VHF+ Contesting
I am a fairly active VHF contester. I have operated in the ARRL VHF contests for a few years. Please also see my post "EN39 on the Air".
My main station rig is currently a Kenwood TS-2000. I bought it specifically to run all modes on 6m, 2m, and 70cm. More specifically, I wanted to do EME on 2m and this rig does 100 watts. I eventually worked in to all sorts of propagation modes on VHF - including Meteor Scatter, Tropospheric Ducting, Sporadic-E, among others. I still have yet to have an EME QSO. That will come, I'm sure!
This past year I have been very active. The June 2007 ARRL VHF contest was my first experience operating a Rover. One of my best friends, Jim KC8JPZ, and I went out in his "Vantenna" operating 50, 144, and 432MHz. We put EN80 and EM89 on the air.
That's Jim KC8JPZ on the left - wondering if we put everything in.
You can see the pile of aluminum on top. Boy, was that annoying going down the highway! Ever heard what loose elements sound like banging in to pipes with 65mph of wind blowing across them?
We had a lot of fun. I've never had so much fun in a Ham radio weekend, outside of Field Day. Jim and I are both avid VHF'ers and, combined with our decent rigs and antennas, we had a BLAST! 6 meters opened up and that's where we made most of our QSO's. Jim stayed on 6 mostly and I ran 2m and 70cm. It took some getting used to because we would work a station on one band and then we would try and work them on the other 2 that we had. I had to juggle two bands so it got pretty interesting.
We ran the ol' Armstrong rotator on both masts. That got to be a pain in the butt with mine (the one on the right there). The guy lines were holding back the coax, and I was running 1/2" Heliax hardline on 432! That made keeping the antennas pointed in the right direction a chore. Jim's mast on the left is actually mounted to the back of the van. The mount is on the floor of the van so the mast can be tilted up. The roof rack is the anchor point on top to keep the mast upright. It works pretty well. No need for guys.
The farm is a friend of ours' place in EM89. Not a bad place at all. We were up pretty high above average terrain - these hills are a ridge top. It isn't REAL high, but it is higher than average terrain.
On the air - I am at the far position (2m/70cm), Jim is at the front position (6m):
Here is our operating position in EM80. This is another ham friend of ours. They have a few Horses too. Being in the city we don't get to see horses up close too much.
I liked the Roving so much I decided to operate in the September contest as well. This time I had to do without Jim as he was unavailable. I tried to get another operator but I couldn't convince anyone that it would be worth it hehehe. So, I went alone. That meant setup had to be a one man band also.
I had my truck to use so I made the most use of it as I could. I took the cap off the bed to open it up. Because of the issues with rotating my antennas in the June contest I decided it would be worth it to utilize my antenna rotator. This was an interesting dilemma, but I made it work:
You can see the wood frame I built. This keeps the base of the bottom mast/rotator centered and locked in place going down the road. The frame slides in to the board slots in the bed liner so it is real sturdy.
The tie-down straps tie the mast down to the 4 cargo loops in the bed. I placed the yellow 2" straps up front because that is where the most load is going down the road. The straps worked very well. They held the mast in place with plenty of strength. There was no movement at all - I watched it as I drove along.
Transport mode:
Operation mode:
I didn't do very well in the September contest. I put EM79 and EN80 on the air. I didn't operate through the night like I had planned to. I had to take a detour to get to my EN80 location and it put me too close to the house. I figured I would sleep in my own bed for the night and take a shower hehehe.
My main station rig is currently a Kenwood TS-2000. I bought it specifically to run all modes on 6m, 2m, and 70cm. More specifically, I wanted to do EME on 2m and this rig does 100 watts. I eventually worked in to all sorts of propagation modes on VHF - including Meteor Scatter, Tropospheric Ducting, Sporadic-E, among others. I still have yet to have an EME QSO. That will come, I'm sure!
This past year I have been very active. The June 2007 ARRL VHF contest was my first experience operating a Rover. One of my best friends, Jim KC8JPZ, and I went out in his "Vantenna" operating 50, 144, and 432MHz. We put EN80 and EM89 on the air.
That's Jim KC8JPZ on the left - wondering if we put everything in.
You can see the pile of aluminum on top. Boy, was that annoying going down the highway! Ever heard what loose elements sound like banging in to pipes with 65mph of wind blowing across them?
We had a lot of fun. I've never had so much fun in a Ham radio weekend, outside of Field Day. Jim and I are both avid VHF'ers and, combined with our decent rigs and antennas, we had a BLAST! 6 meters opened up and that's where we made most of our QSO's. Jim stayed on 6 mostly and I ran 2m and 70cm. It took some getting used to because we would work a station on one band and then we would try and work them on the other 2 that we had. I had to juggle two bands so it got pretty interesting.
We ran the ol' Armstrong rotator on both masts. That got to be a pain in the butt with mine (the one on the right there). The guy lines were holding back the coax, and I was running 1/2" Heliax hardline on 432! That made keeping the antennas pointed in the right direction a chore. Jim's mast on the left is actually mounted to the back of the van. The mount is on the floor of the van so the mast can be tilted up. The roof rack is the anchor point on top to keep the mast upright. It works pretty well. No need for guys.
The farm is a friend of ours' place in EM89. Not a bad place at all. We were up pretty high above average terrain - these hills are a ridge top. It isn't REAL high, but it is higher than average terrain.
Here is the Vantenna crew:
I am in the black shirt and Jim KC8JPZ is in the gray shirt.
On the air - I am at the far position (2m/70cm), Jim is at the front position (6m):
Here is our operating position in EM80. This is another ham friend of ours. They have a few Horses too. Being in the city we don't get to see horses up close too much.
I liked the Roving so much I decided to operate in the September contest as well. This time I had to do without Jim as he was unavailable. I tried to get another operator but I couldn't convince anyone that it would be worth it hehehe. So, I went alone. That meant setup had to be a one man band also.
I had my truck to use so I made the most use of it as I could. I took the cap off the bed to open it up. Because of the issues with rotating my antennas in the June contest I decided it would be worth it to utilize my antenna rotator. This was an interesting dilemma, but I made it work:
You can see the wood frame I built. This keeps the base of the bottom mast/rotator centered and locked in place going down the road. The frame slides in to the board slots in the bed liner so it is real sturdy.
The tie-down straps tie the mast down to the 4 cargo loops in the bed. I placed the yellow 2" straps up front because that is where the most load is going down the road. The straps worked very well. They held the mast in place with plenty of strength. There was no movement at all - I watched it as I drove along.
Transport mode:
Operation mode:
I didn't do very well in the September contest. I put EM79 and EN80 on the air. I didn't operate through the night like I had planned to. I had to take a detour to get to my EN80 location and it put me too close to the house. I figured I would sleep in my own bed for the night and take a shower hehehe.
posted by Steve at
8:15 PM
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