“Storm Watch”
Newsletter of
NZ1U – The Barnstormers Contest Group
Volume 15 No.4.
Well, just
over a month until CQWW SSB! That is coming quick and I really don’t see us
100% ready for this one. We will try our best with what we got ready I am sure.
Slow but
steady progress on most fronts has been ongoing. It just seems not enough of us
can put the time in to get much done.
I have
really burnt out Dave with climbing work. Thanks to him and Paul, KE1LI we got
the tower finished. Everything is wired above and ready for final wiring in the
shack.
This past
weekend Kim ran most of the wires to the barn and next is to get them into the
barn along with removing unnecessary coax and hardline. Unbelievable amount of
work to finish! Allan and I finished
modifying the reflector on the
The “Spud
Gun” squad shot a line over the trees so Frank can get his Delta loops up.
I will be
attaching two documents to this Storm Watch. One is a Post Contest checklist so
I/we don’t forget to send a log in and the other document will be the list of
open projects.
The Post
Contest list is self explanatory.
The
project list is for all of us to look at and see what tasks need to be done and
what YOU can do to help. As I had said n an earlier email I can not keep all
fronts moving and be involved in each project. I am looking for the crew to
grab hold of the list and be determined to “git er done!!”
Vic has
been busy pasting labels on QSLs and all KB1H cards have been answered. I got a
small packet of NZ1U cards in Saturday and will get them done soon.
Station Use
This past
weekend I also felt like playing in the RTTY contest and once again have found
problems with equipment. The 40M antenna system has a high SWR and the Station
3 Titan would not key. Lately finding
things broke has been the norm. I
believe the only way we will get over this is to get more use out of the
equipment so problems do not get piled up.
Last year
or the previous year I made the hope that we would operate in EVERY contest. We
surely have fallen short of that this year. I think we need to commit to this
practice again. Even if only a few hours in each contest. Surely some of the
crew can put in a few hours but not in every contest. There are just too many
things broke we have to fix and exercise.
I will be
sending emails and asking for people to sign up for operating times. Again,
even if one person uses the station for a few hours we will get an idea of the
condition of the equipment.
OK, I want
keep this Storm Watch short so I can get the documents done and sent with this
issue.
Take a
look at the project list and decide what you can help with. At this point we
don’t need operators, we need workers!
73 Dick