Hi 222ers and contesters,
I didn't dare say anything in advance as that always seems to be a
curse, but I managed to be on for the first few minutes last night. I
worked K1WHS, N1JEZ, WZ1V and K1TEO right off the bat on SSB, all with
great signals. K1WHS was nothing short of a massive signal as always. A
few minutes later N1SV answered my CQ on CW. I heard W9KXI working K1WHS
but when I turned the antenna his way he disappeared. That path over the
mountains can be weird. I heard K1PXE on SSB calling one of the other
FN31 stations I think (QRM), then later quite strong on CW working
someone up on 222.110 but he faded almost to zero at the end of that
QSO. Unfortunately I developed a case of QWERTYitis just 40 minutes (?)
into the activity. My day had started at 2 AM as it often does.
I had some time yesterday morning to make cables to run from the Trimble
Thunderbolt in the workshop down the rack to a floor bulkhead, under the
house from there to another floor bulkhead in the ham shack, and from
there up another rack to the Q5 Signal REF10-8 behind the transverters.
I used temporary cables that were laying around to connect the 222 and
432 transverters to the REF10-8 while I wait for some connectors I
ordered to make permanent ones for all three transverters. For now I
have to disconnect the Thunderbolt from the homebrew splitter feeding a
couple pieces of test equipment to route it over to the shack but
eventually I will get a Q5 Signal L10-4 or L10-8 to make everything
permanent.
The ~16 month old 432 transverter's internal standard TCXO is about 220
Hz off. 222 is about 80 Hz off. I haven't checked 144. Just for grins I
checked the internal reference in the REF10-8 and found the difference
between that and the Thunderbolt to be only 5 Hz on the 432 transverter.
I spent the afternoon working on weeding the antenna farm. I tackled a
70 foot oak that was very crooked, nearly V shaped, and leaning severely
toward one of the towers. I climbed up about 30 feet and attached a
safety cable to a very heavy duty comealong chained to a tree in what I
thought was a clear enough direction to drop the oak without hitting the
tower or guys. It had to be pulled in some direction or else it was
going to hit the tower for sure. Unfortunately the top branches of the
WUR (Weed Under Removal) got hung on the branches of massive 95 foot
pine tree! I spent hours trying to pull it this way or that to get it
free but no luck. The bottom ~25 feet is now leaning at a 40 degree
angle toward the pine, with the remaining ~45 feet nearly vertical. I've
got to figure a way to get it out of there.
If I am awake and quasi-functional, I will try to be on 432 this
evening. Uh-oh... the curse! I have a great antenna but only 25 watts on
432 so it will be tough going.
I plan to be on some in the contest on 144 (1300W, YU7EF 13 el at 120'),
222 (800W, K1FO-22 at 115'), and 432 (25W, K1FO-40 at 110'). No 6
meters. The 6 meter antenna is still down waiting for me to try adding
rope inside the elements to tame a serious vibration problem. I might or
might not make a serious effort of it. Contests have been very
disappointing since my return to VHF. If I work hard I can scare up 20
to 30 QSOs on 144, 8 or 10 on 222 and a few on 432. That's pretty darn
discouraging compared to the 90 I used to be able to get on 144 with an
inferior setup but I guess it is a sign of the times. VHF+ activity is
WAY down, especially big stations that can reach up here.
Somehow I am going to get my schedule sorted so I can be awake well into
the evening Saturday, but will be off the air for an hour or two after
0130 UTC to try listening for the DL0SHF beacon on 10 GHz EME. Now that
I have the LNB GPS locked and moved to 432 IF, the 432 transverter GPS
locked, and doppler tracking working it should be a lot easier than last
time with a drifting LNB and old non-TCXO RTL-SDR stick!
73,
Paul N1BUG
FN55mf
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