[CQ-Contest] Attention Station Builders!

[Pete Smith]

I have been asked to do a talk at the Dayton Contest Forum titled "Why Do
They Call It Wireless? - Behind the Radios in Multi-Radio Contest Stations."  

The idea is to pull together a compendium of the best indoors design and
construction practices employed by the builders of today's complex contest
stations.  It is not only about Impossible Dream stations like KC1XX,
though I hope to have a major body of information about Matt's and other
big multi-multis.  It is not just about SO2R stations, though we understand
that these stations are quite complex, and managing this complexity well is
what the presentation is all about.  I also hope to feature information
about stations built on a shoestring, to illustrate what can be done even
when resources are scarce.

What I need are descriptions in words and pictures of how YOU have
addressed the design and construction of YOUR station.  For this purpose,
we've ruled out antenna selection and construction, because there is a
separate forum devoted to that topic.  Everything else is a part of the
picture we're trying to present.

Are you proud of the overall conceptual design you came up with?  Do you
think it has unique or ground-breaking elements that other people should be
thinking about too?  How did you address the balance between flexibility,
order, and reliability?  Have you come up with a neat design for antenna
selection and control?  How do you organize cabling and wiring so that
repairs are seldom needed, but can be done on the fly if required?  How do
you manage data cabling; lightning protection; RFI?   

Photographs and block diagrams will be an important means of communicating
your ideas to the audience.  I can handle virtually any image format, and
if you don't have pictures or diagrams in electronic form, I will be happy
to scan hard copies and return them to you immediately.  Words are also
great, and I promise that I will be careful to make sure I understand what
you want to convey before I pull things together and package them into one
twenty-minute presentation.  If you're sending me pictures in electronic
form, please make the resolution at least 200 x 200 dpi, preferably more,
so that they will project well.  

All photos and diagrams will be credited to the originators, and I will
make sure that everyone understands who the smart ones are.  I'm just the
compiler and presenter, so I need YOUR help.  
  
How about it?  You can send electronic inputs to my e-mail address, and
hard copies to Rt. 1 Box 459, Kearneysville, WV 25430.  I have some
already, but not nearly what I know is out there.  I need to have the
material as soon as possible, but certainly by April 15.

This presentation will be as good as YOU make it.

73, Pete N4ZR
Contesting is!

The World Contest Station Database 
is waiting for your input at
http://www.qsl.net/n4zr 



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