02/03/2010 | WA2FGK Right before the contest I listened for the W3CCX/b on 1296 and could not hear it.. I looked outside and noticed the antenna was far from the needed direction. Put my climbing belt on and checked things out.. A U champ on the HyGain rotor had snapped in 60 mph winds during the week. I climbed down and found an extra rotor clamp. Back up I went and did the repairs 15 minutes before the contest started.. I started off on 50 mhz with tremendous numbers.. I had our four six element yagis facing in three directions..
Several hours into the contest, I had a rover ask me to run bands through 10 ghz.. I worked him on everything to 5,760 but my 10 ghz would not draw current due to very cold temps on this mountain..
I switch back to six meters and wound up having a 220 volt circuit breaker fail.. I went to the box and switched it back on. Up came the HV and I was back in business.. During the night this happened three times.. I knew the amps were working FB so had planned on heading for Home Depot in the morning to get a new breaker which was 10 years old. When I went to the box to take the breaker out, I noticed the number 10 wire had loosened up.. After 10 years the hold down tab must have bent loose.. I tightened the wire and was back in business..
I made a bunch of skeds and decided to concentrate on 144 mhz on Sunday afternoon. I noticed signals were very weak.. I take a break and look outside and could not believe what I saw.. My 4 x 12 el quad on 144 mhz was facing 45 degrees down.. At this point I realized I was pumping 1,500 watts through a 19db antenna at my family jewels.. Lucky I am done having children.
Going through work related problems at this moment, plus knowing I have to do repairs on a 150 pound antenna, brought me to a hault..
At 2pm Sunday I quit with 545 QSO's..
Sorry about missing alot of microwave stations on Sunday from our rare winter grid of FN21..
I did have one highlight.. I ran a sked with K2YAZ near Chicago on CW scatter.. We worked quickly sending 40 wpm on both 50 and 144 mhz
I felt like a kid in the 1960's again.. Long live CW.. Actually it was quicker than doing FSK
Tons of repairs to do on our tower farm in the spring.. Bear Creek, Pennsylvania is probably better suited for skiing than ham radio antennas -- K2LNS