[VHFcontesting] September VHF contest

Wed Sep 13 00:23:16 EDT 2017

Hi John,

That's some rover you have!

We're okay with EMT in our setup. Right now we're just using 10' sections,
and I think they are at least 2" in diameter. With 2 smaller beams than
you're running, they are super stiff. I wouldn't go much higher than that
with these, especially since guying becomes a concern.

We need to find more of those stupid high locations. Finding ones around
that are drive up that do not include a huge amount of other transmitters
and aren't Mt. Washington (out of the way and a heck of a drive up) or Mt.
Equinox (occupied by WB1GQR) is difficult. Also, those locations are
generally closed for the January contest.

73,
Sean WA1TE

On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 8:28 PM <nosigma at aol.com> wrote:

> Sean,
>
> DONT USE fence post top rail or conduit tubing.  I did the fence post top
> rail and it was stupid heavy, lousy heat treat (not stiff) and a major PIA
> to raise and lower.  My fold over is 16 feet with two folding 6 foot cross
> arms (running four 12ft beams VV) and its way to much to handle by hand but
> a heck of a lot better than steel.  I use a gin pole and a winch to raise
> and lower.  Safe and easy.  Be super careful that it cant rotate while
> being raise because in a high wind when folded over it will spin off to the
> side.  I darn near killed myself last November during testing up on a
> mountain top when we went from still air to 50mph+ while raising the mast.
> My mast is now laterally guyed while going up, good to 100mph.  See my QRZ
> page for fab details.  Just make the mast high enough to get the right
> launch angle from the antenna's.  You ability to be mobile and drive to a
> stupid high location gives an 3,000 or 5,000 foot high tower.
>
> If you can go crank up vertical or pneumatic vertical you will be a lot
> happier than using  a fold over.  I love my station but I went fold over
> because I could do it on the cheap with fab skills in place of money that I
> put into radio's.
>
> 73
> John Young
> KM4KMU
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sean Waite <waisean at gmail.com>
> To: Nick Pick <nicolasgagnon at hotmail.fr>
> Cc: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tue, Sep 12, 2017 4:38 pm
> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] September VHF contest
>
> 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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