Thursday, October 30, 2008

A plot of my 3 el 40m Telrex beam which is at 90 feet above the ground


This real world plt was made using the LP-100A vector graphic watt meter and Polar Plot
I know it is a pretty poor scan of the print out
but it shows a nice dip on the backside of the beam
that depicts aprox 18db front to back

Steve

Friday, October 10, 2008

Is attendance at a contest operation worth your time ?

Even if your not an HF op

There is a lot that non HF ops can do during the contest
but the most important thing is to come and have fun !

Things to do during an HF contest if you either do not want to operate or are just not sure if your fast enough or a proficient HF op......

Monitor the bands on The Multi-Op finder rig
looking for band openings and needed multipliers
In sweepstakes there are 80 multipliers available and the team is eligible for the prestigious Sweepstakes mugs once we work all of those multipliers
(In SS The multipliers are ARRL and Canadian Sections for example many states are divided into several ARRL sections) A couple of the hardest sections to work over recent years has been Alaska and North West Terittory (in Canada)

There will also be periods where the contact rate falls way below 60 -90 QSO's per hour !
and even ops that are not fast or real proficient get to work the rigs alongside a more experienced contester (many dedicated contesters including myself started by watching and learning this way)

Several ops show up just for a few hours to watch us dedicated contesters run the rate count whay up over 100 conteacts per hour, visit the antenna farm and tour the shack just before the contest starts or simply enjoy the wide range of "Contest Ala Gourmier Food" we have on hand

One word of caution......
Contesting is an addictive sport !

73
steve
KG5VK

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Mark your Calendar Now !!!!!!!

The 75th year of the ARRL Sweepstakes contest is this year

I will again hoist a team effort during the Phone contest week-end
Mark those calendars for

November 15 - 17
ARRL November Sweepstakes (Phone)

This week-end I am heading to The Paris Texas Hamfest where I will purchase a few more items to complete the build of my new 75 meter Bi-Square antenna

I will have a Shack familiarization open house early either late this month or a week before the Phone week-end

If you have not yet played in this great contest and are interested in joining our team simply send me an email !

73
Steve
KG5VK