WB9JBF (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
Multi op, Wisconsin (ops: KA9WXN, N9FH, WB9UAI)
B power
1226 Q's x 79 sections = 193,708pts
This was the most planning any of us did for a contest, 3 days of
antenna work plus time setting up the station. So why were we still
digging in the home brew DVK with a soldering iron less than one
hour before the start?? :^]
We had big plans for a 3 element wire beam on 40 and a "cloud burner"
horizontal loop for 75. Well, we couldn't get the beam high enough
to work well, and the loop only managed warm the roof. So we exchanged
the wire beam for a full sized ground plane made of copper pipe and
raised our normal dipoles on 80 and 40 up 20 more feet instead which
turned out to be a great move. The GP/ dipole combonation worked great.
Switching between the two gave us the added diversity to be able to
dig out the weak ones (less than the S9 +20db slop). The 75 meter dipole
was raised to 40 feet above the 3 story high flat roof and performed like
a champ. We had 2 hours saturday night with 104 qso's each (what fun for
a bunch of VHF contest types...you just don't get those kind of rates
on 432...but then again you don't normally find QRM +30 db over S9 either!)
20 meters was frustrating. Our 4 element tribander just
couldn't bust through the threshold of big guns to run. Part of the
problem was that the rotor indicator had broken and I had gotten
tired of running up and down 3 flights of stairs to see which way it
was pointed after swinging it blindly.
Hardest earned QSO goes to VY1JA...worked him split with an '830 and
no external VFO. Every time I transmitted I had to turn the RIT off,
twist the knob to the opposite stop, and turn the XIT on, repeating this
procedure in reverse when listening. I was thankfull that it took less than
a 20 minutes to break the pile up! My appologies to the op. up there for
being so pokey in my exchanges...if he only knew!
Being multi - op sure helps in keeping the mind sharp when operating,
but I had to give Fred, N9FH, a poke in the arm once in a while when
he moved us to the second district instead of the ninth, or when he'd
send "2A Wisconsin" instead of the "CK 72 Wisconsin". Sorry Fred,
Field Day isn't for another 8 months.
We had fun, pissed a few people off (and we're pissed at a few too! :^] )
and gave a good showing for the collegiate competition. See 'ya all
in the 160m 'test, our next club effort.
jw
wb9uai
====================================================
John C. Wilke, BA, BSN, RN (jw@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu)
Ride the fast parts fast, slow parts slow, sometimes
the slow parts fast...but NEVER ride the fast parts slow!
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