2003 ARRL September VHF Contest
10/11/2003 |
KF0Q
The September 2003 event was my third ever low power portable attempt; second for the September contest. This year I had no real goals other than to have all of my eight bands working and to get somewhere beyond a hundred qsos. I had a pretty good time here in 2001 running low power portable (QRP) so I thought that it would be fun to try it again. I had a hunch that the propagation would be down due to changing conditions and an early dose of fall weather. I started getting really serious a few days before the test by hauling some of the yagis up to the site and testing some feedlines. Turns out that I found no less than 3 bad feedlines that needed attention just days before the contest!
My station was nestled in the corner between the corn and the alfalfa at the end of a field road on a hundred acre farm here in southeast Minnesota. I do not own this land I just ask permission from the owner/s of the property a few times a year when I can fit a contest in. I have never had an issue with them, and they seem to hardly know that I am around. There is a decent paved road leading to the property and a nice field road too to the site (about a half mile from the pavement), which makes it easy to get to. The site is just a few miles inside EN43, which can be nice sometimes as there is less activity in the grid.
I used 2 portable push up masts that have guy ropes tied off at 120 degrees for mounting the 8 yagis. The larger 36 ft mast has three tiers of guy ropes while the smaller mast for 222 on up only needed one set. The 6MX5 was damaged this summer and I needed a couple lengths of aluminum tube for the repair. Even though the parts were ordered several days in advance they still hadnt showed up in time for setup on Friday afternoon! I normally put the 50MHz antenna on the top of the stack, but this year I got started without it and put the KLM yagi for 144 on the top. Late Friday night however; the parts arrived so I was able to fix the M2 and mount it Saturday morning. (As we all found out six never really opened any way).
The operating position was atop my 24 deep folding camping table inside a tent. An Astron power supply was used inside for just one load; the 902-144 xverter. Two rotor boxes were used for the CDE AR33 and Yaesu 1000 rotators on the pushup masts. Most of the 7 feedlines and 2 IF cables fit neatly in the corner of the tent where I didnt have to trip over them too much. One thing that hadnt occurred to me was the lack of heat available at the operating position. Typically I have plenty of heat from the gear, but running low power this time out (and with temps in the upper 40s in the morning and night) it was cold!
An IC746PRO used for 50MHz and the IF for 902,2304,3456 as well as 146MHz FM for local contacts. I added a optoisolator inverting circuit to the PTT output of the 746 PRO to get +12V on xmt used for the PTT H needed on all my Down East xverters that are set up for 10W common IF on 144. PTT keying between the IF rig and the xverter was performed manually by selecting the correct line and plugging it in to the 746PRO cable. A 4 - position N coax switch was used to switch between each xverters or the 146 antenna. The 2304 and 3456 xverters were tower mounted in a Nema 3R hoffman enclosure along with an Astron SS-18 power supply.
Antennas:
M2 6MX5,
KLM 16LBX,
Butternut 2MCV-5 Vertical,
222 FO style homebrew 16 element,
M2 432-9WL,
Directive Systems LYs 902 3456MHz:
3333,
2345,
1376,
9112
Rigs:
IC746PRO,
FT736R,
Down East 902-144, 2304-144, 3456-144
I got on the air a bit later than expected, but I wanted to make sure all the gear was working on all bands. I was pleased with the 144 station this time out - working some grids to the south that are typically a challenge for me with higher power. I was thrilled to work K9SM in EM59 some 350+ miles to my south late Saturday! It was really nice run in to and run the bands with Tim and Pat K0PG/R, K9ILT/R with the rover stack pointing right at me! I had no idea that I would have so many contacts on 902 SSB for that matter!
For all the effort my setup was not without problems. My larger stack of 144 and 6M antennas tossed around in the wind repeatedly and caused my bearing to drift big time. I must have twisted my back while mounting the 2304/3456 transverters up on the mast before the contest. I pulled the switch Saturday night and went home to get warm and get some rest. The 5KW generator sputtered now and again on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon I found out why. After I turned the unit off for refuel I couldnt keep the generator running for more than 2 minutes. The low lube light said that the level was below safe. I added oil (that didnt work). (Obviously I checked it before the contest start -). I pulled the spark plug and discovered no spark. Then I drained and refilled the crankcase to the correct level to no avail. At this stage I concluded that the low oil circuit was hyperactive. The station went quiet for a few hours Sunday afternoon while a figured out another source of power which turned out to be my 130AH rover battery! The battery did the trick for the next sevral hours. In total I ended up with some 213 qsos, and beat my previous score from 2001 substantially. Finished up (at 0258Z) with K0MHC/0 for EN26 on 902 CW Thanks Jim! Not sure what the next adventure will be perhaps I will try portable for the January event some time.
