[VHFcontesting] 2 Meter Sprint de N2LBT FN32cp

[Dennis Hudson]

Well, I was on from 7:15-10:00 or so. I haven't operated a home station 
for many years. I've moved a couple of times to apartments that didn't 
allow antennae structures or were just plain old too much work to get 
something up. I have always enjoyed rover operations for the last 10 
years and I just put my energy in to that. I've talked to many of you 
folks during my 3 yearly trips to the Great White North.

Well we've bought a house and put up 40ft (we've been getting lots of 
rain, so I hope it will grow to the City's limit of 80ft soon) of Rohn 
25 bolted to the house at 9ft and 17ft. I took the 2 mobile M2 halos 
and mounted them at the top on a 3 foot mast.(~36" separation). I 
notice signals to be about equal with a dual band vertical on the same 
tower but the noise floor was much higher and I heard birdies ever 
15khz or so. I live on a little crest, about even with the surrounding 
terrain maybe slightly higher, with a few directions completely blocked 
by some trees. Actually 10-20 feet will clear most obstructions.

I was able to work about 10 stations and spent most of the rest of the 
time messing with the rigblaster and installing software to play with 
while listening to K1WHS working lots of stations and setting up 
microwave skeds to find new grids. It's fun to get on from home, and I 
hope to put up the rotor and LPA up this weekend in time for the 220 
sprints. See you then.


Dennis, N2LBT FN32cp