08/09/2003 | K1WHS It seems I am always doing antenna work! I was desperately trying to get
the 432 antenna back up Saturday morning, and finally finished enough of it so I could listen
and talk just 10 minutes before the contest began. Talk about cutting it close! My location is in Maine, FN43MJ.
First station heard was W3IY
in FM15 as the contest began. I did not have the big rig running yet, so missed
that contact. Darn! I had to QRT Saturday afternoon and evening, but
was up at the crack of dawn Sunday on 222 thru 10 GHz, and hit the bands until 2 PM.
I was interested in trying out the new 432 X 8 yagi array at 106 ft as well as the new
3456 4 X 112 element Blowtorch array at 138 ft. Both seemed to work pretty well, but
condx were down, especially later in the morning, and activity was poor. I had some help from Steve, W1SD and Al, WA1T
who showed up and we all got on and worked stuff Sunday morning. Al grabbed the 432 position. I think he was
very curious to see how the eight yagis would play. He helped to haul em up!
No real great DX worked, but we could tell everything was working well. FM28 and FM18 & 19
were all easily worked on 432. We even had a number of FN20 1296 QSOs.
Grid totals were pretty OK considering the eight hours of operating time. 89 grids total and 189 QSOS.
432 activity seemed good from here with 70 QSOs in21 grids, mostly on Sunday morning.
It sure was fun to fire up all the rigs! Thanks to all who got on! Look for us in September. -- K1WHS