This Odyssey (in my Odyssey) began a year ago. We rent a house in Maggie
Valley, NC in June and July. I'd sold my IC-781 (dumb move) and bought a
new IC706MKIIG. With the ability to operate 6M, a 3-element Yagi, and a
fiberglass "Wonderpole", running the June VHF Contest from our Maggie Valley
QTH seemed like a fun idea.
First off, I found being high above the valley doesn't count if you are
surrounded by mountains 1000 feet higher. Also the W4NH team operates
Multi-High Power in the VHF Contests from Soco Bald - only 6 miles from our
Maggie Valley QTH. The IC706 front end was paralyzed! Even worse, I
couldn't even hear MOST of the close-in stations they were working. It
turned out to be the dullest Contest experience I'd ever had. Only 50 QSO's
and I operated the entire Contest. Clearly, major improvements were needed
for any repeat operation.
First off I sold the IC706 and found another IC-781 (higher serial number).
No additional equipment was purchased until I obtained permission to operate
from a site selected after a lot of driving and map research. With that in
hand, the next problem was to locate a 32-foot Aluminum tower that could be
transported on top of the Minivan, and which my xyl and I could erect
complete with antennas and rotator. ND8L offered a used 40-foot Heights
Aluminum tower which was perfect for the task.
K3LR had his welder/machinist made a tilt-up base that could start either
sizes of base section. We ended up going with 32-foot of tower because
40-feet seemed more that we could "walk-up." The base was anchored at the
corners with 4 - 18" "Penetrator" earth anchors from American Screw Anchors
that I saw mentioned on the Towertalk Reflector. 3 additional "Penertators"
were purchased for guy anchors.
The next task was to build an Electaft XV-50 Transverter. The build and
alignment of the XV-50 went very smoothly. I left the XV-50 running with
the IC781 for several weeks - just to make sure. When N9NS stopped by one
night, I proudly showed him the XV-50 and he immediately noted that a
ceramic bypass capacitor had shorted and "fried." Unfortunately it also
"burned" the Glass-Epoxy PC Board and part of +12V trace it bypassed. While
a replacement capacitor was quickly shipped, I'm left with a "new"
permanently charred and damaged PC Board.
Finally, after a long chat with W3ZZ, I bought a used (Pre-MFJ) Mirage 6M
brick off of eHam. On W3ZZ and W4VHF's recommendation, I also purchased a
pair of PAR Loops. An M-Squared 6M5X 5-element Yagi was also found on eHam,
and a used Alliance HD-73 was located on eBay. A MFJ-434 Voice Keyer and an
Astron SS-30 Switching Power Supply were used to power the XV-50 and Mirage.
My long suffering xyl, Diane, and I rehearsed tilting up the tower plus
antennas in our back yard. It was obvious that 32-feet was a the limit of
our strength, so I bought enough 1/2" Polypropylene rope to rig a 4:1 Block
& Tackle, and a pair of Polystyrene Slings. That was the best money spent.
We also transported one of those 4-foot collapsible ladders could be used
use as both a 13-foot straight ladder, and a 6-foot stepladder.
We set up on Thursday - beginning with renting a car so my xyl could ferry
supplies. The site was only 14 miles from a 4-lane highway, but the drive
up the twists and switchbacks took about 40 minutes one-way. When we got to
the site, the first task was picking a convenient Oak tree to anchor the
Block & Tackle. Then a weed whip had to be used to clear tall TOUGH grass.
That stuff just didn't want to cut! We spent a lot of effort with a shovel
leveling a spot for the tilt-up base only to find that one or more of the
screw anchors would hit rock! After 4 tries, and a lot of sweat, we finally
found a "magic location." Assembling the tower and Yagis, and running the
feedlines was easy. We left Thursday night ready to raise the tower.
On Friday the first job was to raise the tower. Both of us had spent a
somewhat sleepless night wondering if we could do this without loosing the
whole assembly. The grass was tall, and moving the stepladder to walk-up
the tower was very difficult. However with the 4:1 Block & Tackle, it
proved to be a snap. We just walked the tower up to a convenient and safe
angle, and then used the Block & Tackle to raise the tower with very little
effort. We had dreaded lowering the tower, and that proved to be even
easier with the Block & Tackle.
The equipment was set up in my Odyssey minivan with the middle seats
removed. A friend had loaned me a on an adjustable table which just fit
inside, and which was low enough to sit on the rear seat. Long-term, the
seat got more and more uncomfortable.
I hid two, full 5-gallon plastic gasoline cans at the site so that they
would not have to be stored in the car overnight. However Saturday morning
I found that they had (apparently) been "investigated" by a bear. They were
turned on their sides and leaking through claw-type punctures on the can. I
don't think it was vandalism because the cans were hidden, and the tower and
coax were untouched! Two replacements were obtained, but this was a waste
of money because the rented Honda EU2000i generator ran the whole Contest on
the less than 10 gallons I salvaged.
Conditions were just fabulous Friday. CO8LY, XE2AT, XE2YWB were worked, and
Saturday morning IW5DHN was worked. Before the Contest, signals on 6M were
coming from every direction. 222 QSO?s were made the first 2 hours of the
Contest ? and then the Propagation Gods frowned. There was a western
opening in the late afternoon, but it didn?t extend much further west than
Colorado. There was no late-night opening. On Sunday the opening to the
East Coast was virtually non-existent. K1TOL who had been S9+40 on
Saturday, was S2 on Sunday. Several un-worked East Coast stations were
heard Sunday, but I couldn?t work any of them. There was an even weaker
western opening Sunday afternoon. Very few stations in Texas and New Mexico
were worked. By contrast, I was surprised at the amount of stations worked
in MN, ND, SD, and CO. The only ?West Coast? station worked was VE7AV in
CO83 ? although I heard the W4NH crew work someone in a CN Grid Square on
Sunday.
After a 1 ? QSO?s hour between 2100 and 2200z Sunday, I decided to ?bag it.?
On Sunday night we had to return the Rental Car that my xyl used to ferry
supplies. Given the propagation, It seemed futile to try and tear-down and
pack everything back in the Odyssey in the dark at 11:00PM. Tear-down of
the tower on Monday took only 2 ½ hours - accompanied by sounds of nearby
thunderstorms that fortunately skirted us.
Next year I?ve got to find a trailer-mounted tower, multiple directive
antennas, and some way to be a lot more comfortable!
Thanks to Tim, K3LR for encouraging an old contester to try something new,
and to Gene, W3ZZ and Ted, W4VHF for their valuable advice.
W9ZRX - EM85 - SW North Carolina
Hour QSO's Grids
-------------------
18 121 51
19 100 26
20 14 1
21 20 4
22 23 10
23 35 13
0 37 9
1 29 15
2 12 5
3 10 2
4 6 1
5 0 0
6 0 0
7 0 0
8 0 0
9 0 0
10 3 0
11 9 1
12 9 1
13 22 5
14 18 3
15 16 4
17 7 1
18 8 0
19 1 0
20 9 3
21 2 0
22 0 0
23 0 0
0 0 0
1 0 0
2 0 0
---------------------
Totals 533 160 = 85,280
Operating Time = 12.8 Hours
73 ---> Dave, W9ZRX
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