“Storm Watch”
Newsletter of NZ1U – The
Barnstormers Contest Group
“The
Barnstormer’s News”
Volume 5 No.8 September 19, 2000
Contest
Season 2000-2001 Is Just Around the Corner…..
Where did the summer go?
What summer? I went in the pool only twice. Since IARU in July the station has
been pretty dormant. As the new contest season approaches we have our list of
projects that have to be attacked very quickly. Before I get to the list here
is a few of the things that have been happening.
We finally got our club call
for “The Barnstormers Contest Group” – KB1FOX. We have since filed for a vanity
call – NZ1U. Why NZ1U? Well, we had narrowed the available calls to AG1N, NZ1U,
KU1T, and KU1R. Further research on active contest prefixes narrowed the field
down to AG1N and NZ1U. Taking a vote among the operators proved to be about a
dead heat. Both calls were good for CW but NZ1U had a slight edge for SSB.
Thinking about running rates and average power out (due to longer letter
annunciation), NZ1U got the final nod. NZ1U can be used probably without
phonetics. Also DX stations might have a problem confusing “G” with “J”. Thanks
to NT1N at ARRL for the help in digging out the best calls still available and
Chris, N1XS, for pushing the paperwork through. NZ1U should be fun in WPX
contests this year!
Kim, KB1DFB, single-handedly
shingled the barn roof this past summer. About 21 squares of shingles, three
rolls of ice barrier, and more tarpaper later the roof looks great. No more
leaks. Now we can fix the ceiling again. We will install the tri-bander back on
the roof in the next few weeks. Yes Frank. We are putting that dummy load back
up!
In the past week or so,
Chris has installed the ethernet network. We have tested Stations 1, 2 & 3
and have the cable to hook up Station #4. Kim ran the new network cables and
removed the unneeded serial cables. This should be a great improvement.
Mark, NB1U, has begun work
on the new and improved Barnstormers Web Page. Hopefully in the next month we
will be at a point that the old page will be shutdown and the new one
announced. It looks great so far!
Now for the
Dreaded “To Do List”…..
The upper 10 meter beam has
a 2 to 1 SWR. We haven’t troubleshot this yet but the worst case scenario will
be having to remove the rotor, lower the mast, and fix the upper beam. This is
probably the toughest of the tasks we need to do before CQWW SSB.
The 40 Meter 3 element KLM
has about a 10 to 1 SWR!! Again we have not researched this yet but sounds like
it maybe water in the coax or balun. Not a hard job to fix I hope.
The 3-element 203BA is ready
to go on the 20 meter tower. The switching box is also built and needs to be
mounted. The wiring to accommodate the new beam with the WX0B Stackbox needs to
be re-arranged both on the tower and the patch panel in the shack.
I have permission from my
cousin to run a rope from his windmill tower. This means we can put up a full
size 160 meter wire antenna with the ends at about 90 and 120 feet. I plan on
using open line feed up to the antenna from the ground and then have an
enclosure below the center feed point. The enclosure will make the transition
from open line to coax feedline.
I have not done any more on
“The Dallas” 40 meter beam but I did send a prop pitch motor out to M2 for
rebuilding and adding of an indicating mechanism. We will also be getting a new
control box that has programmable settings, variable speeds, and electrical
stops. No more interstation gabs for beam headings on the prop pitch rotor.
Also the project will include moving the prop pitch down to ground level. This
is a fairly large project and will cost probably in the neighborhood of $1K.
Scheduling all
this work….
Starting with this weekend
(Sept 23-24) I want to begin the work. I will contact Dave, AA1CE, and see if
he is available for tower work. I hope to then work at least every other
weekend (Mary works that schedule so she won’t have a list for me!) until we
get the jobs done.
We can not make the same
mistake we made in IARU. We had serious interference problems, radio control
glitches, and network trouble. We need to test our setup before 0000Z on
October 28th. I hope to confirm the hardware for four stations in
the next few weeks. We will be entering the M/M class with 4 stations. I
realize we are not competitive in this class but it makes the maximum points
for YCCC and gives us more practice for the ARRL contests where we enter the
M/2 class. Setting up and testing all the stations is a MUST!!
Finally have you paid your
YCCC dues. The meeting requirement is not necessary for CQWW but your dues have
to be paid. Again we will be striving for 100% YCCC membership with our crew.
Keep in touch and please
help us get ready for our 2000-2001 Kick Butt session.
73 Dick