I’m posting this here for Ken Chaffee. Looks like a nice buy. Initially tried to post in Swapmeet with no success.
73, John, W1AN

For Sale: an ALPHA 99, 160 – 10 meter, full legal power amplifier. Since I am a DXer and not a contester with most of my contacts running barefoot I doubt it has 50 hours of actual operating time on it. I’m selling it because I have just ordered an Elecraft KPA500 to match my K3. When I bought the ALPHA (new from the factory) it cost me $3000.00. Since it has so little use I’m asking $2000.00. Please contact me at WA1QXR@nullamsat.org or (401) 377-8490. My address is 10 Colonial Village Road, Ashaway,RI.
Thank-you very much.

This past week I received a couple more unexpected contest certificates. If you are like me, you quickly forget which contests you worked and when. The first received was for the Indiana QSO Party for 2013. Yes, I recollect that one. This was an ‘aside’ to last years NEQP.  First Place Connecticut, Single-Op High it says. Nice to get. The envelope included a reminder that this years NEQP, INQP and 7th Area contests are on again the same weekend. Get ready!

The second certificate was from the RDXC, the Russian DX Gang. This one says 2012 Multi-Op, Single TX, 4th Place USA. Not a bad return for a fun time with K1DM and W1WBB.

Hope we can put a lot of time together in the upcoming weeks for NEQP and W1AW/1. Coming up Quickly!
73,
John, W1AN

This weekend brings us the ARRL SSB DX contest. I am extending an open invitation for CTRI members to operate here at W1AN/W1DX in CT. Both stations will be available. Just let me know here or via email that you will be coming. We can operate as a multi or two single stations under separate calls, depending on interest. Bring your own snacks.

73, John, W1AN

This is a reminder that the CQ WPX RTTY Contest is this coming weekend. I hope all that are able will get on the air wherever you are and make some contacts to add to the clubs aggregate score. I will have the W1AN/W1DX station here open as a Multi-2. I’m not sure we can muster all the operators we need but I will guarantee that anyone who shows will have a great experience in one of the chairs.

If you plan on making it let me know either here or direct.
73,
John, W1AN

I will be operating this weekend in the ARRL VHF contest. It’s been a long while since having 222 and 432MHZ on the air. And this year for the first time I will have a big 10W on 1296! Getting the VHF shack back in operation has been in the back of my mind for the last few years and now I am ready to give things a try. I hope to work several CTRI members on at least the 6M band during the contest. And feel free to stop by if you want to put a few hours in.

73,
John, W1AN

Hi Gang, I hope all the CTRI members will be active this weekend in the CQWW Phone Contest. The station here will be operating as a multi-2. We should be able to nicely exercise the new 4 element 20M monobander and the recently installed 15M stack. If band conditions are as least as good as during the RTTY contest last month we should be able to put together a decent score. Operators are still needed. Remember the rules allow you to operate at more than one station so you can still put in the hours both at home and away contributing to the club aggregate score. Hope to see you and work you.
73,
John, W1AN

The 2013 CQ WW RTTY contest will be happening in two weeks. The date is September 28 and 29. The new CQ WW rules will be effect. It would be a good time to review the changes on the CQ website.

I will have the station here open for operation as W1DX Multi-2. Operators are much in need. Rick KI1G will have his station running as a multi also, so we may run a little thin on operators. Consider this post a plea. All help is appreciated. And you will have fun!

I have been busy with several house projects the last couple months. New drywall in the house and a new roof is on the barn. The work continues but is winding down. Attention to the station is the top priority until the contest. Just today, I have two 5B4AGN bandpass filters built and ready. They automatically switch using the K3 band data bits from the accessory connector. This should help minimize station to station QRM. I also have a 4EL 20M beam ready to raise. The plan is to do this when I return from vacation on the 24th or 25th. I will need a few hands for the antenna raising. It will be mounted on the 110 foot tower and be cabled to the Dunestar relay box at 85 feet. Choice of the 15 stack or 20M will be from the shack Dunestar control box. I also have the 15M stack rotor working remotely on the home network where it can be accessed from either station. It can be set from VK through JA north to EU. A 2 EL 40M beam could also be raised, but I doubt I will have it ready in time. I may see what I can get done this weekend, if the VHF contest doesn’t steal all my time and energy. I also put together an AM6155 400W amp for 432 but I won’t have all my antennas up for VHF/UHF until later this year.

Tomorrow, off to Gillette Stadium, and Friday the Big E. Monday I head to PEI for several days. Busy times.

