Microwave Fall Sprint
Call: WW7D/R
Operator(s): WW7D
Station: WW7D
Class: Rover LP
QTH: wwa
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 24 Total Score = 1,353
Club: Pacific Northwest VHF Society
Comments:
Most of the microwave folks in the Puget Sound area were in Bend, Oregon for the
Pacific Northwest VHF Society annual conference. The few of us who didn't go to
Bend decided to make the best of it.
Mark, VE7AFZ, went to the side of a mountain North of Vancouver, B.C., Brian,
KE0CO was home near Seattle, Doug, AC7T, was home in Redmond, WA. Doug had a
900 MHz FM radio, so I lent him a 1296 FM radio and small yagi. Tom, KE7SW,
made a surprise appearance toward the end of the Sprint from Tacoma, WA. It
rained on and off the whole time, and there were strong wind gusts almost
everywhere I went.
My route started out on the side of Mt. Pilchuck at about 3,000' in CN98 and
moved to Central Park, Issaquah where one can hit both CN87 and CN97 at 1,200'
from opposite ends of a long parking lot, and finally up to the
CN87/CN97/CN86/CN96 intersection where gravel roads give access to CN86 and
CN96 at 3,000' and CN87 and CN97 at 1,500' and 1,800'. I drove through, but
didn't stop or make QSOs in, CN88 because the grid is low and noisy. I only
had 10 to 20 minute stops at each grid location. Because of the distances,
most of the sprint was spent driving. As it happened, I messed up the timing
calculations, giving me an extra 40 minutes near the end.
My equipment was an SG Lab 1296 MHz transverter with an old DEM amp putting out
about 10W. For 900 MHz I used an old SSB Electronic transverter into a Stealth
Microwave 50W amp for SSB/CW and a Kenwood TK-981 for 927 MHz nbFM. The
transverters used an FT-857D IF. In the rear of my old Toyota pickup truck
was a 12' loop yagi for 900 MHz and a 6' loop yagi for 1296, both on a mast
that extends to 25'at stops. On the front of the truck was WA5VJB "cheap
yagis" for 903 MHz and 1296 MHz, as well as a vertically polarized 927 MHz
cheap yagi, and a 4-el 2m cheap yagi for coordination. The front microwave
antennas were at about 9' and could be rotated in motion.
Things started out with some frustration, as I could only work KE0CO from a
CN98 location that should have been highly productive. This was the closest
grid to VE7AFZ, but we could not hear each other. The next set of spots, in
Central Park, were highly productive, and I was only able to work VE7AFZ from
one of the two grids, but AC7T and KE0CO were solid on both 1296 MHz and 927
MHz.
The third set of stops (CN86/CN96) were good. In CN86, KE7SW made his surprise
appearance on 927 MHz and we easily worked on 1296 as well. KE0CO was easy on
both bands, and then VE7AFZ had a solid signal on CW off the Olympics. AC7T
and I couldn't hear each other, but we didn't really expect to be able to work.
A couple miles down the road, in CN96, the same thing happened, except that
VE7AFZ and I could not complete a QSO. The wind gusts were rocking the
antenna mast and cross-boom antennas violently, causing the antennas to move in
and out of "focus" either off of Mt. Rainier or the Olympics.
For the last 45 minutes of the sprint, I made a mad dash to another CN87/CN97
location with the objective of working KE7SW on both bands, and working VE7AFZ
from CN97 on 1296 MHz. Tom and I successfully worked, but I was never able to
hear Mark in the remaining minutes.
Ended up with 13 QSOs on 1296 MHz and 11 QSOs on 900 MHz. KE0CO made a clean
sweep, 2 bands in each of the 5 grids I stopped in. KE7SW made 8, AC7T 4 and
VE7AFZ 2 QSOs. Longest distance was 278.2 km with VE7AFZ from CN86xx to
CN89ji.
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