ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31 in CT
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Radios: SO2R
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 502 152
2: 83 18
432: 24 10
-------------------
Total: 609 180
Total Score = 113,940
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
WOW! What a band 6M was this weekend!
The E's were already raging at the start of the contest, and like the
energizer bunny, they just kept going and going on Saturday. The N1MM
logging program shows the distance to the grid as each station is entered,
and at one point I started to see that distance getting under 500 miles. I
was hopeful that E's were going to make it to 2M so I started to intersperse
CQs on 2M to see if I could scare up any distant answers there, but did not
get any. On 6M, a little bit of "DX" to the south was worked, which included
a contact with Brazil, wow! After 10 PM local time, skip on 6M was still
there, but activity and answers were thinning out, so before midnight I
opted for some sleep.
The next morning a few stations down south were logged on 6M but it was
mostly a tropo contest for the morning. About 2 PM local, Es were baaack.
They did not seem as strong and widespread as the day before. An EA8 was
heard CQing with no takers, but he was weak and right on the freq of a local
in the next grid in that direction, so no go. These Es evaporated about 7 PM
local time; I thought this would be a good chance for a supper break. Big
mistake! When I came back to the radio, the band was again hopping with
activity which lasted another hour or so.
Conditions on 2M seemed mediocre- perhaps our rains throughout the weekend
dampened them. Activity was down there too- and likely 6M stole the show and
the available time and energy.
A contest is always more fun when changes from the last time have been made
>From the January contest, I was still not satisfied that my 6M antennas were
working well. During the winter I analyzed their design and placement on the
tower and played with various scenarios to improve their effectiveness over
my terrain. HFTA, YW, and EZNEC got a lot of use.
Last week I decided to take down the two 3 element yagis, rework them, mount
them in new positions on the tower, and phase them as a stack.
These 3 element yagis had been side mounted on Rohn 45 tower and I was
concerned, that they were being detuned by having two of the elements so
close to the fat tower. Aluminum tubing was added to the rear of the booms
to allow them to now be end mounted.
The electrical design was modified to improve the F/B across the lower part
of the band and this happily decreased the distance between the reflector
and the director a bit, which reduced the required boom length and also the
unbalanced wind torque on the tower from end mounting and the ice loading
too. Probably not a big deal, but well, why not. The yagis were put back on
the tower about 20 feet higher than they had been, and are now away from it
and the HF yagis in their vicinity. 5/4 wavelength lines were made from RG11
foam for phasing. I have not mentioned their new heights- not that it is a
secret, but because that is only relevant to my particular hilly terrain,
available room on the tower, in my preferred favored compass directions.
YMWV.
Did this help 6M? I definitely think so. During the E's openings I felt loud
for a LP station. I was able to keep my CQ frequency without being run over
too badly. And it seemed that I was able to be heard by weak signal tropo
stations in other grids when I answered their CQs, whereas in the past it
was more of a struggle and frustration. Was it conditions or better
performance? Time will tell; need more data!
Another change was to the mounting of the 70 cm antenna. It is rotated by
the same rotator as used for the 2M antenna but it was end mounted and
pointing 180 degrees from the 2M one. That was a real PITA to remember to
use the reverse rotor setting and spin it around when moving someone from 2M
to 70 cm for a contact. My intention was to change the iwo stack of 70cm
yagis to be front mounted, but when I climbed the tower with parts to do
that job, I found that there were just too many other pieces of hardware in
the way and it would have turned into a big project. So I compromised and
adjusted the 70cm antenna mount so now they point only 45 degrees away from
the 2M ones. Not perfect, but a big improvement in convenience.
Lastly, an in-shack change was to add another tap for transmit audio to also
feed the FT897 70cm radio. Now the headset boom mike was used for 6, 2, and
70cm; no longer having to fumble with a separate microphone was nice.
73
Chet, N8RA
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