Like a lot of folks, I'm in the same boat - pack it all up, take it to the
hill, unpack it and set it up, wait two days, reverse the process - and all a
solo effort. Estimates and processes have improved dramatically for me over the
last five or so years, but it's probably 12 hours on each end of the contest
for pre-set up, and post tear-down, not counting the off road excursion
involved.
While it would be nice to have all of the comforts of home, some of us do not
have locations and or the space in southern California to do the big tower
spread. Even if we did. because of the varying local topology, even a 120'
tower is likely to be looking in to a 4000' pile of rocks and dirt, and of
course following the Murphy Principle, always in the direction you need to
squirt your signal toward.
While I appreciate the folks who operate portable, and respect the category
for the power class, there are some of us that need to head for the hills to
just participate, much less be competative in our areas..
For the nay-sayers, my contest soapboxes on the ARRL website for the vhf/uhf
contests describe it pretty well ... not a different class perhaps, but
different recognition, especially for all of the effort, might be in order ...
KG6IYN
Zack Widup <w9sz@prairienet.org> wrote:
I've been doing a similar setup. I usually don't take 6 meters in the
January or September contests because it hasn't been worth the effort,
but there's often enough activity from band openings in June to merit it.
So I have been putting 144, 222 and 432 on one mast and manage to put the
6 meter antenna on the same mast if I take it. Otherwise, I sometimes
also squeeze the 903 antenna on the same mast and set up a tripod with a
mast on it which contains 1296 and the microwave dish.
The tripod I have been using seems to be able to handle this but not both
the 903 and 1296 antennas. Maybe some of you remember those
Bogen/Manfrotti tripod ads "Before Lester Bogen puts his name on a tripod,
he puts Lester Bogen on it." Well, they are pretty sturdy! But they tip
over unless you guy them.
But in the last few contests I've set up a mast with 144/222/432, a
separate mast with 903/1296 and the tripod for the microwave dish.
I live about 150 miles from Chicago, 180 miles from St. Louis, 100 miles
from Indianapolis and 100 miles from Peoria. Those are the largest
population centers in my area. The hill I've used for the last few years
of contests is a great location. Unfortunately, it's not a rare grid
square below 903 MHz. I can usually work into Milwaukee (240
miles) through 1296 but haven't worked that far on 2304 and up yet. All
this with 10 watts or less.
I might try getting some loopers for 2304 and 3456 instead of the dish and
see if it does me better.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Thu, 1 Mar 2007, KA6AMD wrote:
> As I live in a remote and semi-rare grid square, I need good sized
> antennas just to be heard in the Los Angeles area. The home QTH is in a
> valley surrounded by +5000ft mountains, so portable is the only way to
> go. It takes about four hours to set it all up. When done I have 3
> masts; a 6-meter beam, a 2M-222-432 set, and 902 together with 1296.
> This separation allows me to work in different directions when I need
> to. It also consolidates the antennas with similar beamwidths on their
> own masts, making the steering a little bit easier.
>
> Erich
> KA6AMD
> DM15
>
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