[VHFcontesting] Second Blurb....Activating DM70 and DM71 on 6M and 2M...

[Marshall-K5QE]

Hello to everyone interested in the FFMA award or grid chasing in 
general on 6M.

The K5N Grid Activation Group wishes to announce another Grid Bandits 
DXpedition.  We will be activating DM71 in west TX during the peak of 
the Perseids meteor shower.  We plan to travel on Aug 10th(Sunday) and 
arrive at our location in Van Horn, TX, at about 12Noon on August 11th.  
We will setup as quickly as we can and should be on the air by the late 
afternoon on the 11th.  We plan to run until 9AM on August 14th, at 
which time, we will tear down and begin the drive back home.

We have chosen to go out during the Perseids in the hope that we can 
make some really long distance MS contacts.  We will be there about 3 
1/2 days, so we should be able to run a lot of MS.  We will use 26 for 
the report(SingleTones = ON).  Since this is not a contest, we don't 
have to exchange grids.  Remember, K5N is a DXpedition and we will 
always take first sequence on MS.  On EME, we will take second 
sequence.  IF Es happens, we will abandon MS and take all the Es that we 
can get.

Dan-N5TM will construct his private chat rooms for us as usual.  Go to 
chat.n5tm.com and login with your Call, Name, and Grid.  Then click on 
the K5N-6M or the K5N-Dan tab above.  This is important, if you don't 
click on the appropriate K5N tab, you will be in the general chat room 
and we will not see you.  Dan will use the K5N-Dan tab for his 2M 
operations and for the side trip(see below).

Choosing a frequency for these things seems to always be a problem. This 
year, we are past the normal window for Es, so I want to use 50.128MHz 
for everything except EME.  For the EME, we will use 50.195MHz.  IF you 
will check in on the K5N-6M chat page, then you will always know what we 
are doing and the frequency.   In the past, we have found that 50.128MHz 
is a good frequency for DXpeditions that are not out during the main Es 
season.  If some Es does occur, then people will find us on .128.  If 
there is no Es, it really does not matter where we operate.  IF the band 
goes wild with Es, we may get blown off .128, but I guess that is a good 
problem to have. Again, the K5N-6M chat page will keep everyone together.

Dan-N5TM will be operating limited 2M from DM71.  He will have 2 x 2M7 
or a 2M12 and 300W on 2M.  Dan can work EME with this setup on 2M.  Dan 
will make a side trip to DM70 on Wednesday, Aug 13th in the morning.  
There are a few guys that need DM70, so we plan to try to work them 
too.  Dan will take his portable setup, so he will not have full power 
or large antennas.  For the side trip, Dan is planning 500W on 6M and a 
small beam.  Please visit with Dan off the reflector if you need DM70.

We will be taking our usual portable setup to DM71.  That is 2 x 6M5XHP 
with full AZ / EL steering and 1500W output.  You can see a picture of 
our setup on the cover of the Field Day edition of QST. Dan-N5TM will be 
doing limited 2M from DM71 and possibly from DM70.

The moon is quite good on Aug 12th and 13th.  We will endeavor to work 
those that need DM70 on 6M off the moon on those two days.  The 
degradation is especially low, so if you are interested in an EME sched, 
please contact K5QE off the reflector. Download and install GJTracker 
from W7GJs web pages for exact data.  In general, the moon times are 
during the dead of night when not much else is happening.

Bill-N5YA is building up a new set of T/R relays with a preamp for EME.  
We have had a lot of trouble in this area in the past and hope that we 
can finally solve it.

All of us really do want to get you into the logs, especially if you 
have never worked DM71 before on 6M.  Speaking of logs, Joey-W5TFW will 
again be our QSL manager.  Please give us time to get the custom QSL 
cards printed up and delivered to him.  Joey can't send out any cards 
until he gets them, so give him some time.   Remember, no SASE = no QSL.....

73 es GL to everyone....
Bill-N5YA
Dan-N5TM
George-NR5M
Colin-KU5B
Marshall-K5QE