people who gave me the scores. 
I will only orrect scores that are sent to me by the person with the 
score. Classes are according to how they were sent to me.

OK, They are combined. Now please stop emailing me about them. Also I can
count. It was nothing more than a typo on the top HP Scores. I am sorry.

73's  Jim

           ********************************************************** 
           * Jimmy R. Floyd  (Jim)   Thomasville, NC                *
           *                                                        *
           * Amateur Call:              >> WA4ZXA <<                *
           * Packet Node:               >> N4ZC <<                  *
           * Internet Address: **NEW**  >> floydjr at interpath.com << *
           **********************************************************




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