“Storm Watch”

Newsletter of NZ1U – The Barnstormers Contest Group

Volume 12 No.4, December 28, 2007

I bet you think I forgot how to do this……

Well, it has been almost 6 months since the last “Storm Watch”! Things have been too busy for all of us. I almost forgot how to write one of these things. Let me try to catch up a little.

After the first two major contests I can say we faired fairly well. I believe we have stayed in the “Top Ten” and maybe even as high as 5 or 6 in one contest. There has been a little activity in other contest as well. Yuri did the 10M contest and jay and I played at least one night in the ARRL 160M contest. Had we operated the second night we would have generated quite a nice score.

The recent cold weather has kept me out of the barn so not much to report lately.

Probably the biggest news station-wise is that the base for the new tower has been poured. We are a whopping 5’ up and counting. Kim hired an on-site cement mixing truck at the cost of about $300 and 1 ½ yards of cement later we are starting to go up! This should be an exciting year as this project gets rolling. Our plans now are to get to about 30’ and then get the anchors in.

Frank’s radio was repaired. Only about $800.00! I hope none of you have to ever replace the solid state finals in your FT-1000 Mark V. Frank has donated his amplifier for sale to help reimburse Kim the funds that he outlayed for the repair. Needless to say the Bank of Provencher has made much possible and hopefully we can repay Kim as we sell a few items.

I want to thank everyone who came and worked on wire brushing and painting the tower sections. A number of weekends were sacrificed and we have about four more sections to do which will be sold to help finance all we are doing. When the weather improves we will finish the sections.

Now for more important news…

Most of us know by emails that Frank had another heart attack. We have stayed close with him and I talked to him just a day or so ago. He is fine but has to sit around the house and not do too much. He had another stint put in and is on enough drugs to fail any Major league Baseball drug test for the next few years. One of these days again when the weather gets better we have to go over and look at his antenna. I think he has a rotor problem. I believe last time someone got him a bucket truck. Frank’s tower is not the most desirable to climb!

In the antenna repair department, after many trips and raising and lower of the tower, Vic’s KLM KT-34 is working fine. KB1DFB, W1UJ, and KB1H made trips as Vic kept very persistent at repairs and upgrades until it was working right again. Since then Vic’s neighbor also cut down the trees that were a pain every time we raised and lowered the tower. Fixed just in time for the winter weather!

Yuri will be operating from KV4FZ in the ARRL DX CW contest.

Our Annual Christmas Party!!!!!

Our Annual Barnstormers Christmas Party has been scheduled for January 26^th!! This is the same weekend as the CQWW 160M CW contest so we all can take turns operating (if you know CW)

As usual, bring your drinks and a dish. Please let’s try to coordinate the food so we have not too much but a nice variety. We will start about 6PM and go until the last one drops. Last year I think it was NB1U and KB1H about 3:30 AM.

January VHF SS Contest - January 19 and 20

Once again we will attempt kick butt in the contest. Last year we had a rotor failure that costs us a bottle of Crown Royal. Though we have not bet with KW1AM this year we want to make a BIG effort to do well. This year we have not only the power but also mast mounted preamps on 144, 220, and 432 MHz. We should be able to hear as well as be heard for a change. As usual, Kim is spearheading this and we need operators, Especially the first night. The contest I think starts around 2PM Saturday afternoon and goes until 11PM Sunday night. WE NEED OPERATORS

Can you schedule yourself for a few hours? Let Kim or I know as soon as possible. If it snows we will arrange a Senior Citizen Bus pickup or something like that. This contest actually means allot to Kim and I and we want to give a good effort. Hopefully our IT department will have the computers working OK and we can pass QSOs among the bands which really helps in HF contest practice.

Finally….

To each of you and your families, a Happy New Year and Good Contesting.

73, Dick – KB1H