[VHFcontesting] Setting up new station

[Sean Waite]

Are you guys running your beams horizontal or vertical for FM only? The
penalty for cross polarization is pretty nasty, but I guess most of the
sideband stations are running higher power and big enough beams to make up
for that. Just curious, we don't have dedicated FM antennas at the moment
but occasionally flip over to see who is out there.

Sean WA1TE

On Thu, Nov 3, 2016, 20:50 John Young via VHFcontesting <
vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:

> Micheal,
>
>
> I do FM Only.  The folks on the contesting reflector are super helpful.
> Do a search on the reflector under "VHF contesting KM4KMU" on google or
> using the reflector search tool under my call KM4KMU.  Lots of great
> information from the contesters here.
>
>
> My QRZ page may be of some help too.  Last night I gave a 45 slide one
> hour presentation on my FM station build and contesting experience, good,
> bad, lessons learned from last January and this past September.  If you
> send me your email address (send to nosigma at aol.com) I will post the
> presentation to Drop Box and pass a link for you to down load the
> presentation if your interested.
>
>
> I am adding 6m FM to my station for January.  I have been torn between
> building a custom beam (mountain top mobile via Jeep) or getting the
> Dominator omni and setting up a second mast. I am probably going to go with
> the beam since the 6M rig is all about the multipliers.
>
>
> I love my M2 220-10 EZ and 440-18 beams.  The 220 antenna was perfect at
> factory settings out of the box. the 440 was a bit more challenging to get
> dialed in perfectly, it took a couple hours with network analyzer to get it
> spot on perfect, but I tend to be a little uncompromising.
>
>
> I run the CX-333.  Its a great antenna.  I use it for close in work, under
> 60 miles and the beams for reaching out and grabbing grids/multipliers,187
> miles is the best so far.   Beyond that one condition I find that the omni
> is pretty worthless. I exhaust the close in contacts after about 10 minutes
> at the top of each hour and after that its all about the beams.  My
> location is unique, your results may vary. FM can be a bit of a desert so
> BIC is key.
>
>
> 73
> John Young
> KM4KMU
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Murphy <michael at k5mbm.com>
> To: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
> Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2016 1:01 pm
> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Setting up new station
>
> Thank you all who responded.  You've all given me something to think about.
>
> Following on some of the advice given, I am going to shoot for FM only
> in the January contest.  I will not have moved to the new location yet
> so it won't be optimum, but it will be a start.  All I really need to do
> is get a 6 meter FM antenna up.  I already have a Comet CX-333 for 2,
> 1.25 and 70cm.  I am thinking of getting a Dominator 6M antenna from
> Norwalk Electronics.  It will handle 1500 watts and is highly rated.
>
> Right now my antennas are mounted on 20' poles attached to the eave of
> the house.  I have 10 segments of Rohn 25g to put up at the new
> location, but I am thinking of a temporary 30' setup with the 6M antenna
> attached to the top.  Along with setting up the logging software, I
> should be able to get it all done by the January contest.
>
> As somebody said, this will give me experience in the process from
> beginning to end and afterwards I can evaluate what needs to be improved.
>
> Again Thanks,
>
> Michael Murphy
> K5MBM
> EM20
>
> On 10/29/2016 11:13 PM, Michael Murphy wrote:
> > This is an opinion question, so tell me your opinion and why you feel
> the way you do.  I have been wanting to get into vhf contests, but haven't
> got it all together yet.  I currently have a Yaesu 450D and 100D.  Also
> have 3 Tyt 9000 (2m, 1.25m and 70cm FM).  I will be moving in a few months
> and have been thinking about the new shack and thinking of upgrading the
> equipment.  So if you were to start from scratch to build a decent single
> operator station primarily for Vhf contest (I've be doing HF just fine with
> what I've got now), what equipment would you use?  I like that the Elecraft
> K3 has support for multiple transverters.  I also like the Icom IC-9100 for
> its 2m and 70cm capability, but no transverter support.  When it comes to
> tranverters, I like the way the Elecraft transverters work with the K3, but
> Demi has more band choices.  As far as antennas go, I've only got a triband
> vertical for the FMs.  So any thoughts and comments are welcome.
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> > _______________________________________________
> > VHFcontesting mailing list
> > VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>