My first 6M Sprint was a good ?dress rehearsal? for a long-planned remote
operation in the June VHF Contest. My xyl and I were able to tilt up the
32-foot Aluminum Tower with everything already attached. And all of the
gear operated without a hitch ? except ?.
I didn?t leave enough of a coax loop for the beam to turn 360-degrees. Of
course I didn?t know that until I turned the beam south and it only went
part-way. So I ?touched up? the Calibration Control on the Alliance
Rotator. In fact I ?recalibrated? twice. After signals were not peaking at
the right azimuth, I went outside to take a look. The coax was TAUT and
bending the boom! And there is now a ?kink in the coax.? A length will
need to be cut out.
There just wasn?t any propagation. Of course Sunday night there was a great
opening ? only a day late! I think my most distant QSO was probably in MO.
There were some signals from the west in the last 15 minutes or so of the
Contest. I heard K5TR bouncing up and down, but unfortunately a couple of
loud folks decided to rag chew on 50.125 at the same time.
My longest QSO would have been K0HA who answered my CQ around 0255z. He was
quite loud. I immediately responded with my Grid Square ? but as quickly as
he had appeared, he was gone.
22 QSO?s x 15 Grid Squares = 330 (20-SSB, 2-CW)
2 ½ Hours Operating Time
IC-781 + Elecraft XV-50 + Mirage A1015G (150W) + M-Squared 6M5X @ 32-feet
See you all in June ....
73 --> Dave, W9ZRX
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