[Mldxcc] K6MI, Chews Ridge Gang, Looking for CW Op from Norcal

[Pat Barthelow]

Folks,

No intention to detract from team building for MLDXCC Field day efforts, but I would just like to announce that we (The Chews Ridge Gang, K6MI )  are looking for an additional CW op or two, to supplement our 1A Battery Low power (5 watt)  CW (mostly,  + 1 satellite station) team on Chews Ridge, Monterey County.  Our FD team is about 40 years now, as a team, dating from our High School Days, and we have taken 1st overall in FD 1A Battery many many times. Our core team for some 40 years, is about 6 people.
Completely setup with a K2, Writelog, and laptops.  And some of the best CW contest ops in the world.   Mike Shapiro, WA6O is really interesting to watch and learn from.  Also Niko Cimbur, , S52NC, is a real blazing fast contester, and may be with us.

Our setup is cookie cutter we have done it so many times, have a crank up tilt over tower-trailer, KT-36A  and a 5080 top of peak site with a USFS fire lookout. A dedicated campsite Cook.   This year we have some visitors who would like to share our experience, and learn... the Carmel Red Cross is bringing its Sophisticated communications trailer to Chews, along side our operation, to do its own tests of coverage in the Monterey County area, for emergency comms from the Chews Ridge site, and to observe and learn from our operation.

Additionally, we are repeating an experiment we had a lot of success with 2 years ago, bringing Broadband Internet connectivity to the mountain top, with long range (20 miles) microwave links.  This year we will have 2 internet webcams, pan tilt zoom, on the Fire Lookout, controllable from the internet, monitoring the Los Padres Forest for wildland fire outbreaks, or just scoping our setup out, just in case; A really good Ham radio capability Demo.

This is not to interfere with our primary focus, another winning contest FD effort, but it should add some interest and amusement on top of the mountain.  I am in Rocklin and will travel from here to the Monterey Site, about 4.5 hrs, and am looking for carpool partners.

Take a look at a slide show of our operation 2 years ago, and contact me if you are interested, or know anyone who is.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMnLdi5YtGHx

73, All the best,
Pat Barthelow    (916) 315-9271

Jamesburg Moonbounce Team
aa6eg at hotmail.com


> Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 12:57:20 -0700
> From: wx6v at sbcglobal.net
> To: mldxcc at contesting.com; ai6v at aol.com; wc6h at yahoo.com; greenea at goldrush.com; REHill at ix.netcom.com; richard at karlquist.com; jack at RaceTimeSystems.com; qsl73 at linkunet.net; samoian at directcon.net; k6tkd at arrl.net; wk6i at twistedoak.com
> Subject: [Mldxcc] Field Day Preparations
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Well - now that WPX CW contest is history, I am ready to begin Field Day preparations in earnest. The event is only 5 weeks away (June 27-29). Ready to defend and/or improve on our 3rd place nationwide finish in Class 1A last year? That was a pretty good result considering that we pretty much stumbled our way through the entire weekend last year.
>
> At this point, it looks like another class 1A operation this year unless 7-8 more operators step up to participate. So far, the following guys have indicated that they will be at FD this year - Jeff, WK6I; Rich, WC6H; Norm, WA6SJQ; Jack, KF6T; and myself. That's 5 so far - about 7 more and we can start "considering" class 2A in order to justify the exponential increase in planning and setup (from 2 stations and antennas to 4 plus op scheduling).
>
> Anyone else? Please drop a line and let me know.
>
>>From a rig standpoint, Jeff indicated that he will be bringing up his K3 to FD. Exciting news - since I for one am looking forward to checking out the radio that many were talking about at Visalia this year. Seems that this radio has about the best receiver available today.
>
> Does anyone know anybody that operates on satellites? This is a big 100 point bonus that we miss every year because we just don't have anyone in the club that operates on these things. So - the objective this week is to pin down who's coming so that I can send out the planning list spreadsheet and fill in the gaps.
>
> By the way - if you weren't on for the WPX contest, conditions were noticeably improved over last year. Even 10 meters showed some life and 15 was pretty decent. This bodes well for conditions on FD weekend.
>
> 73s,
>
> Jim  -WX6V-
> MLDXCC Field Day Coordinator