ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
Call: N8RA
Operator(s): N8RA KD1EU W1TXT
Station: N8RA
Class: Limited Multi-Op HP
QTH: FN31 -Connecticut
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 169 20
2: 145 26
222:
432: 43 13
-------------------
Total: 357 59 Total Score = 23,600
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
In chatting with two nearby locals a month ago, we decided to operate the
ARRL January VHF contest as a multi-op effort.
Before the contest:
Bad news- my 2M and 70 cm antennas share one feedline to the shack. That's
not bad when single op'ing but for a multi-op that would mean shutting down
2M when on 70 cm.
Good news- W1TXT had a spare 12 el 2M yagi in his barn available for
installation on my spare tower.
Bad news- it's a cold winter in New England so I wasn't sure if the antenna
could be put up in time.
Good news- outside temperatures went up slightly above 32 deg and provided a
window for putting up the antenna
Bad news- those warmer temperatures meant that precipitation next came down
as freezing rain, coating everything and sending the SWR's on all the VHF
and UHF antennas sky high and ruining their directivity.
Good news- I climbed one of the towers and chipped the ice off the stuck
rotor and banged most of it off one of the 6M antennas, so we would at least
have that band to use.
Bad news- temperatures were predicted to remain low with more freezing
precipitation predicted.
Good news- strong sunshine the next day melted most of the ice off of all
the antennas
So it looked like it was a go, and we got together the weekend before the
contest to integrate the station equipment: TXT's computer and a P3 for the
6M K3 and, EU's TS-2000 for the 70cm station. We wasted a lot of time
unsuccessfully trying to get TXT's XP computer to be recognized on the
network by Windows 7 until we realized that the N1MM logger did not require
that. The computers were able to ping each other just fine and that was all
the logging program needed (well, it did also need the "multi-user" mode
checked on that computer too- duh!) Using some coaxial relays, we
implemented a switching setup so that when the 70cm station took ownership
of the shared feedline, the 2M station was automatically switched to the
auxiliary 2M yagi that had been put up for that purpose. That worked well.
However, setting it up was a bit involved because the antenna impedances
presented to the transmitter depended upon the lengths of all the
interconnecting 50 ohm coax jumpers to the 70 ohm hardline antenna
feedlines. It took a good bit of trial-and-error with various length
jumpers to keep the end impedance reasonably consistent when switching.
There was no time to make better matching transformers for the hardline
runs. The rest of the cabling was straightforward, there was just a lot of
it, but everything was completed a whole 1 day ahead of time.
The contest
There was no tropo enhancement predicted and that was predominantly the
case. Furthermore, no E's showed up on 6M, so it turned out to be, well, a
VHF contest. What keeps it interesting is an occasional brief opening to
stations 3-400 miles away. You had to be at the right place at the right
time and be beaming in those directions. This meant constantly looking and
calling and scanning, even when the qso rate was poor and the band seemed
dead. Late evening on 2M on both days seemed to be good times to capture
those farther out multipliers. Best DX on 6M was to grid FM27 (310 miles),
on 2M to FM16 (420 miles), and 70cm FM19 (260 miles).
This was the first time for a three station multiop effort for all of us and
we did a lot of learning on our first time out; cooperation, operating
skills, and use of the N1MM logger in multi-user mode. Having decent
antennas, good food, nothing breaking, and a warm shack made for a fun
weekend.
73, and thanks for the Q's
Chet, N8RA
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|