TopBand: VP8CRB - News

[Bernie McClenny]

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The following is from Jan, K4QD/VP8CRB

Bernie,

You asked me to give you any info I might have on my operation status.
I am not able to post to the reflector from here, so I thought I would
sendou an update and let you extract from it for you news and post as you
see fit.  I am sorry I have not gotten anything to you sooner.  I would like
to get some of this info out to the hams, especially the TopBand info.

Today marks the midpoint of my three week "vacation" here in the Falklands
and I am on schedule with my goals here.  The station is set up in a small
cabin which was rented and moved to an abandoned Loran station on the top
of a hill overlooking Stanley.  There are two 150 foot towers which are 250
feet apart and the antennas are suspended between them.  We are using three
wire antennas.  A 135 ft vertical with elevated radials for 160 M, a Radio
Works Superloop at 140 feet and tuner for all bands, and a home brew 17M
delta loop vertically polarized below it at about 90 feet. Antennas are
orientated to slightly favor EU off one side and Asia off the other.
I moved into the cabin the second day so that I could have more operating
time  and stay there except for breaks to eat and shower.  I have made
contacts on every band, but 80 and 160 have been disappointing.
I came here with a goal to make over 10,000 contacts during my three week
stay.  I also wanted to operate CW, which is rare here, activate the WARC
bands, and reach difficult areas like Asia. At the mid-point I am meeting
my goals. 

Plans:
We are building a  160 meter loop which will be vertically polarized and
installed for a concentrated Top Band effort all Friday night and Saturday
night.  (Gosh that's a lot of wire.) Please get the word to the Top Band
guys. 

The VP8CRB log and the VP8TTY log from the ARRL RTTY Roundup are online
thanks to Dave NO4J and the North Florida DX Association.  The address
is:

        http://no4j.com/nfdxa/logs/vp8crb.htm

This effort would not be possible without the help of Bob Valler VP8BFH who
is my host and who rented the cabin and had it moved to the site, and Mario
Zuciv VP8ALJ who now owns the decommissioned Loran site and helped install
the antennas.

Best 73,
Jan K4QD (VP8CRB)

--
Bernie McClenny, W3UR (ex WR3E, WB3JRU)
Editor of The Daily DX
Editor of How's DX?
3025 Hobbs Road
Glenwood, MD 21738
Fax 301-854-5105
http://www.dailydx.com
bernie@dailydx.com




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