Author: Gary Agranat

DSES Plishner Work trip report May-28-2017

Originally posted by Myron Babcock, DSES Treasurer, June 2, 2017.

Special Thanks to Ray Uberecken, AA0L, for providing this detailed report. Thanks to Gary Agranat, WA2JQZ, for providing the photographs.

Sunday’s work trip to Plishner was to say the least ‘very productive’.

Ed Corn replaced the spark plugs in the generator and it fired up and ran great all day.

Michael worked in the bunker cleaning it up some and provided a great lunch.  Thanks Gail, the salad and cobbler were perfect.

Ray and Ed Johnson tested a new position readout and controller and after fixing a few errors on Ray’s part it worked great.  The controller part is not complete yet but that is being worked on now.

Ray and Floyd installed the 1/4 wave shorted stub at the feed and replaced the 1420 preamp.  We didn’t have to remove the feed to fix it.

 

Floyd took the six metre antenna down and tightened the reflector element and then put it back up.

 

Rich and Ed J. worked on the computer installing the readout software that Ed J. wrote and worked on improvements for the future needs along with Bill.

Ray and Rich got the Spectracyber set up and running.

Bill and Ed C. worked on replacing batteries in the shed and fixing a few issues.

Ed C. finished the welding on the steps of the spiral staircase.  I think the stairs are ready for scraping and painting.

Bill took video with his drone for inclusion in the package to send to the Plishners.

Gary organized the ham shack and managed to work a few contacts.

I probably forgot a few other projects but needless to say it was a good day.

ARRL DX CW contest – 2017 February 18

 Posted February 26, 2017, updated March 2.

Last weekend, while we were working on the radio telescope (reinstalling the antenna feed at the focus), we also spent a few hours participating in the ARRL DX CW contest.  This is an annual ham radio contest sponsored by the ARRL, done in two parts. In February (this month) is the contest for using Morse Code (CW). In March is the contest for using voice.  The goal is for hams in the continental U.S. and Canada to contact hams everywhere else, and vice versa.  We used our ham radio station at the site, which includes a 100 watt transceiver, an antenna tuner, and a folded dipole suspended above the communications trailer.  For sending code we used just a straight traditional key.

We succeeded in making 27 contacts with 18 overseas DX locations. These are the places we contacted:

Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Aruba
Bonaire
Brazil
Cape Verde
Cayman Island
Chile
Columbia
Costa Rica
Hawaii
Jamaica
Montserrat
Tonga
Turks & Caicos Islands
Uruguay
U.S. Virgin Islands
Venezuela

A31MM in Tonga was a nice surprise, and was our longest-distance contact, at 6600 miles.  Tonga is in the western Pacific, north of New Zealand. That and D4C in Cape Verde (about 4500 miles distance) took some patience and skill, but they were worth the effort as those are not common DX to work.

We mostly used the 15-meter band, which had good propagation openings to the Caribbean and across the equator. If you look on a globe or world map, Tonga and Cape Verde are across the equator from Colorado. That suggests we benefitted from Trans Equatorial Propagation (TEP).  We managed to hear one station in Europe, in Poland, but couldn’t make the contact.  20 meters was heavily crowded with domestic stations (which we couldn’t contact in this contest), and so we didn’t use that band much.  The 10-meter band was open enough that we made our Chile contact there.  On Log Book of the World, which we need for the DXCC award, we received so far 12 confirmations:

Argentina LU4EG
Aruba P40R
Bonaire PJ4X
Brazil PP5NY
Cape Verde D4C
Costa Rica TI5W
Hawaii KH6LC, WH7W
Tonga A31MM
Turks & Caicos Islands VP5K
Uruguay CW5W
U.S. Virgin Islands KP2M
Venezuela YV5OIE

I expect most 0f the rest of our contacts will confirm on Log Book of the World in the near future, as this sort of contest is commonly used to achieve credits toward DXCC.

We also started to receive confirmations on eQSL as well. See the accompanying card images bel0w.

These contests are generally fun and good learning experiences. We can participate in more in the future.  I will be happy to help anyone in the group take part while we are at the site.  Contests can help develop good ham skills – including developing good operator practices and learning first-hand how propagation can change during the day across the bands. You can be at any experience level, including beginner.  With some experience, you may find yourself developing some strategies.  Contests also can be fun geography lessons.  You can contact hams in so many different places, including places you didn’t know about.

73, Gary WA2JQZ

YV5OIE Venezuela