[Fourlanders] Work session update

[Bob Lear]

Gentlemen,

Four of us were here at chez W4ZST on Saturday for a contest work session.

Jim and Sherman set up and tried out the new FT-2000 with the big amp 
and produced a genuine GOO.  We'll probably cut back just a little for 
the contest.  They also connected the computer and practiced with 
recording and sending CQ's, etc both SSB and CW.  We will have to get an 
updated copy of WriteLog since the versions we have on hand do not 
support the FT-2000, but the latest one will.

Later in the evening, Jim got on for the 6m Spring Sprint here.  Only 
made 4 Q's.  No opening here and we only had an M2 HO loop to use since 
the beam is still stuck on South.

Ron and I got to spend some time talking contest set-up strategy.  I'll 
send a sketch soon when I get to it so you can all see what we had in 
mind.  We also inventoried all the rotators and rotator cables.  He is 
fixing up a couple of more cables using the spool of wire we purchased 
last year.  He had some good ideas on standardizing and cleaning up the 
mess I had made with them previously.  thanks Ron!  We also measured 
some cables and decided on some feed line lengths.

Since we had decided at the March meeting to have microwave this time 
(and I volunteered to bring along three bands) we also decided that we 
should put 6m in Ivan's trailer like we've done the past couple of 
times.  That has worked out quite well since 6 doesn't need to be close 
as the other ops do.  The issue is that with bringing the microwave 
station (compact as it is) we will have four operating positions in 
Great White.  We have done this before, but we were somewhat crowded for 
table space.  Ron has taken a couple of my wooden equipment risers to 
help verticalize his 432 station equipment.  I have the microwave 
equipment down to about a 12" X 20" footprint.  I will do something 
similar for 2m also.  I will try to help make something else if anyone 
needs some sort of custom riser.  It would just be plywood, glued and 
screwed, not pretty but plenty sturdy.  I also thought about not even 
having a logging computer for microwave since it's not overly active. 
We could paper log microwave, keeping good times, and enter on one of 
the other computers during slack time.  If anyone has concerns about 
doing this, let me know and we'll reconsider if you discover a problem 
or whatever.

While Jim was playing on 6m, I got 90% of the microwave station put 
together so it was a productive day all around.

Brian was working on the generator and will update us when he has some 
further progress.

We did make a want list for a couple of items we need for the club while 
we are in Dayton.  Brian, if you need anything, get your list to Jim or 
I soon.

Final good news, I got the mower deck fixed today and got 4 hours of 
mowing in.  The guys who were here can tell you that we could have lost 
a kid in the tall grass yesterday.  With my penchant for naming things, 
I've decided the mower deck will be "Frankenmower" since it was such a 
monster job and ended up with a large steel plate in it's head!!! 
Anyway, now I have time to get back to fun stuff like more contest 
things to do and also the trip to Dayton this week.  Jim, Bill and I 
will leave here Thursday morning planning to arrive sometime in the 
afternoon in Dayton, hopefully with enough time to visit the site before 
going to the Shuckin' Shack for a great time to kick off the Dayton 
weekend.  See ya there!!!!!


73, Bob W4ZST