Archive for category Contesting
June ARRL VHF Contest
Posted by jeff in Contesting on June 14th, 2010
I just got finished up participating in the June ARRL VHF contest, a first for me. With my Field Day expedition only 2 weeks away, this contest was a perfect chance to shake out the portability of my gear.
Initially I started off the contest in a field very close to my QTH with my Icom 706 and an Arrow dual-band satellite antenna. I needed to fabricate a mount where I could easily rotate the yagi as well as adjust azimuth and elevation. I ended up cutting a 1 inch piece of SCH40 PVC at 15 inches long and a piece of SCH40 1 1/4 inch PVC at 6 inches long. I used a hose clamp to secure it down to a photography light stand adapter, as I didn’t have access to a tripod. As you can see in the photos, it seemed to workout just fine for the contest.
Since I was operating the 2nd day of the contest from home, I needed to change the polarity of my Cubex 2m quad antenna to be horizontally polarized. Granted I’ve only made 20 contacts in my first VHF contest, but I ended up having a blast and learning alot.
Field Day Announcement
Posted by jeff in Contesting, Special Events on June 7th, 2010
The 1900 Group is planning a Field Day Expedition to Assateague Island, Maryland on June 25th-27th 2010.
Assateague is a desirable operating location for 2 reasons. The first, it’s an IOTA (island on the air), NA-139 is it’s identification. Secondly, it’s in grid square FM-28 which will be a demanded locator if the 6 meter band opens up.
Eric, WG3J has spent countless hours/days working to acquire the necessary permits for operation on the site. Most of that time was spent working with the Park Service for authorization to operate. We plan to be located approximately 100 yards North of the Virginia / Maryland border along the shore.
The website for the operation is finally online. Check it out here!
2009 W3OK Field Day
Posted by jeff in Contesting, Radio Club Related on August 25th, 2009
I finally got the field day photos up on flickr.
Weekend update.
Posted by jeff in Contesting on July 14th, 2009
This last weekend was a ham radio packed weekend. On Saturday morning I arrived at the club station (aka The Milk House) with 746 in hand and setup for the IARU HF World Championship. Dave, K3GMT; Howard, KB3RTB; and Ben, KB3CTX would also setup to join in the competition. Collectively as operators we knew we were far from any award winning experience, just the fun of competing.
By 9:30AM some of us were on the air, myself on 15 meter where activity was starting to build as the band was opening. Throughout the day I would eventually end up on 20 meter where I would find the DX chaos. Approximately 12 hours into the competition a large thunderstorm began to role in causing us all to take an unintended break. This would be the end of the competition for me with 102 QSO’s logged with approximately 7300 points.
On Sunday Laurie and I went up to Sussex county NJ to a hamfest where we put on a D-Star TV demo with DLARC member, Howard (KB3RTB) and a number of NJDSTAR members. A lot of attention was drawn around the booth as the first pictures were transferred. While there I purchased the parts to build a D-Star hotspot and picked up a Heathkit SWR/Wattmeter for Laurie’s rig.
Photos to come.
2009 IARU HF World Championship
Posted by jeff in Contesting on July 7th, 2009
The IARU contest is this weekend! It starts 1200UTC Saturday (8am EDT) and ends 24 hours later. Some important information below. Should I rush to get those roofing filters?? Hmm.
IARU Zone Map
