Dave,
please wear an approved HAZMAT outfit when you walk into the Double Tree hotel
in Charlotte tomorrow so we all know which lunch table NOT to sit at !!
Ron
WW8RR
-----Original Message-----
From: vhfcontesting-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of David Olean
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 7:23 AM
To: Michael Gullo; vhfcontesting@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] 432 Sprint
How to begin?
I had a "trying" evening. First off, I was "trying" to get the station hooked
up. No time before the sprint to assemble the station, so I was putting it
together at 5:30 PM on Wednesday evening. It was pouring rain which did not
help things. The dirt road goatpath was a quagmire, although the waterfall
halfway up the road was rather scenic in the rain..
The blower for the amplifier is remoted outside the building. During the
winter, the blower housing got ripped off the building in a storm,and was
smashed and laying on the ground. I had to repair all that in the rain. The
worst part was "trying" to clean all the mouse pee and poop off the plastic
hose that runs into the shack.. The blue flex hose was actually brown. It was
disgusting. If I catch Bubonic Plague or the Black Death in the next few days,
you will know where I got it! And I am going to the SE VHF Conference right
after the Sprint! There is a chance that the whole VHF SSB/CW operator pool in
the Southeast USA will get wiped out by the Black Death all because of the 432
Sprint.
I got the exciter and transverter hooked up next, but had trouble with
the new solid state driver amp. I did not have enough drive in the present
configuration, but figured I could get on the air with slightly low power.
My transverter only puts out +24 dBm. Well, the gain changed with the amplifier
as it went into TX. The result was I started out with 900 watts out, and after
about 20 seconds, was down to 200 watts out. To make matters worse, I had a
high VSWR on the 432 yagi. There is water in the array somewhere. Gee, that is
strange! How could water get into anything? I have spent my life trying to
waterproof rf cables and antennas, but still get routinely beaten by Mother
Nature. (The BUM!) So here it is "Earth Day", and I am calling Mother Nature a
BUM! It won't be long and I'll be in a re education camp for sure! I was still
hearing signals on 432, so figured I could "try" to work around the water issue
with the high VSWR. I finally got things running enough to try it all out a bit
after 7:30 PM. I never got the computer installed, so logged everyone on
napkins and scratch paper that the mice had not entirely eaten over the winter.
If I don't re write the log sheets onto clean paper,
there will be more mysterious medieval type deaths for sure when I send them
through the mail.
I worked nothing that resembled a good DX QSO. I think the problem was
that many stations do not aim my way as a routine procedure. The multi path
was horrendous. I heard WZ1V when I first turned on the rig, and honestly felt
that my receiver was hosed. I could not tune him in on upper sideband.
I tried lower sideband and had the same results. He was not coherent up here,
but it was all because of the horrendous multi path. (I will not insert a
"coherent" joke here at Ron's expense as he promised me a small hybrid amp to
boost the output of my transverter. The joke might jeopardize my chances of
getting the power levels right with the new driver amp.) I had to wait until
Ron, WZ1V turned his antenna so I could copy him. I heard VE2ZAZ calling K1TEO,
when I had the beam due west. I tried turning the antenna to the proper heading
but could hear nothing from VE2ZAZ. (?) I called and called to no avail. Later
I heard him calling CQ and getting no takers. I turned the antenna and found
that the best heading was 250 degrees. It should have been 310 degrees or so!
The only way I could hear him was by multi path reflection off some faraway
mountains. The direct path was inaudible!! He finally heard me with my power
level sweeping amplifier, but I never did get a great signa
l out of the direct path. I do not think that he ever aimed southeast. I heard
similar effects on K1TEO, WZ1V, and WA2FGK. I could tell when they were aiming
west as I got multipath signals from them at weird headings to the west!
Some signals were good here. WB2RVX in South Jersey, and WB2SIH were loud.
KA1ZE/3 was good as was K3TUF. I heard nothing past FM29 and FN10 to the SW.
Not much to the wset either. I worked N2LID with good signals, but never heard
KA2LIM. With the driving rain, I was not surprised. Conditions were just
miserable. I ended up quitting at 10 PM with only 11 grids. Not sure how many
contacts. I left the mouse pee stained napkins/logs up in the shack, so my wife
would not die from Bubonic Plague. I would really be in the doghouse with her
if that happened. I think it was around 25 or 30 Qs.
Why do I do this?
73
Dave K1WHS FN43Mumbo Jumbo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Gullo" <mgullo3@comcast.net>
To: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 4:56 AM
Subject: [VHFcontesting] 432 Sprint
> Conditions were fair here in South Jersey. Rain just stopped before
> contest started. Must have been going to FN12. Sri Ken! Ended up with 32
> q's in 14 grids. Best DX was VE2DSB in FN35 419 mi. Tnx to our sponsors es
> CU on the microwave sprint.
>
> Mike - WB2RVX
> FM29mt
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
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