[TowerTalk] Stadiums as Tower/Contest Locations

[Michael Tope]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve W2ML" <adam77 at earthlink.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Stadiums as Tower/Contest Locations


>> Roger K8RI)
>>
>> I wonder, if properly approached, stadium management would allow
> hams/contesters
>> to set up semi permanent, or perhaps permanent towers/antennas or to use
> existing
>> tall structures at the stadiums for antennas and contest operations?
>
> If you are talking about stadia that host the NFL or other professional
> sports,
> keep in mind that 70,000 - 90,000 people are there for sporting events on
> the
> same weekends that contests are held.
>
> I passed this concept past the people who run Giants stadium at the
> Meadowlands in
> New Jersey and host 5 professional sports teams during the year.  They
> thought
> I was joking.
>
> College stadia may be a possibility, but they, too, make a great deal of
> money on
> football during the fall contest season.
>
> While the towers and lighting grids look wonderful for ham antennas, if it
> doesn't
> make money for the venue, the chance of getting in to use the place for
> contesting
> rests solely on the coincidence of a ham being in a management or key
> position at
> the venue.
>
> Many places I visited, when I was traveling with Monday Night Football,
> would have
> made wonderful anchors for long wires/dipoles, but all the hams on the 
> crew
> could
> do was dream about it.
>
> Of course, TowerTalk rule #1 applies here.... YMMV.
>
> -73- Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML
> President, North Jersey DX Association
> Game Day Frequency Coordinator, New York Jets
>


It's since been relocated to another part of campus, but when I was
attending the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio back in the 80's,
the radio club (W8LT) was located in the football stadium. We had a
2 element quad mounted on a short Rohn 25 tower on the top of the
southeast bell tower of the stadium (110 feet high) and a 100 foot high
x 600 foot long wire stretched from the southeast bell tower over to the
smokestack of the McCracken power plant due east of the stadium. If
you click on the link below you and then hit the "zoom" button you can
just make out the short antenna tower sandwiched between the two
flagpoles on the southeast bell tower (lower right side in photo):

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Ohio-State-Buckeyes-Ohio-Stadium-Posters_i1256316_.htm

I can't tell from that photo which antenna is on the tower, but I suspect
it was the 2 element quad which can be seen in the following photo:

http://www.w8lt.org/images/history-p02.jpg

It was a noisy location, but that long wire was a real pileup buster to
West Africa on 75 meters.

I can recall one occasion where Pat N8VW suspended an 80 meter
half square between the open ends of the stadium horseshoe
and then proceeded to work what seemed like an amazingly long
string of northern Europeans on 75 and 80 meters.

On a number of occasions, several of us hid out in the club room on a
Friday night before a football came so that we could operate
Sweepstakes (we normally had 24/7 access to the station, but not on
game day. This wouldn't have been such a bad thing except there
were no unlocked bathrooms inside the stadium which made going
#2 an interesting challenge :-):-)

73, Mike W4EF (ex KD8NS)