Halifax Emergency Communication Krew (HECK) operated the Center Halifax Amateur Operated System (CHAOS) again this year. The Krew consisted of Diane (food supplier), Gabriel (KC2HQH, operator) and me (N2JFS, technical detail).

New for this year was a set of glass-fiber tubes that reached 48 feet up in the air (when all was put together). Looked very risky during its erection but worked well once it was all up. Also new for this year was a multiband dipole. As we “didn't need” an antenna tuner, our long trusted tuner was left home. What a mistake, as the tuned antenna was slightly off tune. Well, now we know better and it will be random length wires, open feed-lines and tuners from now on. A dipole at 48' will work good if it is tuned well but, I suspect a random wire at that hight will work just as good. The idea of using erected tubes to various heights makes life a little less risky compared to bow-and-arrows we used in the past to place antenna wires in surrounding trees. The chances are high you miss the tree and the antenna don't get as high up as intended. You might also hit unintended things or lose your arrows.

Also used were a few sets of antennas surplus from the Swedish Army, Armens Högantenn. They come with 33' tall sticks and a nice disc-cone antenna. The disc-cone antenna works over the 28 – 520 MHz range, which is very useful.

As HECK is not out to get the best position in the list we didn't work that many stations. The few we worked were at respectable distance though. From our location in southern Vermont we worked Saskatchewan, Canada, South Florida and Orange Count, CA just to mention a few. Most important is; we had fun.

See (hear) you next year. Hans - N2JFS