73,
John, W1AN

As Ken mentioned, to arrive a day earlier than usual on the Tuesday before the contest was a good decision. We were busy, but all the major work was completed before the start with only minor bruises and sore muscles. This included the assembly, rotor and mast replacement on the crankup for the 40M XM240 beam we airlifted with us, the replacement of the rotor on the Skyhawk which we used for 20M, the replacement of the rotor and feedline for the upper 6 element 10M beam. The 5 element 10M beam we took down from the 40M crankup was reinstalled on the 20M tower. We needed to sort out several feedlines but did not have to install more than 5 PL259S or was it 6? The second 10M antenna was put on the lower 20M tower because the SWR on the other was iffy. The 6 element 15 meter yagi was flipped 180 so all rotors were north centered. Four Hygain Control boxes and three rotors were repaired. There was much climbing to do, but we got it done. The antenna situation at NP3U is better than it had been in a long while.

Along with antenna and tower work, Ken K3IU and James K1SD did much of the preparation in the shack. Several of Carlos’ radios were moved to a safe place to allow us real estate for the K3s and RTTY Meisters. Three RM2s were networked through a switch and tied into Carlos’ ethernet. Yes, he has DSL, which would have been nice to know before the effort of relearning packet and trying to get a long haul RF internet link ready before the trip. We did go ahead and use the DX 2M packet node that Jose KP4JRS setup for us at his Dads QTH 20 miles distant. The packet worked well but we did have a little RF from our HF transmitters get into it. Thanks go to Mike K1DM for bringing his packet hardware, his tower work, and keeping us soldiers in line for the week. We are a tough and unruly bunch.

N1MM did give us a headache. A bug recently introduced did not allow us to sequence serial numbers by band. We lost a little time in panic for a cure but needed to resolve ourselves that it was not a major concern and nothing we could safely fix. We then moved on putting QSOs in the log. ESM worked well but occasionally gave some heartburn, probably self inflicted. It was a joy to use for those long runs, but I still think we need to evaluate time saved vs. potentially lost Qs from bad clicks. I know I had issues with unexpected log and pop calls filling the entry window.

You can’t always plan for the unexpected. During the days before the contest we lost mains power for a while. During the contest and during some of the best runs Sunday we lost a couple of hours. Murphy had hitched a ride with us. He was probably snickering, sitting in first class, which is why we didn’t see him. Unfortunately his tricks probably knocked off a couple million points from our raw score. It looks like we may beat our 2009 score after the robot checks the logs but we may not make enough to take our usual top place. Needless to say, everyone worked hard in this one.

Jay KB1LCQ did much of the menu and food preparation during the days before the contest. He also put in a lot of chair time. Thanks Jay.

Returning to the NP3U team was Carlos WP4N. It was nice to have you back! And a job well done. Newcomer Jose KP4JRS, an avid RTTY contester, added many Qs to the log with nice runs on 10M. He picked up ESM in less than 5 minutes. And Carlos WP4U added to the total for his chair time Sunday. Mike K1DM and James K1SD had their share of Qs. Bill N1HRA outdid himself as usual. There is no doubt, storm conditions at home did cause some stress among our team members.

Ten was crappy the first day but was open a good part of Sunday afternoon. Eighty was very noisy the first night with little activity heard. But good the second night. Best conditions were Sunday. We stayed on the bands where the rates were the best with short breaks to pick up Qs and mults on the others. This sunspot cycle is not behaving normally.

Carlos has added an addition on the side and rear of his house. A cozy place for Ken K3IU to tell you about. There was warm water in the shower. The ice cream truck arrived on schedule. That was worth the trip alone. On Monday an oceanside dinner and sightseeing trip to Ponce completed the tour. Major cleanup was done Tuesday morning. The flight home was an easy one but filled with a little uncertainty about what damage to expect from the snow storm. We all arrived home safely.

John W1AN

Here we are supposedly in the middle of one of the major contests and now we have to prepare for another challenge, heavy winds, rain and likely at least a week of power outage. Yesterday Nancy and I spent a good part of the day emptying the front and back porches, securing the trash cans, loose items in the yard and shopping for supplies, and gas for the generator that may need to last a week. I still need to go out and do some more shopping, head up to the repeater site and secure things up there. This morning I climbed the tower with the newly stacked monobanders and bungied the side mounted boom of the lower beam to a tower leg, thinkiing I would a protect the rotator and stop two free spinning antennas doing damage. On the way down I taped and bungied the freely suspending cables and lines that were not secured to the tower. I think the towers on their own should survive OK, but if a falling tree hits the guys that will be disastrous. With 90+ MPH gusts from the east, trees coming down are a given. I just hope the two large trees just to the east of my tower guys hold up.

