[MiQP-Mail] W8RU/p -- M/M, Kalkaska County

Ron Majewski bigsky2000 at sbcglobal.net
Sun Apr 17 23:12:27 CDT 2005


W8RU, Kalkaska County

Ops: NX8C (Neil), KC8VGG (Bill), W8RU (Ron)

         CW   SSB

80m      15   30
40m      50   17
20m      38   57
        ---------
Totals  103  104

Mults    44   47    Claimed score: 28,210

Transceivers: IC-746, FT-847
20m/15m/10m: The driven elements of a C3S
    80m/40m: dipoles

We were operating from my brother's cottage just into
Kalkaska County near Bear Lake.  We operated from Noon
until about 8pm when we had to break camp and head
home.  Two additional operators had to drop out on
Friday owing to other commitments.

The weather was absolutely fabulous in mid-Michigan! 
It got to 75F with a light breeze and no bugs.  There
were still some small piles of snow hiding in the
woods, though.  

We arrived on site at 10:30am.  We got the highband
station set up first.  We used the driven elements of
a C3S as an antenna for the high bands, mounting the
boom vertically to make a rotary dipole of sorts.  We
initially put this at the top of a 14ft 2x4.  It went
together fast and worked well enough but we weren't
generating much interest.  About 2hrs into the contest
we threw a rope into a tree and hauled the dipoles up
to about 30ft.  That improved our results.

Next came the 40m station.  Like many others, we
initially believed that 40m was going to be the band
of choice.  We hauled a dipole about 25 ft into the
air but hit an RFI snag right away with the ft-847. 
After an hour of futzing around, we moved the dipole
to a different location and the RFI was magically
gone.

Both 40m and 20m were long.  We heard a weak K8MQP in
CHEB on 20m and one fellow about 2 miles away from us
on 40m.  That was it.  We could hear lots of people
calling into Michigan stations.  For all intents and
purposes we didn't hear any of the mobiles.  40m SSB
was a complete disappointment.  Not an encouraging
situation.  Some Michigan stations became audible on
20m and 40m late in the afternoon.  I can remember
working K8XXX but they struggled to pull us out.

We tried both 15m and 10m sporadically throughout the
afternoon to no avail.  They were both dead as
doornails.

Around 5pm I worked a couple stations in LA and AL on
40m SSB.  They were loud and they were telling me that
I was loud down there.  Wow.  All that with 100w and a
low dipole.  Then I started hearing the EU SWBC
stations and the light bulb went off -- time to move
to 80m.  

We pulled down the 40m dipole and put up one for 80m. 
We found good activity and worked a bunch of counties.
 We kept pounding away at 80m and 20m until about 8pm
when we had to leave.

We worked only one mobile, one time: NU8Z.  W1NN was
the only other mobile we heard the whole day, and he
was on 20m in EATO, I think.

Lest you think otherwise, we had a fabulous time.  We
got the Field-Day-like experience without having to
stay up all night and without any mosquitoes or
storms.  KC8VGG got his first taste of HF contesting. 
We had to pull him away from the 80m station at 8pm. 
He said, "Hold on -- let me work just one more!"

73,

Ron (W8RU).




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