April 1999 2m Sprint

Bdale's Report

John was on a plane headed for Taiwan on business as the contest opened, so I managed to convince a non-ham friend from work, Stephen Moraco, to come out and help with this contest. I think we just might have him hooked!

This was my first Sprint. After the way things went in January, I had decided that for a single-band contest, I wanted more antenna than the 4-element 2m yagi we've been using. So, I splurged and bought a Directive Systems DSFO144-12 kit from Down East Microwave . As with the other K1FO-style antennas I've put together in the past, this went together pretty easily. Steve came up to the house on Saturday afternoon before the contest to help me get it put together and checked out.

I also decided that since my satellite antennas are still down from the house remodel, there was no reason not to snag the Landwehr preamps from the tower section so that we'd have as much receive performance as we could get.

Since rover rules were not part of the contest announcement, we didn't actually rove, but decided to drive out to "our spot" in the southwest corner of DM89. We couldn't have asked for better weather conditions. We had plenty of sunlight to get setup, and it was clear and the stars were beautiful in the lulls between bursts of contacts. The wind picked up a bit towards the end of the contest, chilling us a bit, but it wasn't bad at all! Since we weren't sure what the wind was going to do, we took the top two sections off the portapole, and put the antenna up maybe 20 feet, with the preamp on the mast as far down as the coax jumper from the antenna would allow.

For the first time in N3EUA contest history, we were ready to go at the start of the contest! We even took time to call CQ for a signal check before the contest started... Can't let this get habit-forming...

The highlights this time were probably the signal reports from our friends in New Mexico, and over in central Colorado... they all reported that we were much much stronger than in previous contests, which was gratifying since I spent money on the antenna to achieve precisely that result. There were only a few stations we heard but didn't work, so I have to feel pretty good about our setup this time. An amplifier would have been nice when I was shouting away the last of my voice trying to raise K7TNT near the end of the sprint...

Here it is two days later, and I still don't have my voice back... we must have had fun!

I'm glad I took time to make up a cable to power the light in the SWR/Power meter. It was very reassuring to know what was going on. I'm sorry we mashed the top of the Porapole with over-zealous tightening of the U-bolts on the antenna, but we'll fix that. Otherwise, things just worked!

We had a lot of fun!

No Photos This Time - Sorry!

Our Score

All the contacts were manually entered into VHF DX after the contest, so some times may be only approximate.

N3EUA CONTEST LOG FOR:  ARRL VHF SPRINTS
===============================================================================
Name of Contest:      ARRL VHF Sprints

Call Used:            N3EUA
Call of Operator:     N3EUA

OPERATING LOCATION
   Grid(s) Activated: DM89 
   Location Name:     Eastern Colorado
   ARRL Section:      Colorado

Entry Type:           Single Operator
===============================================================================
                Valid                                 Claimed
                QSOs    Pts/QSO   QSO Pts   Mult      Score
144 MHz          30      1         30        14        420 
===============================================================================
I have observed all competition rules as well as all regulations
for Amateur Radio in my country.  My report is correct and true
to the best of my knowledge.  I agree to be bound by the decisions
of the Awards Committee.

Bdale Garbee N3EUA    13.04.1999
4390 Darr Circle
Black Forest, CO  80908

===============================================================================
N3EUA CONTEST LOG FOLLOWS:

column 1: frequency (MHz)         column 6: complete exchange sent
column 2: mode                    column 7: complete exchange received
column 3: date (dd/mm/yy, UTC)    column 8: indication of new multiplier '*'
column 4: time (UTC)              column 9: points claimed
column 5: call of station worked

note:  Incomplete & Dupe QSO's in the log are listed with  - 0 - points.





N3EUA CONTEST LOG FOR:  ARRL VHF SPRINTS    

144      SSB       13/04/99   0102   W6OAL          DM89   DM79   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0105   K0GU           DM89   DN70   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0115   K0RP           DM89   DM88   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0116   N0KQY          DM89   DM98   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0117   N0NKG          DM89   DM78   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0119   N0POH          DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0120   W0KVA          DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0124   K5RHR          DM89   DM65   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0125   N9KUW          DM89   DM65      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0130   N0KE           DM89   DM69   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0131   N0SWV          DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0131   N0VSB          DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0142   N0LL           DM89   EM09   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0146   KF4GMH         DM89   DM78      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0153   KA0ULN/R       DM89   DM89   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0155   KK5YY          DM89   DM66   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0213   W0LD           DM89   DM78      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0214   N9KC/R         DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0230   KC5SFV         DM89   DM65      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0257   W0ETT          DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0301   KA0ULN/R       DM89   DN80   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0313   NA0US          DM89   DN70      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0314   W0AVV          DM89   DN70      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0322   KC0ADT         DM89   DM79      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0333   WD0BQM         DM89   DN81   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0340   KC0FGK         DM89   DM67   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0404   K0CL           DM89   DM69      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0416   AB0GD          DM89   DN71   *  1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0425   KA0ULN/R       DM89   DN70      1 
144      SSB       13/04/99   0456   KC0COU         DM89   DN70      1 

Equipment

We ran my Kenwood TS-790A barefoot (about 40 watts) through a Diamond SWR/Power meter and Landwehr preamp into a 12-element K1FO-style yagi at about 20' above ground. The feedline was about 10 feet of RG-214 from the antenna to the preamp, then about a 50 foot run of 9913 to the meter, plus another short 9913 jumper to the rig. All this ran off my deep-cycle battery quite happily.
Bdale Garbee, $Id: index.html,v 1.4 1999/04/14 18:41:22 bdale Exp $