Good Evening,
I am finally back home from work. The cat is fed and so am I. My
email downloaded through its narrow dial up pipe so I can peruse the 361
messages of varying import. Yesterday's nets were interesting to say the
least. Especially as it got dark and the strange denizens of the park got
closer to my operating position. Luckily one of the other amateurs
volunteered to stay but not too long. That is why the second net was
rather short. We got the antenna down and coiled fairly neatly. The rest
of the gear got stowed in a less than tidy manner. All was well when I
unpacked so now I get to rebuild my home station.
Luckily AC power was available at the park so it was easier to set up.
Since the electricity ran through a buried conduit we were able to ground
the station very nicely. This was one of my concerns. However I was
right next to where at the food was being served so I had a lot of QRM
during the first net. There was also a train which made a lot of noise
and detuned the antenna. The antenna was a window line fed G5RV tuned
through my normal tuner. It was mounted about thirty feet at the top of
the V and about eight feet in height at the ends. I ran out of trees so
made two wraps of wire around one end. Both legs of the doublet were
shorted to ground through fir branches. As we were raising the antenna
into position it was pulling itself off the handy limbs so it was
gradually getting lower and lower.
After all that I got on the air a few minutes late only to get great
signal reports from Minnesota and Colorado. K1EV was coming in stronger
than I'd ever heard him before. My normal hops were not where my signal
was landing. I was told twice on the air (at least) and twice via email
that I should work from the park more often :) Well maybe I will take the
show on the road again but hope for more time to get the antenna set up
more to my liking. The odd thing? N7NLU was very strong. We both found
that quite odd since I was in Hillsboro and he was in Beaverton at
approximately the same elevation. I've never known twenty meters to work
NVIS. The antenna was low enough but he was less than twenty miles away.
He wants me down at the park too!!
I did get quite a few funny looks from the park regulars. Especially
when I was shooting my sinker into the trees. Then the CERT folks wanted
to know how a radio could possibly work without a microphone. They were
asking questions while I was trying to send. So they would get part of
the sentence meant for you and you would get part of the sentence meant
for them. Quite confusing. But somehow or another I got through it
without too much hassle. One of my helpers had his Novice license back in
the '70s and has subsequently been relicensed as a Technician. I bug him
about getting his Tech+ but he cannot find a callbook with his call in it
for proof. I know there is a repository of call books somewhere in Oregon
but I cannot remember where. Is it the FISTs club? Any ideas? This op
was very interested in what I was doing. Hopefully we can reignite the
fire which once burned within him. If you can point me in the right
direction I will relay the information. Then he'll do the work to gain
his General license and work on his code speed.
But, on to the lists =>
On 14051 kHz at 2304z:
N0BK - Bruce - MN - K2 - 3646 QNI #80!!
K1EV - Bill - CT - K2 - 2152
N0AR - Scott - MN - K2 - 4866
W6ZH - Pete - CA - K2 - 43
AA0NI - Dan - OK - K2 - 3421 QNI #10! On a new antenna.
N7NLU - Karl - OR - K2 - 4227
KT5E - Jay - CO - K2 - 5037
N9SF - Bob - IN - K2 - 5308
On 7045 kHz at 0156z:
VE3XL - Ric - ON - TenTec Omni QNI #115!!!
K6PJV - Dale - CA - K2 - 5345 QNI #5!
K4DXU - Bill - TN - KX1 - 702
KT5E - Jay - CO - K2 - 5037
N7NLU - Karl - OR - K2 - 4227 QNI #60!!
I may have made a few mistakes in the above lists but I was under less
than favorable circumstances. Hopefully next time I take this show on the
road I'll be working in a quieter location with an antenna mounted less
precariously. Also there were a couple of signals I just could not pull
out. Most of my QSB was induced by metal moving around my antenna.
Either that train or the barbeque grill was detuning the antenna.
Whichever it was there was deep fading when it occurred.
I'd better get back to setting up my radio gear so I'll be ready for
tomorrow and the next evening.
Take care and stay well,
73,
Kevin. KD5ONS (Net Control Operator 5th Class)
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