2008 ARRL June VHF Contest
06/27/2008 |
KL7UW/R
I'm glad so many had a great June contest. Up here in Alaska it was something different...I titled it the "UnContest" in an e-mail to the Pacfic NW VHF Reflector.
As a primary VHF+ antagonist, I promoted the contest on local nets for a few weeks leading up to the contest. I even went "roving" to add a little excitement, driving 90-miles south of my home QTH in BP40 to the 1100-foot Diamond Ridge lying just above Homer, AK and in grid BO39.
I started setting up my rover arrays a couple days early and opted not to use the 3-element 6m yagi, but instead built a dipole using a used 1-inch aluminum boom from an old 2m yagi whose elements had self-destruct several years ago. Its length of 10-foot was nearly perfect (it ended up 102-inches when trimmed for best SWR).
The six-element 2m yagi I had used in previous roving would not tune up? I replaced the coax line, and cleaned terminals to no avail. I assume the coax balun has gotten bad (its part of a KLM-22C), so I went with my Arrow dual-band satellite antenna giving 3-elements on 2m and six on 70cm. I took my FT-847 so I would have decent RF power for the trip.
Well the day started out rainy as my wife and I drove south. We arrived about an hour late for the start time and set up parked in a side road to the ridge with a view north of clouds! We were in them!
I brought along my 80m hamstick and checked into the Alaska Swap-n-Shop Net on 3933-KHz that runs 10-11am every Saturday...thus subtley announcing my arrival at our contest location.
AL2B called me on 144.200 soon after and we also worked 446-FM with fair signals over the 75-odd miles beween us. A little later KL7XJ joined us on 2m and we were unsuccessful trying 70cm, but did make a contact on 50.125. Both are in grid BP40.
That was it! 2-stations, 3-bands, one multiplier. Nothing heard from two hours of calling although Anchorage stations had only drive ten miles up the "Hillside" to 2200-feet where we were line-of-sight and 5w would have worked the approx. 150-mile path.
I would have considered my 927.5 MHz 10w FM rig and the 1w 10-GHz station had I assurance that the few stations with these bands would be QRV (there is only one other on 10-GHz in Alaska). I did not have my 33cm loop yagi as it was hung on the tower last summer (to be replaced with a bigger-one this summer). My 1296 set up is too many boxes and wires for convenient roving.
The afternoon was more fun as my wife and I had a great lunch at the Land's End Resort on the spit in Homer and then visited the Pratt Natural History Museum. Homer is a great Alaskan tourist destination!
Sunday I operated from home and only worked KL7XJ on three bands! I monitored 6m until the end of the contest and never heard a signal - band dead! So how many QSO's did I achieve for my $85 worth of gasoline? Saturday score = 15, Sunday = 12
Hoping for more activity this fall! I should have stayed home and worked eme! Ed -- KL7UW
As a primary VHF+ antagonist, I promoted the contest on local nets for a few weeks leading up to the contest. I even went "roving" to add a little excitement, driving 90-miles south of my home QTH in BP40 to the 1100-foot Diamond Ridge lying just above Homer, AK and in grid BO39.
I started setting up my rover arrays a couple days early and opted not to use the 3-element 6m yagi, but instead built a dipole using a used 1-inch aluminum boom from an old 2m yagi whose elements had self-destruct several years ago. Its length of 10-foot was nearly perfect (it ended up 102-inches when trimmed for best SWR).
The six-element 2m yagi I had used in previous roving would not tune up? I replaced the coax line, and cleaned terminals to no avail. I assume the coax balun has gotten bad (its part of a KLM-22C), so I went with my Arrow dual-band satellite antenna giving 3-elements on 2m and six on 70cm. I took my FT-847 so I would have decent RF power for the trip.
Well the day started out rainy as my wife and I drove south. We arrived about an hour late for the start time and set up parked in a side road to the ridge with a view north of clouds! We were in them!
I brought along my 80m hamstick and checked into the Alaska Swap-n-Shop Net on 3933-KHz that runs 10-11am every Saturday...thus subtley announcing my arrival at our contest location.
AL2B called me on 144.200 soon after and we also worked 446-FM with fair signals over the 75-odd miles beween us. A little later KL7XJ joined us on 2m and we were unsuccessful trying 70cm, but did make a contact on 50.125. Both are in grid BP40.
That was it! 2-stations, 3-bands, one multiplier. Nothing heard from two hours of calling although Anchorage stations had only drive ten miles up the "Hillside" to 2200-feet where we were line-of-sight and 5w would have worked the approx. 150-mile path.
I would have considered my 927.5 MHz 10w FM rig and the 1w 10-GHz station had I assurance that the few stations with these bands would be QRV (there is only one other on 10-GHz in Alaska). I did not have my 33cm loop yagi as it was hung on the tower last summer (to be replaced with a bigger-one this summer). My 1296 set up is too many boxes and wires for convenient roving.
The afternoon was more fun as my wife and I had a great lunch at the Land's End Resort on the spit in Homer and then visited the Pratt Natural History Museum. Homer is a great Alaskan tourist destination!
Sunday I operated from home and only worked KL7XJ on three bands! I monitored 6m until the end of the contest and never heard a signal - band dead! So how many QSO's did I achieve for my $85 worth of gasoline? Saturday score = 15, Sunday = 12
Hoping for more activity this fall! I should have stayed home and worked eme! Ed -- KL7UW
Photo Gallery
-
My previous rover...
Back
