“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@mindspring.com
Firefighter/EMT
Roswell Fire Department
Roswell, Georgia 30075
sstraw@roswellgov.com