[Fourlanders] Fourlanders contest update

[Bob Lear]

Been working on getting contest stuff ready here at the shack and 
thought I'd send an update.

I've had a visit from a new ham in the area and he is interested in VHF 
weak signal work and came to help with the 2m antenna work.  His name is 
David Gottschalk, KN4ZKT and lives just south of Clayton. He has been 
doing some SOTA operations and is going to get on 2m with a TS-2000.   
He was using a vertical but I managed to  work him this week.  He has 
monitored the Monday night 2m net also.

The 2m EME antennas are back up and ready.  Johnny, Rick and David came 
on Saturday, Dec 28 and changed out the rotator.    The elevation 
rotator seized during the September contest and we had to change it 
out.  I had a guy who works for me part time put the scaffolding up the 
week before so we only had to put the walk boards on that Rick brought 
for us and get the job done.  It is so much easier and safer to do the 
job  off the scaffolding.  Haven't had time yet to look at the rotator 
we took down but will sometime.  We just put another rotator that I 
usually use for 432 EME up in it's place since I wasn't using that one 
right now.  I have copied EME sigs off the moon on 2m a couple of days 
later but I still need to dial in the tracking a little better before 
the contest.

Speaking of EME, we are planning to be up on 4 bands now for EME. 2, 
222, 432 and 1296.  Johnny is setting up and testing the 1296 station  
at home and will bring it up here this weekend and we'll get the new 
antennas set  up with Az-El.  It doesn't look like moon conditions will 
be good for the contest but we will give it a try anyway and see what we 
can do on 1296 and the other bands too.

Update on the 222 station.  I finally found the problem and it was not 
the amplifier like I suspected.  Turned out to be a broken power supply 
wire to the T/R relays that was causing the problem and making the amp 
kick off which made us think it was the amp.  Anyway, I know the innards 
of that amp very well now and gave it a good cleaning before I put it 
back together.  I did some modifications to the sequencer, made some 
custom length cables to help reduce the rats nest and finally got it all 
back working today.  I was on the air for an hour tonight on 222 
chatting with KC4AAW, N4QH and WA4NJP.  750W out of the amp.  They all 
said the signal and audio were good.  Running with the Flex 1500 and 
that will be on for the contest for voice, cw and digital.  Hoping that 
Brian will be able to come for some of the contest at least.   So 222 is 
ready for the contest.

Ron came up Monday afternoon and we put up the 432 antennas.  We also 
tested Jim's 9700 and tweaked the oscillator frequency.  Ron is working 
on integrating it into his 432 station for the contest.  We really want 
to see how the 9700 performs.  We've had it on 2m for the CQWW but 
didn't have an opening for enough Q's to really get a feel for it.  And 
we had it on 1296 terrestrial for the September contest, again with just 
a few Q's.  I've had it here but with all the other work I've had, I 
just haven't had time to get it on the air much or to do some A/B 
testing against other radios.  I did use it a number of times for the 
Monday night 2m net and also called the net one night for Ray.  Anyway 
we'll get some time with it on 432 now.  I got on with Ray on 432 
tonight with one of my radios and a brick amp.  The beacons are blowing 
in here on the antennas too. Ron will bring his station up sometime 
before the contest when he gets everything going.

Another good news item.  Rick came up a few weeks ago and we put the new 
water pump on the generator, checked it for leaks, flushed out the old 
anti-freeze and put in new fresh anti=freeze.  Probably the first time 
since Brian got it.  Anyway, it's running fine now.  We also had to get 
a new battery for the generator, put that in today and test ran it again 
for a while.  So finally we think we are done and it's ready to go for 
the next contest and field day.  I will keep running it periodically to 
test and keep the battery charged.

The 6m station is still set up from January and I use it weekly to check 
in to the Monday night Buzzard net most weeks.  Ready for the contest.

Kos's 2m station is still here from the January contest and he'll get it 
set up the morning of the contest and there should be no issues there.

There you have it.  Things are going well.  Looking forward to getting 
together for lunch at Rooster's 11:30 on the 18th and then all of us 
coming back here to get the contest started.   Those of you wanting to 
spend the night don't forget to let me know.  I only have a few 
reservations so far.  And Jerry will be cooking so that should be a good 
drawing card for the contest too.

73, Bob