 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
Once again as last year the crew chiefs WA1HHN & N3EMF of the South Mountain Contest Club elected to enter the September VHF Contest as a high power single operation. The man shown here at the "Helm" is none other than Pete Walters K9PW driving in from Illinois, who has contested with us before. He tells us he likes the different perspective from the "East Coast". The South Mountain site had been recovering from extensive lightning damage received before and after the June contest, damaging two rotors, five controllers, several computers and monitors. The station gear was setup for one single-op control position and was operated manually unlike the previous September 'test, having been more automated. Yet despite all of this, with the contest site's robust fourteen band effort, Pete was able to hammer out another 100K more in contest points, scoring well over last years efforts, putting an excellant score into the books which along with other K3EAR record scores, will stand for some time to come! Congratulations Pete, for a job well done!!
K3EAR Sept VHF 04 Pete K9PW at the "Helm" |
K3EAR SOHP Pete Walters K9PW |
Sept VHF 04 K3EAR Microwave Stack |
SOHP K9PW Pete Walters at K3EAR |
|
I have to thank Warren Wb2ona ,for his relentless tower work, The crew at DEMI for supplying simply the best equipment out there, and Dave K1whs for his loopyagis, without any of them i would have not been on those 2 bands.
I was very pleased with the results .
73's Stu
ve2xx Fn25wk
|
W8MOP operating the ARRL Sept. VHF contest from the East River Mountain Overlook, Bluefield, WV. EM97 |
THE EAST RIVER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, BLUEFIELD, WV. EM97
"It was a dark and stormy night..........." Then we woke up and headed to the East River Mountain Overlook, Rt. 598, Bluefield, WV. We setup the tower, 2M and 6M and 440 antennas, got the paperwork out and were ready to go. The team arrived at the mountain around 1130 and were totally ready by 150pm. The contest started at 2pm, local time, and we were off. There were a few less contacts made this year as compared to years past........we don't know if there were less participants or 'bad karma', or "bad "conditions" or what. The ERARC contingent operated from 2pm until dark, around 8pm. We opted to quit due to the 6M feed line getting tangled and destroyed in the rotor mechanism. This 6M antenna was fabricated by Jerry Connelly KC8TES. It looked and performed just like a store-bought antenna. It's a three element, PVC and aluminum tubing unit: sturdy and hefty. We regrouped on Sunday morning at 0830am, setup (again) and commenced to contesting. The stations we heard were duplicates for the most part until around 1pm when we logged several new callsigns, but for just a short amount of time. It was decided that the contesting would cease and we shut down around 2pm. In the words of one participant, " A good time was had by all.....until it was over". The operators: N8GK Gary Kadar, KG4MCC Dave Cox, KC8TES Jerry Connelly, K8WBS Bill Sowers, N8RIG John Riddle, W4OF Hooger Fisher. Observers and those who helped: N8NCP Harold Hodges, KC8ECA Scott Hodges, KM8G Mark Kozar (from Alum Creek,WV), K8CTI Jay Belt, KG4UQT Ed Presley, W8NPK Nick Kadar and KF4YBU Ginny Fisher. Points: 6M: 29 QSO X 14 DIFFERENT GRIDS 2M: 27 QSO X 11 DIFFERENT GRIDS 440: 2 QSO X 2 DIFFERENT GRIDS Check the URL below for pictures from this event.
Check out a radio-active site at:<http://www.erarc.com>, The East River Amateur Radio Club. We'll be glad that you did!
Bill Caldwell, N0LNO and I have a "Rover Package" that we can quickly install in a van and be on the road contesting on the go in a short time. This time we used Bill's Van and my call sign. We operated all bands 50 through 2304 MHz with low gain antennas mounted on a rear mast that just clears the interstate overpasses. The 2304 antenna is a handheld horn inside the van.
A memorable contact was working W0ZQ on 2304 SSB while on the move down I-35. This is a two-man operation as you can imagine. We activated 12 grids in this contest.
The operator position has two rigs: one for 50, 144, 432; and the other for 220, 902/3, 1296, & 2304. Transverters, LNA, and PA's are all in a PVC frame behind the operator. The pictures show the lash-up.
L to R: Rod, K0DAS & Bill, N0LNO |
Operating Position, K0DAS/R |
Transverters, LNAs, PAs, Wattmeters, etc. - all strapped into a PVC frame |
W9FZ/R in EN-44 (at the Altura location) looking south. |
Conditions were average and I worked grids as far away as Milwaukee. I'm glad I took the time to make 10GHz QSO's--several were about 200 miles. I was pleased with the longer distance Q's I made with K0AWU and KM0T. Weather was BEAUTIFUL!! The picture is from EN-44 looking south.
I feel the function of a rover is to activate grids and provide additional activity primarily for fixed stations. I contacted a few rovers over the weekend and appreciated the grids and QSO's they provided. I am proud that I am an independent Rover who does not orchestrate my activity to increase my activity with other Rovers. Increasing activity with fixed stations is my primary motivator.
