08/04/2008 | K0MHC "Tramania for Rovermania"

This is a building year with incremental improvements to my tower/antennas. With a strong desire to do most of the assembly on/near the ground I've resorted to "traming" the antenna array up the tower. The UHF contest was an opportunity to add all 6 bands (222 - 3456) onto a single H frame assembly using the ring rotor without disturbing the existing 50 - 144 stack on the top rotor (Don't try this at home!).

The UHF contest results were generally good considering the relatively poor atmospheric conditions until later Saturday evening. I really appreciate the rovers willingness to point their antennas away from the Twin Cities long enough to run the bands with me up here in EN26ha. I know that this has an impact on your overall run rates.

222 wasn't working correctly as it turned out that the coax relay was stuck in the 432 position. Sorry for the resulting frustration for what should have been a slam dunk on 1.25 meters from most locations. OK I should have tested this out before traming it up the tower!

We're now looking forward to the Sept. VHF contest when both the 432 and 222 stacks will be tuned up and just maybe we'll have the 5.7/10 GHz dish back on the tower (where to put it?).

Again thanks to all of the NLRS and Badger folks who were active during the contest.

73, Jim
SOLP EN26ha Lake Miltona, MN -- K0MHC