HQRP in the ARRL 160 meter Contest 2011
Magnolia and W5MSQ Was on the air again!
December 2nd and 3rd Friday and Saturday up to dawn
We Did it again!
It was a tough weekend for the 160m contest. The weather was Okay for the most part but Murphy was fully in operation. We had decided to set up in the Oak Hollow park again this year. Not a bad idea as the last two events we had there were really good. At the meeting it was pointed out I would be alone for most of the first evening and people would start coming in as soon as they could get off work and finish up their family activities. I understood but did not realize how tough it really would be.
I got out to the park about 3:30 PM Friday and started setting up immediately. I unloaded the truck in case it started to rain and was done in about a 45 minutes. I started to lay out the open wire feed line. Of course, it was really tangled. Once it was laid out I started to lay out the antenna, it went out on the ground easy enough and I was able to solder the feedline on well. This is when the real fun started, I tried to shoot a line up in the tree and it got hung up high, a weight was wrapped around a tree limb, ugh not good but all too easy to do! Next I shot up another line and then pulled up the nylon dipole line.
Once I started running the dipole back up it got hung in the tree, rats! I gad to pull it back down and start all over. Well this went on for the next couple of HOURS!! I was out of nylon line, fishing line lead weights and worst of all patience. Diana my lovely(and (VERY Patient) wife and HQRP members John and Jay-Mag had come in to help come in to help; thank them all so very much. With the last shot I put up the dipole line perfectly and somehow snagged that first weight and some extra fishing line and brought them down safely. Well how did that happen!!??
The dipole went up and everything was working. Well so one would think, the band was NOT in good shape. High noise was blocking out most all the weak signals including it seemed us.
We worked hard, on through the night and totaled out about 78 contacts. Not too good but we did the best we could. Later conversations with one of our competitors W5GZ revealed an interesting observation; this was the WORST the band had been in more than 8 years! Guessing the band noise was significantly above normal for this time of year.
II would like to extend a special tanks to Jay Mag and John, Gabriel, Ed Manual, Craig Davidson Andy McAllister , and Thomas for all the operations and especially the help setting up and taking down the station. The efforts of the operators made it all come together and pulled in some really good contacts with marginal to downright lousy band conditions.
Great Job everyone and see you next time!
It was a tough weekend for the 160m contest. The weather was Okay for the most part but Murphy was fully in operation. We had decided to set up in the Oak Hollow park again this year. Not a bad idea as the last two events we had there were really good. At the meeting it was pointed out I would be alone for most of the first evening and people would start coming in as soon as they could get off work and finish up their family activities. I understood but did not realize how tough it really would be.
I got out to the park about 3:30 PM Friday and started setting up immediately. I unloaded the truck in case it started to rain and was done in about a 45 minutes. I started to lay out the open wire feed line. Of course, it was really tangled. Once it was laid out I started to lay out the antenna, it went out on the ground easy enough and I was able to solder the feedline on well. This is when the real fun started, I tried to shoot a line up in the tree and it got hung up high, a weight was wrapped around a tree limb, ugh not good but all too easy to do! Next I shot up another line and then pulled up the nylon dipole line.
Once I started running the dipole back up it got hung in the tree, rats! I gad to pull it back down and start all over. Well this went on for the next couple of HOURS!! I was out of nylon line, fishing line lead weights and worst of all patience. Diana my lovely(and (VERY Patient) wife and HQRP members John and Jay-Mag had come in to help come in to help; thank them all so very much. With the last shot I put up the dipole line perfectly and somehow snagged that first weight and some extra fishing line and brought them down safely. Well how did that happen!!??
The dipole went up and everything was working. Well so one would think, the band was NOT in good shape. High noise was blocking out most all the weak signals including it seemed us.
We worked hard, on through the night and totaled out about 78 contacts. Not too good but we did the best we could. Later conversations with one of our competitors W5GZ revealed an interesting observation; this was the WORST the band had been in more than 8 years! Guessing the band noise was significantly above normal for this time of year.
II would like to extend a special tanks to Jay Mag and John, Gabriel, Ed Manual, Craig Davidson Andy McAllister , and Thomas for all the operations and especially the help setting up and taking down the station. The efforts of the operators made it all come together and pulled in some really good contacts with marginal to downright lousy band conditions.
Great Job everyone and see you next time!
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