I must mention another reason I Rove. It's the beauty I find along the way. For instance the beautiful rainbow in the picture or the beautiful early fall colors while driving through the Minnesota River Valley north of Mankato.
I thank the many fixed stations I worked multiple times, for instance WØZQ, WØGHZ, NØKP, WØAUS, NØHJZ, NØVZJ, K9CVC, KØSGI, N9ISN, NØAKC, KØAWU, and KMØT.
I think my performance this year--680 Q's yielding 1312 Qpts and 86 grids--is the best I can possibly do from these 9 grids. The challenge goes out to other one-person and two-person Rovers to top this from these 9 grids. I think 2-person Rovers will top it rather easily.
Holding license plate of orginal owner of W4VHF (de TN). Operated bottom 4-bands on Sunday AM of contest from High Knob 4200') in sw Virginia. Activity was great.
|
ROVERING in MINNESOTA I had a good time with my stop and shoot rover operation in Sep-VHF contest. This is a personal best in rover to rover, completeing with N0DQS/R at 245 mi, K0MHC/R at 174 mi, and K0PG/R at 138 mi. Best DX to a fixed station was EN33xw to K0AWU in EN37ed for 235 mi. Also had a brief opening from EN43ax to the Milwaukee area where N9LLT in EN63ah was 205 mi at the end of a run of five stations and three new grids on 144.170 MHz in less than 20 minutes. It pays to advertise a route and calling frequency. I also heard NT0V in EN08 (434 mi), but I could not get his attention in the 144.200 confusion with my 50 watts and five elements on a 60 inch boom. Next time I will pound away on CW at 144.205 for 10 minutes and see if I can get his attention.
Thanks to all the Northern Lights Radio Society members that I worked from multiple grids to fill out the QSO counts. The sun was warm and enough wind to blow away the dust on the gravel roads we set up on. Scouting operating positions in the daylight ahead of time helps find the safe field driveways across the ditch in the dark. After completing with W9FZ/R on five bands from a hilltop I realized I could see stars from horizon to horizon. This is fun in September
ARRL September VHF QSO Party
Call: W3SO Class: Limited Multi-Op HP QTH: FNOO - WPA
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
6m: 353 59
2m: 434 73
222MHz: 152 50
432MHz: 200 57
-------------------
Total: 1139 239 Total Score = 356,349
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Thanks again to the rovers; they keep us going in the slow times. Rovers accounted for 152 QSOs out of our 1139 QSOs or 13%. We logged 19 QSO with K3LFO, 16 QSOs with K8MR, and 14 with KE3HT. The rovers and others were patient and stood by as we worked the queue of passes on 432 MHz as fast as possible.
We had no 6m opening and no 2m opening; but there were "reaches" to the west on 6M and 2M; and enhancements on 222 and 432 to Canada. Our best DX on 6m was about 970 miles to K0HA and on 2m it was 675 miles to FM04.
The newly installed 6m stack fixed northeast worked well.
We got the CT "last 100 QSOs" meter over 100 several times late Saturday afternoon and again on Saturday night.
Murphy did NOT visit us! Our weather was good all weekend. And this was topped off by AI3M's XYL again preparing excellent meals through out the weekend for us.
See you in the Fall Sprints and the Jan. VHF contest.
Station detaits are at <www.qrz.com/w3so>.
For the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators,
Ed
K4VV, KB3LGS, W3BTX, W3TEF, W3YOZ, W3SF, K3IXD, AI3M, and AI3M's daughter. |
K4VV at 2m and W3BTX at 6m |
AI3M at 432 (rear) and W3TEF at 222 (front) |
The front building is the shack, the rear building houses a 2m and 440 FM repeater (note the vertical antennas). In the fore ground is the tower with the 6m stack, 5 over 5 at 90 feet, with 22 el 222 beam on top of the tower at 105 feet. On the rear tower is the 2m FM beam fixed towards Pittsburg, PA. |
Not all the excitement was on the bands. This car fire was at the Altoona overlook, about 500 feet from the shack. The barbed wire is around the radio, TV, and pager towers. |
While on the mountain (Flag Pole Knob, VA at 4300') we were thinking back on how long we had been using that same site for both the June and September contests. We came to the conclusion that this was about the 15th year we had been occupying the site in the George Washington National Forest.
The first group arrived on the mountain on Wednesday before the contest and the final truck pulled away after tear down on Monday afternoon. We had a great time and good weather after Wednesday evening when the remains of the hurrican came through the site. Thanks for all the Qs and we'll see you next June and September for year number 16. 73, Jack W4NF, W4IY VHF Contest Coordinator
W4RM, Bill on the 432 Stack Tower |
W4IY 2 Meter Stack (C3I FO15s) |
W4IY 222 Stack (Cushcraft 220B Boomers) |
W4IY 7 over 7 Force 12 6 Meter Stack |
I used this rover setup during my first-ever solo effort in a VHF contest. |
|
Responsibility for content of all posted material rests exclusively with the item author. ARRL staff assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, and accuracy of items appearing on this page. All questions and comments should be directed to the item author. |
