ARRL September VHF QSO Party
Call: N8RA
Operator(s): N8RA
Station: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31 -CT
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 102 21
2: 149 28
222:
432: 43 13
-------------------
Total: 294 62 Total Score = 20,894
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Propagation seemed unremarkable this year. I did not find any long tropo, 6M
E's, aurora, etc. But I do get a thrill in pulling whisper quiet signals out
of the noise, so it was an enjoyable weekend.
I made no WSJT contacts this year. I did listen there for a couple of hours
Saturday night and early Sunday morning on both 6 and 2, and tried some
CQing on FSK441, but mainly heard only a couple of the "local" big guns.
The most recent upgrade that I was anxious to try was my 432 antenna: a
stacked pair of 11 element yagis. Here it gets complicated. I mounted the
antennas on my highest tower where the 2M array is located. For now, they
have to share 2M's 350' of hardline to the shack. A coax relay in a plastic
NEMA box at the top of the tower is used to select the antenna there, and
another coax relay in the shack sends it to the 2M or 70cm radio. In
addition, another relay on the control line sets the remote 2M preamp
assembly to bypass when 70cm is selected. And I've wired a small "reminder"
light bulb at the 70 cm radio that is lit when 70 cm is selected so that I
do not forget and resume 2M calling without an antenna. The other
complication is that I mounted the 70 cm antennas opposite to the 2M ones to
avoid any pattern degradation. They are back to back up there. This made it
fun in having to use the reverse beam heading and usually required rotating
180 degrees when going to 70cm. The antenna worked well but its "ease of
use" can use some work.
My plan to lower the feedline losses on 2M and 70cm was delayed due to other
priorities; oh well, there's always next year.
Thanks for the Q's and the chats along the way.
73,
Chet, N8RA
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