07/01/2008 | WA4UF Typical. Antenna problems, propagation problems, etc. We must all be
masochists to try a VHF contest in January. :-)

I got a spiffy new 4element 6m Yagi built, and got a friend over after
the SouthCARS luncheon up in Valdosta to help put the thing up on the
rickety Radio Shack mast. 2pm rolled around, and we'd just got the mast
vertical and secured when it started really sincerely raining. 45F,
rain, wind and lightning constitute really crummy weather for north
central Florida! One soggy dash back indoors and it was confirmed that
the Yagi heard much better than the Moxon it replaced, despite being 5'
lower (to dodge a thick tree branch when rotated). The band was wide
open to the northeast and the "CQ contest" calls were coming thick and
fast.

Naturally, that's when we discovered nobody could hear be because - you
guessed it - the feedline was shorted. So it was back out in the rain,
drop the mast, replace the feedline, hoist the mast... by the time we
got done (and I defused a couple of squabbling-children episodes in the
house :-)) the opening was gone gone gone, never to return. Ah well.
At least things look promising for June now!

End result was 14 or 15 contacts, most of them local, spread across 6m,
2m and 70cm. -- WA4UF