[SECC] Use of the W4AN Call Sign

[Scott Straw]

John Laney:

Thank you again for the use of the W4AN callsign.  I had a good time but only made 98 contacts in 8 hours as a 1B station.  I read the rules and discovered that a 1 or two man "A-style" operation could be classified as a "B."  Three people or more is definately "A."   

I  ran the whole thing solo and had to hand log everything because computer in the trailer was Win98SE, and didn't recognize my thumbdrive without drivers (Which the administrator blocked me from adding). My laptop had gone down earlier in the week with a power cord issue.  I guess it wouldn't be a contest without challenges...

I have input all of the calls to N1MM, but need to edit the times, bands, etc.  I'll try to get to it this week...

I did get one return - wish I had noted who it was - that said "glad to hear Bill's call on the air."  It gave me chill bumps.  In retrospect I feel ashamed that I didn't represent the call better than 98 contacts, but with the challenges of hand logging, a mediocre radio and a marginal antenna, not to mention exhaustion from my usual 18 hour a day week, it was all I could do.  Next year I want to be a part of a team!

Again, thank you for letting me use the W4AN call.


SECC'ers:

I have an antenna question:  I bought a G5RV, and built an air core 1:1 balun like the instruction said.  They also said to isolate the shield of the coax feedline from the antenna.  I stripped back about three inches of jacket, cut the braid and pulled it back so that only the center conductor of the PL-259 was connected to the SO-239 that the G5RV had soldered to the twin lead.  I was able to tune up, but couldn't make any contacts.  I switched to another coax feedline and coiled about 8 or 9 loops which I zip-tied "randomly" versus "nice and neat."  With this setup I started getting reponses to my calls.

Was it just by chance that I wasn't getting returns?  Have you had any experience with the concept of isolating the braid of the coax feeding a dipole with twin lead?  Since my tuner had two posts for connecting ladder line, should I have just snipped the ladderline to SO-239 adapter off and gone straight to the tuner?

Scott Straw, KB4KBS