2010 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
01/25/2010 |
KC2TA
Another January, another contest, and another year that I didn't get the antenna work taken care of. Thought about doing the work in September, October, November...Well, maybe for June? (NOTE: THE DIPOLES FOR 6 AND 40 METERS BLEW DOWN DURING THE STORM TODAY -- JAN 25TH! MAYBE NOW I'LL GET TO WORK ON WORKING ON ALL OF THEM.)
Worked Saturday until Noon, threw the 6 meter dipole up, and voila -- bad feed line! Replaced the feed and found that I had cut it short, but the tuner took care of that. So, what I explained happened above just made it easier to drop the antenna!!!
Had a good portion of the afternoon and evening to operate, but an early wakeup for soccer (there it is again, but the extra cash is nice)and after the matches I was blessed with a visit from my daughter and grandson which included dinner, so the remainder of the afternoon and evening were pretty much shot until they headed home.
Conditions weren't the greatest during my opportunities to prowl the bands. Worked a couple of Rovers and had a number of stations on the three bands I have available. But I'm still longing for the kind of activity I remember from when I first got interested in VHF/UHF and the contesting there -- wall to wall on 2 meters from 144.150 to well over 144.275, 6 meters churning away and 220 (at the time) and 432 going like crazy with MANY stations actually CALLING CQ ON 432, rather than just making an appearance as they worked another station 'up the bands' for the points.
Here's hoping 'Old Sol' will get his act together before June! -- KC2TA
Worked Saturday until Noon, threw the 6 meter dipole up, and voila -- bad feed line! Replaced the feed and found that I had cut it short, but the tuner took care of that. So, what I explained happened above just made it easier to drop the antenna!!!
Had a good portion of the afternoon and evening to operate, but an early wakeup for soccer (there it is again, but the extra cash is nice)and after the matches I was blessed with a visit from my daughter and grandson which included dinner, so the remainder of the afternoon and evening were pretty much shot until they headed home.
Conditions weren't the greatest during my opportunities to prowl the bands. Worked a couple of Rovers and had a number of stations on the three bands I have available. But I'm still longing for the kind of activity I remember from when I first got interested in VHF/UHF and the contesting there -- wall to wall on 2 meters from 144.150 to well over 144.275, 6 meters churning away and 220 (at the time) and 432 going like crazy with MANY stations actually CALLING CQ ON 432, rather than just making an appearance as they worked another station 'up the bands' for the points.
Here's hoping 'Old Sol' will get his act together before June! -- KC2TA
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