[VHFcontesting] Operating W1AW/5 on EME....

[Marshall-K5QE]

Hello to everyone interested in EME....

This year is the Centennial Celebration of the ARRL.  Part of that 
celebration is to operate W1AW from locations all around the country.  
Beginning at 0000Z on January 29th, the W1AW/5 call will be used from 
the super station of NR5M near Houston, TX.  I am going to operate from 
there for the first two days.

George-NR5M has a really serious EME station, although it has not been 
on the air lately.  On 6M, he has 4 x 6MXP20s.  On 2M, he has 8 x 
2MXP32s.  On 432, he has 8 x 432-15WL as H-pol and another 8 x 432-15WL 
as V-pol.  On 1296, he has a 16ft dish. George has QRO power on 6M, 2M, 
and 432.  I am not sure how much power he has on 1296, but knowing 
George, it is substantial.

Right now, I may be the only operator on EME and I clearly can't run 4 
bands simultaneously.  In order to help coordinate, I have asked 
Dan-N5TM to create a W1AW/5 chat room for EMEers that want to coordinate 
with me(and hopefully other operators who follow).  Just go to 
chat.n5tm.com and login.  When you login, please enter your Call, Name, 
and Grid.  Then click on the W1AW/5 MS and EME tab above.  That part is 
important.  Otherwise you will be in the general chat page and I will 
not see you at all.  Someone will ask why I don't use the ON4KST 
pages.....The ON4KST pages are very FB, but I cannot monitor 4 different 
pages there.  With the private chat page, I will only see people that 
are interested in this operating event.

I will also be doing MS on 6M and 2M when the moon is below our 
horizon.  SO for the stations in range, you can use the chat page to 
coordinate that.  This does not help the EU and Oceania stations, but 
for NA stations that are in range, it will be useful.

Obviously, I cannot operate 4 stations plus do MS for two days, so there 
will be times that I will not be there.  I will try to get some relief 
so we can keep the station operating, but that is unsure at best.  After 
the first two days, I do not know who might be operating, so we will 
just have to wait and see.  It takes a LOT of operators to keep a big 
station like this active on all the HF bands and VHF too.

I will be driving down tomorrow morning early, so I will not be 
monitoring my email after tonight.  Use the chat room....

73 and GL to everyone interested in this operating event.....

Marshall K5QE