[UK-CONTEST] WPX GW9T First Time Out

Fri Apr 1 06:05:45 EST 2005

Hi Chris
You are absolutely right, we ended up with high angle radiation. The thing
was that we had to rapidly come up with aerials
for 80 and 40 as our original plans using Bobtail Curtains failed as we
couldn't tune them correctly.

The site we use is heavily water logged most of the year, and certainly up
to 10 or more wavelengths away from the aerials is virtually a bog. The
reason why the Bobtail Curtains failed was purely because the value of
inductance in the tank circuit to tune them, was too low.

(The moral of the story is to go out and get the aerials up in the air, and
sort them out prior to a contest. Then pack them up ready to use. This we
are going to do.) We'll certainly keep the Delta Loop, as it was great for
Europe.

We are constructing a Four Square for 40 and 80, using the phasing /
switching arrangement based upon a Collins design.
See http://tk5ep.free.fr/index_g.htm for more information.

Again the aerials solutions we come up with must be capable of being erected
and dismantled either side of the contest. At the moment we've got 5 Sigma 4
CB Aerials. These are just short of a Quarter wave (by 10 inches) on 40m.
(Remove the loading coil etc from each one.) A visit to B&Q has produced 4mm
Ali tubing, in 1m lengths. This fits just right in the tips of the Sigma 4's
to get the required Quarter wave on 40M.

As to 80M, we have 46 x 8'10" Fibreglass masts. (Ex MoD used for supporting
Wires) which we can get up to 72 Foot. We'll then run heavy gauge wire up
the side of them to form the Quarter wave element on 80m. As to radials, we
plan to experiment with elevated radials (between 2 and 4m above ground) and
with earth mats. (These we made so that they just un-coil from a disused
coax drum, and are then pulled out across the ground. We have used Rope to
act as a guide, so its fairly easy to get the mats out...as long as you take
it easy and don't get it knotted up...!).

The idea for the Quad on 7MHz, is based upon slinging a rope between two 72
Foot masts, and hanging wire loops from them. Although I suspect we'll have
high angle radiation coming off it. Still worth an experiment.

Take a look at www.gb4iom.co.uk, in particular the gallery and photo pages,
to see our previous antics with aerials. (We still have the X7 by the way)

Adrian M1LCR

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of G3SJJ
Sent: 31 March 2005 22:27
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] WPX GW9T First Time Out

Fantastic reports from both of you. Keep at it.

Callum, you want to get hold of ON4UN's Low Band DXing book. It has lots of
very useful info. Also, have you got EZNEC antenna modelling software? You
can try various feed points, lengths, heights etc and see the effect.

Adrian, your 40m loop was fed for high angle so you would expect good Eu
propagation, maybe that's what you were aiming for. I think I would have
made it for 80m and fed it ON4UN style for low angle and then a dipole for
Eu.

I've been using a pair of phased 1/4 wave verticals here for 40m over the
last 2 years. Very simple mechanically, the tubing was salvaged from 2 old
Butternuts and a broken A4S. Just need to get the lengths of the phasing
lines correct, plus say 20 radials. About 1 s-point difference East to West
on close-in Eu but 4 or more s-points on DX. Very weird in the evening to
hear VK then switch to West and hear Carib on the same freq.

Chris G3SJJ

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Adrian Rees (M1LCR)
Sent: 31 March 2005 21:59
To: Callum; uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] WPX GW9T First Time Out

Hi Callum

The Delta Loop was a full wave Loop, triangular in configuration. Fed at the
middle of the Horizontal base section. We fed it with a Quarter wave of 75
Ohm Coax (note the velocity factor comes into play here) then onto RG213.
The Horizontal Section was about 33 Feet off the ground.....

We had it running N-East - S-West. Yes we worked a fair few VE's and W's on
it, in fact I worked a VE7 who was mobile ...weak but there.

We have received reports that we hit 5/9 + 60 into Amsterdam, with plenty of
DL's / DK's saying we were the loudest signal on the band. Certainly we
where heard in Ipswich at 5/9 + 30.

Our next effort will be to build a 7MHz Quad (from wire) firing to S
America...just for the hell of it !

Incidentially we can get our masts up to 135 Feet, as long as we have 5
people to help. But like most clubs, general apathy has set in, with a hard
core of 2 or 3 to go out and do this. As I said, volunteers welcome !

Adrian (M1LCR)

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Callum
Sent: 31 March 2005 21:34
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] WPX GW9T First Time Out

What a great story Adrian.

The Delta loop: Did you feed this with coax and a 4:1 balun? Where did you
feed it - In the middle? At the top? Can you elaborate for me?

How did you find it performed for DX to the USA. Did you mount it North-East
/ South-West?

Too many questions, I know! Sorry.

Callum
M0MCX

-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Rees (M1LCR) [mailto:rees.a at btconnect.com]
Sent: 31 March 2005 19:59
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] WPX GW9T First Time Out

Hi all
we aired our new contest call for the first time last weekend, as GW9T
(Wrexham ARS aka Barking Mad Contest Group the Barking Mad bit came from a
club member who suggested that we are Barking Mad to go out and play in
contests in the middle of winter ! But hey, why not !).

Summary:
              GW9T
      CQWPXSSB Score Summary Sheet

      Band  Contacts     Mults     Score
       1.8        65        21      2856
       3.5       224        80     39680
         7       354       148    117216
        14       725       322    404110
        21       206        86     26746
        28         4         2        16
     Total      1578       659   1975682

It was our first time out in WPX, although we did operate in CQWW SSB, and
SSB Field day last year. The station was operated by Steve (MW1STE) and
myself (M1LCR). We operated for a total of 41 Hours. We ended up changing
our 160,80 and 40M aerials as we had considerable difficulty loading them (I
flashed a Palstar 1500CV ATU at 2am !).

Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and learnt a lot about aerials and contesting.
(Incidentally we operate Field Day style, as none of us have sufficient
garden space for anything decent below 14MHz. So last Thursday and Friday
Steve (MW1STE) and myself, ably assisted by James (M3JRP) erected two 72
Foot masts, two 35 Foot masts and a mobile tower. We ended up as follows:

10-15-20 Cushcraft A3S on Mobile Tower
40 Delta Loop at 72 Foot (Apex) / Quarter Wave Vertical
80 Quarter wave Vertical
160m Dipole at 72 foot dropping to 35 Foot.

Icom 756PROII + Dentron ML2500 Linear +Daiwa Auto ATU / Palstar 1500, all
powered from a Honda 6.5KVa Diesel Generator.

The whole lot coming down on Monday morning. I am now barred from using the
family caravan for contesting, due to the significant amount of mud trooped
into the thing, during the contest. So we're off to buy an old caravan to
convert to our contest shack. We operate from a disused airfield, 10 Miles
South East of Wrexham, with a reasonable 360 Degree take off.

As you can gather we are beginners at this sort of thing, so any advice
would be welcome ! As would any volunteers to join us !

Adrian (M1LCR)

PS, Don (G3XTT) if you read this it was me who was the cheeky sod who said
"Evening Don" when we worked you on 7MHz ! Steve worked you earlier on 3.5,
but is a bit quieter than me !

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