73,
de -- KF0Q
My station was nestled in the corner between the corn and the alfalfa at the end of a field road on a hundred acre farm here in southeast Minnesota. I do not own this land I just ask permission from the owner/s of the property a few times a year when I can fit a contest in. I have never had an issue with them, and they seem to hardly know that I am around. There is a decent paved road leading to the property and a nice field road too to the site (about a half mile from the pavement), which makes it easy to get to. The site is just a few miles inside EN43, which can be nice sometimes as there is less activity in the grid.
I used 2 portable push up masts that have guy ropes tied off at 120 degrees for mounting the 8 yagis. The larger 36 ft mast has three tiers of guy ropes while the smaller mast for 222 on up only needed one set. The 6MX5 was damaged this summer and I needed a couple lengths of aluminum tube for the repair. Even though the parts were ordered several days in advance they still hadnt showed up in time for setup on Friday afternoon! I normally put the 50MHz antenna on the top of the stack, but this year I got started without it and put the KLM yagi for 144 on the top. Late Friday night however; the parts arrived so I was able to fix the M2 and mount it Saturday morning. (As we all found out six never really opened any way).
The operating position was atop my 24 deep folding camping table inside a tent. An Astron power supply was used inside for just one load; the 902-144 xverter. Two rotor boxes were used for the CDE AR33 and Yaesu 1000 rotators on the pushup masts. Most of the 7 feedlines and 2 IF cables fit neatly in the corner of the tent where I didnt have to trip over them too much. One thing that hadnt occurred to me was the lack of heat available at the operating position. Typically I have plenty of heat from the gear, but running low power this time out (and with temps in the upper 40s in the morning and night) it was cold!
An IC746PRO used for 50MHz and the IF for 902,2304,3456 as well as 146MHz FM for local contacts. I added a optoisolator inverting circuit to the PTT output of the 746 PRO to get +12V on xmt used for the PTT H needed on all my Down East xverters that are set up for 10W common IF on 144. PTT keying between the IF rig and the xverter was performed manually by selecting the correct line and plugging it in to the 746PRO cable. A 4 - position N coax switch was used to switch between each xverters or the 146 antenna. The 2304 and 3456 xverters were tower mounted in a Nema 3R hoffman enclosure along with an Astron SS-18 power supply.
Antennas:
M2 6MX5,
KLM 16LBX,
Butternut 2MCV-5 Vertical,
222 FO style homebrew 16 element,
M2 432-9WL,
Directive Systems LYs 902 3456MHz:
3333,
2345,
1376,
9112
Rigs:
IC746PRO,
FT736R,
Down East 902-144, 2304-144, 3456-144
I got on the air a bit later than expected, but I wanted to make sure all the gear was working on all bands. I was pleased with the 144 station this time out - working some grids to the south that are typically a challenge for me with higher power. I was thrilled to work K9SM in EM59 some 350+ miles to my south late Saturday! It was really nice run in to and run the bands with Tim and Pat K0PG/R, K9ILT/R with the rover stack pointing right at me! I had no idea that I would have so many contacts on 902 SSB for that matter!
For all the effort my setup was not without problems. My larger stack of 144 and 6M antennas tossed around in the wind repeatedly and caused my bearing to drift big time. I must have twisted my back while mounting the 2304/3456 transverters up on the mast before the contest. I pulled the switch Saturday night and went home to get warm and get some rest. The 5KW generator sputtered now and again on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon I found out why. After I turned the unit off for refuel I couldnt keep the generator running for more than 2 minutes. The low lube light said that the level was below safe. I added oil (that didnt work). (Obviously I checked it before the contest start -). I pulled the spark plug and discovered no spark. Then I drained and refilled the crankcase to the correct level to no avail. At this stage I concluded that the low oil circuit was hyperactive. The station went quiet for a few hours Sunday afternoon while a figured out another source of power which turned out to be my 130AH rover battery! The battery did the trick for the next sevral hours. In total I ended up with some 213 qsos, and beat my previous score from 2001 substantially. Finished up (at 0258Z) with K0MHC/0 for EN26 on 902 CW Thanks Jim! Not sure what the next adventure will be perhaps I will try portable for the January event some time.
73,
de -- KF0Q
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