I cranked down the KT36XA to 25 feet and was wondering since the winds will be coming from the east, should the antenna be aimed toward the wind or 90 degrees to it? I think into or away from the wind is the best choice since that would put less of a buffeting load on the rotator.

How is your prepartaion going? It looks like I will be spending little time on the air this weekend. However initial tests on the stacked 15M beams show positive results with nice unsolicited comments of “Big Signal” several times.

John W1AN

The first of three planned monobanders for W1AN/W1DX is in the air. The project was started over a year and a half ago by Mike K1DM and I after collecting parts for two monoband antennas from a pile of aluminum at the QTH of Bill N1HRA. One antenna was a 15M-5 element and the other turned out to be 20M-4 element. The second 15M beam was from Mikes QTH. Missing parts, aluminum and new hardware were purchased for all three antennas. The old aluminum was given a thorough steel wool cleanup and two 15M beams were assembled per changes found in the ARRL Antenna Book. Testing on the MFJ analyzer was done by Mike and I at 40 feet by raising with a line and pulley on the south 90 foot tower. Minor adjustments were completed.

Tower preparation continues. Along with Mike, Pat NG1G and Ken K3IU have also contributed to getting the rotor and mast at the top swapped and old antennas down and new mounts up. The 36 foot side mounted mast and rotor were installed a couple weeks ago. There still remains some relocation for the repeater antennas and old mounting hardware needs to be removed.

Since we were going to stack the 15M beams, identical 3/4 wavelengths of coax were cut and checked with the MFJ analyzer to confirm they had the same electrical lengths. I slipped and secured several ferrite cores on the coax near the feedpoints of both to keep most of the RF off the outside of the coax to minimize the affect on the RF lobes of the antennas. I fabricated attachment points from aluminum strap and angle and used phillystran to minimize boom sag for both beams.

To raise the antennas I welded up a fixture that would slip over the galvanized steel tram cable and hold the antenna in a position to keep the boom level with the elements at an adjustable upright angle to avoid interference with the guy wires on the ride up. A pulley was secured about two feet above the end point of the tram cable and 1/2″ line provided by Mike K1DM was attached from the pulley to the tram fixture to haul up the antenna. Initially I was going to haul up the antenna with the use of a garden tractor with a climber ready to receive it on the tower. But first, I wanted to see how much effort would be required if I used my own horsepower to raise it. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. In fact, I hauled it up first with only a slight upward angle on the elements. This angle turned out to be too small, so I lowered the antenna and changed the angle to almost 45 degrees and it went up the 75 feet with little pain.

Once the antenna was up I took a break and has some lunch. I hadn’t secured it yet to the mast and was trying to decide if I had the energy to make the climb. I could wait for another day. Having a ground crew would certainly make things easier and much more would be accomplished including getting ready for the second antenna. I have a personal limit of one cliimb a day. I had planned this to be a three man project. I made the climb and with some effort I was able to secure the antenna on the mast. It looks pretty nice up there. On this one, I can say, I put it up all by myself. That done, for the second antenna I will need a ground crew. It’s a much longer way down if you forget a tool or drop a wrench from 110 feet. And it’s much more enjoyable to share the accomplishment with friends.
73,
John, W1AN

Starts: 1800 UTC Saturday, July 21, 2012
Ends: 2100 UTC Sunday, July 22, 2012

The CQ VHF contest for 6M and 2M is coming up next weekend. Band conditions especially 2M has been extraordinary these last couple of weeks. There has been much tropo ducting activity up and down the east coast and some real good conditons towards the west and southwest with contacts exceeding 500 and 600 miles common. I plan on getting a 6M antenna up on the crankup tower this week. With a little help I will lower the 2M beam 4 feet and place the 5 element 6M beam about 7 feet above the HF yagi where I hope there will be only a slight effect on the radiation pattern.

If you don’t have a 6M antenna see what your antenna tuner can do by loading one of your HF antennas. It is surprising what will work on the magic band!

I also plan this week to continue the 15M monoband stacked antenna project on the tall tower to side mount a rotor at the 75 ft elevation. I’m looking for ground crew volunteers who would like a free lunch some nice day this week.  One or two men will work until we get the courage to raise the monobanders.

John, W1AN