[SECC] After-action summary: NAQP-SSB

Mon Aug 18 14:23:40 EDT 2008

"With half of my dipole tied behind my back just to make it fair."

                It just so happened that I was not going to be working at
the fire station on the Saturday of the NAQP RTTY, so I jumped in and had a
good time.  Next up was NAQP CW.  Again, without planning for it, my
Saturday mysteriously was open that day and so I ventured forth.  Fate was
not so kind to me for the NAQP SSB.  I was scheduled to work a 36-hour stint
at the firehouse, from Friday night through Sunday morning, so if I was
going to complete the NAQP trifecta, it would involve setting up at the fire
station.  I decided Friday morning to pack up my gear and figured that I'd
give a go at a part-time effort.

                Instead of pulling down the G5RV and packing it up, I
decided to try out a "slinky" antenna I had purchased a year or so earlier
but had never really deployed.  It was in a drawer, small, and easy to grab.

The set up went quickly Friday evening; I tacked it to the roof edge of the
one-story building, ran the coax through a window, and hooked up the radio.
I powered up on 40M and heard voices!  Woohoo!  Station duties and other
activities kept me from playing any further, but at least I had hope.

The next day, after doing the morning duties and getting some breakfast we
did some station training.  As it was ending, I looked down at my watch and
realized that it was almost 14:30hrs and the contest had commenced.  I
headed over to the bunkroom where I had set up the rig and computer, fired
it up on 40M again, and heard nothing but loud static all up and down the
band.  I switched up to 20M, then 15M, then 10M.  Nothing.  Ok, first step:
adjust the antenna.  I took the stepladder outside, climbed up to the end of
the antenna, and pulled it off of the tacking nail that held it in place.

There is a word that I see most often in "Spy vs. Spy" cartoons that
symbolizes the sound that you hear when a spring recoils.  It is usually
spelled "Sproinnnng" (or a similar variant).  As the end of my slinky
antenna slipped from my fingers, I heard that sound.  To my horror, there
was, in an instant, dangling from the center point of the antenna, a mass of
twisted coils of metal that used to be one leg of my antenna.  Thirty
minutes later, the coils are untangled, but they are definitely showing some
signs of major trauma.  There wasn't really any other place to attach the
antenna leg to, so frustrated and tired, I zip-tied the coils into a
tight-but-messy stack at the mid-point, and with a sad pit in my stomach,
headed back into cool down and collect myself.  

I went back to the bunkroom and amazingly enough, I now heard voices on my
radio again!  What?  I only had half of my antenna deployed.  How strange!
Emboldened, I pushed the auto-tune button.  Grrrrrrrrr ping.  It tuned on
40! I switched to the other bands, spun the dial, and heard nothing, but
they did tune up also, so I had hope that maybe later after darkness fell I
might try them again.

Finally, after that long delay, I began to search and pounce around 1530,
and in most cases was able to get through to the other stations without much
trouble.  Occasionally there would be a pile-up where I would have to wait
my turn, but I only gave up on two or three.

I took a break around 19:00 and the officer-in-charge and I took the fire
engine out to get some dinner.  When I got back, and after the nightly
station duties were completed, I went at it again for another two-and-a-half
hours.  Fortunately, we didn't get called out on any emergencies until just
after 2200, but it was a residential fire alarm and the homeowners called
and canceled us before we were three minutes down the road.  When we got
back from that event, I logged a few more stations before packing it in and
calling it a night.  I was very careful to hold on tight to the other side
of the slinky antenna when I took it down and was able to compress it and
zip-tie it without any major malfunction.

So, I did it.  The NAQP trifecta - RTTY, CW, and SSB.  None of the scores
was anything to boast about, but in each instance, I learned valuable
lessons that will pay dividends in future contests.  The jury is still out
on whether or not I'll every attempt another contest from the firehouse
again.  Since my station didn't have a ladder truck at it, I didn't have the
convenience of going up in the bucket to string wires, and I learned that
8-10 feet AGL and tacked to the side of a building isn't very effective for
an antenna either.  In retrospect, I probably would have been better off to
put the 75/40/20 Hustler mobile candelabra on the roof of my vehicle and
pulled it up close enough to the building to run a coax inside.  I did learn
that I could make contacts with only half of a dipole antenna however, but I
hope I never have to do it again.

Lastly, I want to send out huge thanks to Roger, VE1SKY.  I tried to find an
e-mail address for him on the Internet was but was unsuccessful.  If anyone
knows him, or his address, please pass this along to him.  At about 0140Z, I
started trying to work Roger on 40M without success.  Being that he was in
NS, he was a popular multiplier.  Finally, he heard me, but couldn't pull me
out.  We both struggled and struggled.  Eventually he got my call sign, then
my state (Not Papa Alpha, Golf Alpha).  I kept spelling my name, SIERRA
CHARLIE OSCAR TANGO TANGO, repeatedly, and slowly.  We were almost there
when I heard him say, "OK.  I have Oscar Tango Tango Sierra Charlie, is that
your name?  A few more attempts and he finally had all of the correct info
for his log at 0159. To Roger, and to all of the folks who patiently waited
twenty minutes for us to work it out, thank you.  I will be sending him a
card, and will hope for one in return.  It will be one that will mean more
to me than most others because it will come from a patient saint who could
have just said, "sorry old man, I just can't pull you out" (as many others
have done).  It will also serve as a reminder that I too, need to be
vigilant for those little voices that, like me, are in it for fun, not
adulation, and who cherish every contact. Thank you Roger, you are a
gentleman.

73,

Scott, KB4KBS

------------------------------------------------------

Scott Straw, CTS-D, CTS-I, EMT-I

scottstraw at mindspring.com

Firefighter/EMT

Roswell Fire Department

Roswell, Georgia 30075

sstraw at roswellgov.com

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