[VHFcontesting] Orphans, contests, and the incurable VHF disease

[Paul N1BUG]

Huh. I guess I'm not "cured" of the VHF bug! I was planning a nice, 
simple single band (6m) contest. But......

Saturday a somewhat scruffy looking Icom 290H was abandoned on my 
doorstep. Feeling sorry for the poor neglected thing, I took it in, 
cleaned it up and checked for any major health issues. It seems OK.

Oh, hey! Maybe I could cobble something together for the upcoming 
contest! (Oh boy... here we go again!)

This morning I risked life and limb to drag an old 200W amplifier 
and its associated overkill beast of a power supply (250 plus 
pounds) out of the back corner of my storage area. If I can figure 
out my wiring of many years ago and cobble together some suitable 
bias scheme for this former class C amp, I might get it running 
before the contest! Or else just use it on CW as is...

Anyway, now I need an antenna! Little time. Few usable parts. Hmm. 
Well, there's always the ol' quick 'n dirty temporary quagi made 
from a board and some wire. Been there, done that. More than once. 
It will have to go on the 20 foot tower intended for an EME array 
back in the day... and just last summer I pulled the heliax that was 
running out there for another use. RG-213 it is, then!

So there's some work to do, but if I don't hit too many snags I 
should be on 6 *and* 2 this contest. I hope to work a few of you. 
Don't expect much signal-wise... all you're likely to get is a 
whisper in the noise!

73,
Paul N1BUG FN55mf
6m: 1.5 kW, 7 el @ 100'
2m: ? W, ? el @ 20', hopefully...