[CQ-Contest] The Station Notebook

[Randy Thompson, K5ZD]

Interesting topic.

I keep a station notebook.  It is a small spiral bound book for keeping
notes about anything.  It mostly has things that are measured or figured
out.  E.g., length of phasing lines, distance from house to tower, color
codes of rotator control cables, as built dimensions of antennas and phasing
lines, etc.  Anything I think might be useful to know later goes in the
book.

I remember hearing years ago that W2PV used to keep notes of all of the
station details.  Seemed like a good idea so I adopted it.  Has been helpful
on many occasions in remembering what is out there in the antenna field.

Randy, K5ZD

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of K4RO Kirk
> Pickering
> Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 20:53 PM
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Cc: tcg at k4ro.net
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] The Station Notebook
>
>
> Do you keep a Station Notebook?  I'm talking about
> a binder (or perhaps computer documents) where you
> keep track of station design and construction.
>
> What parameters do you keep track of?  Which do you
> find the most useful for troubleshooting antenna or
> station problems?  How do you organize the data?
>
> I am trying to take care of some severe inter-station
> interference in my humble one-tower SO2R station. The
> number of antenna choices and feedlines is bewildering
> for my little station; I can only imagine what it must
> be like to keep track of a serious M/M or M/2 station.
>
> To get the answer pump primed, my station notebook is
> currently a file cabinet with a myraid of folders, plus
> some documents on the computer. I have separate folders
> for tower, antennas, rigs, antenna switching, and non-station
> stuff like DXCC etc.  I have just started logging information
> for each antenna feedline (currently numbering 16, including
> RX antennas.)  For each antenna, I am logging resonant frequency,
> SWR curves, and impedance resistive and reactive components.
> One goal is to have a place to start troubleshooting when an
> antenna does not seem to be working properly.
>
> I would be interested in hearing about other's Station Notebooks,
> and what information is considered the most important to track.
>
> 73
>
> -Kirk  K4RO
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