[VHFcontesting] my stratergy/ 10 GHZ Joy!

[Eric Smith]

> 
> > ... one of these days I will bless the bunch
> > with the story of how I lost ALL of my rover antennas
> at
> > once at 65 MPH... an hour before the start of the 2003
> June
> > VHF test one year... something to do with mounting them
> all
> > to a Ham IV rotator...
> > Eric
> > KB7DQH
> > 
> 
> OUCH! Did you come up with a better scheme?
> 

Yes, I did... I also built new 2 and 432 antennas, drilled
up a new boom for the 903 looper and transferred all 40
elements, replaced the feed and respliced the boom on 1296,
replaced the boom on the 6 meter Yagi, and the driven
element on the 222 Yagi... The reflector was replaced
during the contest with one of the intact elements left
over from the wreckage of the 2 meter antenna, but, the day
after the contest ended, I used the 222 antenna with a
broken driven element (snapped inside the boom) to work
AA7A in DM43, from my home QTH in CN87... during the best
Eskip opening I have ever experienced.
I managed to reassemble the rotator during the contest
while camped on Lion Rock with the K7CW unlimited multiop
gang... by drilling the tapped holes that normally retain
bolts which hold the bell to the ring which holds the
rotator together, then fastening the rotator together with
1/4-20 grade 8 bolts, nuts, washers... no more threads to
strip out in the bell!  

When at home, I rethunk the antenna mounting situation, and
dug thru my mountain of junk, and came up with one end of a
trailer axle, complete with bearings, hub, and wheel.  Cut
the center out of the wheel, welded a tripod to the wheel,
and fastened the telescoping mast originally bolted into
the top of the rotator to this tripod/wheel assembly.
 Drilled out a large diameter V belt pulley salvaged from a
clothes dryer to fit the bolt pattern of the hub, and
sandwiched this between the wheel/tripod assembly and the
hub and torqued the lug nuts.  Mounted a similar diameter
wheel to the top of the rotator, purchased an appropriate
length V belt at the hardware store, added an idler wheel
clutch to tension (and untension) the belt, then welded the
trailer axle stub to my rotator support frame so as to hold
up the antennas and line up with the pulley on the rotator.
 Put the antenna frame back together and attatch to
telescoping mast, all in time for field day!

Although I no longer use this assembly, it sits in the
yard, covered, and can be pressed back into service in the
amount of time it takes to U bolt it to a roof rack and
stick some antennas on it.

There are pictures of it on the PNWVHFS website, and on the
N7CFO homepage, in the rover rigs section, along with
pictures of my "unlimited multiop" rover vehicle.

Just got done on-air testing of my Homebrew 10 GHZ station.
 Did have to replace the TX amplifier module with one that
actually had gain... but it was heard 1.7 miles away with
my DEM device using a 30 dB horn... on the -10dBm output of
the mixer no less. The homebrew unit was in the capable
hands of Greg, KD6UAO. 
He set it up with my .75 meter offset dish, utilizing the
feed it came with, (bored to 3/4 inch ID by Greg on his
vertical mill)   and a waveguide to coax transition.
I then ran down the road and set up the DEM gear and
proceeded to engage in a QSO that lasted I would guess
around 15 or 20 minutes or so.  About that time we both
assumed that the hungry stomachs indicated it was dinner
time and broke the gear down and headed to a local
resturant for dinner.
I then benched the unit, and discovered the "0" gain TX PA
stage and replaced it with another, similar, but
differently dimensioned unit... Made it fit by swapping the
male and female SMA fittings around on the new module and
removing one of the Male to Male SMA connectors.  Added a
10 dB pad to the RX IF line to limit the noise in the IF
rig, actually, get it from S-9 down to a point just below
the S-1 point on the signal meter.
Stability of the California Microwave PLO brick seemed
excellent... better than the LO in my DEM transverter,
probably better than the Icom 202 I was using as an IF on
the DEM transverter.  Yup... Works fine, last long time,
varies from ship to ship, almost guaranteed to be sailor
proof!  And ready to torture on the upcoming 10 GHZ and up
test!!!
Eric
KB7DQH