[VHFcontesting] September VHF contest

[Sean Waite]

We use some thicker EMT, it's usually made of steel. We're looking at tilt
over, drive over mast holders and going with 2 lengths, the masts we're
using are only 10' lengths so it doesn't get us up all that high. It's way
too heavy, particularly with the beams, to do it on 2 sections. Careful
loading up the thinner stuff too high, it can buckle.

We use one of the Ukranian 222MHz transverters (
http://transverters-store.com/). Inexpensive, 29MHz IF, about 8W out. It's
slightly off frequency, but by a predictable amount. We ended up getting a
Radio Shack HTX-10 to drive it, there was too much of a risk of "oopsing"
and putting 100W from the IC-7000 we use on that station into the
transverter and letting the smoke out. For an antenna, we picked up one
from Directive Systems.

I've got a pair of 100Ah deep cycle batteries in the car during the rove.
We have 2 operators in the car, and are running 100W on 6 (IC-7000) and 2
(IC-746) with assorted extra current draw from the 70cm (FT-790RII) and
1.25 (HTX-10+xverter) radios. If we're both transmitting it's probably
somewhere around 45A draw, a little much for a single battery to be happy
with. I've thought about adding a solar panel, unsure if it's worth the
cost and additional hassle of setup in our situation. It may be more useful
if you're sitting for longer or have shorter drives.

It really is never ending. The handy places with high elevation are closed
in Winter in New England, so for January we're looking at a full run-n-gun
setup so that we just drive forever instead of stopping and setting up
beams. This is of course more stuff. Then we need to implement a pile of
other changes for the next September contest (June is a no-go for us,
unfortunately).

Maybe I'll get some equipment on the air for the 2m sprint next week, but
unlikely. I do need to test something with our mobile setup, so maybe.

Good luck and hope to make a contact someday,

Sean WA1TE

On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 3:50 PM Nick Pick <nicolasgagnon at hotmail.fr> wrote:

> Hi Sean, yes still thinking on how to improve, already know that I want a
> second battery and probably a solar panel because there's not a lot of time
> to operate on a saturday, and dismounting everyting when it's dark is a
> pain in the lower region and probably focus on operating on sunday the next
> year, exept january, I will be on our local mountain here so can go
> saturday and sunday...
> For mast, I use 2x 10' of electrical metal tubing (forget in what material
> is made) that I buy for 15$ each at Home Depot but with antennas, the thing
> is too heavy and difficult to raise alone, I was lucky to have someone
> doing a sota to help me raise it!
> Will try to cut 1 tube at 5 feet and try to raise it alone, perhaps next
> monday for the 144MHz sprints, but not sure yet... Yes alredy thinking and
> planning, my next major move will be a 220MHz tranverter and antenna and
> after that good coax and.... it's never ending hi hi, take care and see you
> on the bands!
>
> Nicolas
>
> VE2NCG
>
> Le 12 sept. 2017 à 10:32, Sean Waite <waisean at gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> Hi Nick,
>
> It really was chilly Saturday night, at our FN32 stop it got down to about
> 10*C.
>
> I tried listening for your a couple times, but it was pretty chaotic
> getting set up at both of our Saturday sights so I couldn't spend a whole
> lot of time. Roving is a ton of fun, and a very good way to avoid issues
> with your home QTH being in a valley or restricted from having antennas.
>
> CW is useful, it's something I need to work on more as well. I can kludge
> along if need be, which is good enough for this sort of contest.
>
> What are you using for a mast? Looks like PVC.
>
> Welcome to the portable club. Now you get to spend every day until the
> next contest determining how to improve your locations and station!
>
> Sean WA1TE - K1SIG/R
>
> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 8:35 AM Nick Pick <nicolasgagnon at hotmail.fr>
> wrote:
>
>> ARRL 2017 Sept VHF
>>
>> Hello all!
>> Decided to operate portable this time and we decided (Me and Eric VA2MO)
>> to operate on Mt-Radar at FN46ki, a 3 hours ride and it was supposed to
>> be warm
>> and sunny.... not so much as you can see in the album below:
>>
>> Album at: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZtFCQ
>>
>> Installation when without a fuss and everyting was in order and Eric was
>> doing
>> his SOTA activation and as I was looking at the sky, I decided to unwrap
>> the tarp
>> and install it just in case... of course, 5 minutes before the contest,
>> Murphy's Law when into effect:
>>
>> https://youtu.be/qwy65XcnViU
>>
>> It's was wetter, colder and inconfortable than when I was Rover in
>> january...
>> after half an hour, decided to brig all the equipment inside the truck
>> and since
>> I decided this time to use 20' of mast insted of 10, the coax for the 6m
>> and the
>> ground plane for FM where too short... anyway, still get the V/U
>> horizontal and a
>> 6m vertical and decided to make somme noise on the bands and was fun
>> anyway,
>> portable will be my niche from now on. Thanks to all that have worked me
>> and special
>> thanks to everyone who have try! As a rookie, I have learn that cw is
>> very important
>> when the band are so-so, next "upgrade" to my station would be to learn
>> cw!
>>
>> Nick VE2NGC
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>