“Storm Watch”
Newsletter of NZ1U – The
Barnstormers Contest Group
“The Barnstormers News”
Volume 9 No.1,
January 8, 2004
Annual Christmas Party January 10, 2004 @
6:30 PM
Well,
it’s time again for our Christmas Party and we are getting in early this year.
With the VHF contest and CQWW CW 160 Contest scheduled for January 24-25 we had
to plan for an early date. I did miss that the NAQP is this weekend end but it
was too late to change the date.
So
far on the menu is Kim’s “Mad Cow Chili”, KB1H “ Wrecktum Firing Buffalo
Wings”, Miss Piggy’s (K1JCL XYL) cookies, and a batch of Sweet and Sour
Keibasa. Paul, KE1LI, has brewed up a batch of Chocolate Porter Beer. I suspect
if you usually drink Bud Light you better bring some. Bring a dish or desert to
share. Plan on sleeping over if you party too hard. I will start the fire early
as they are predicting below zero temperatures Saturday morning.
Who
will win the prestigious “K1GX Award” for 2003? Come and see!
Recent Wind Damage
We
didn’t go unscathed in the recent winds. We lost the whole installation on the
tripod. The rotor, tribander, and 6M beam were all on the ground. The cause? It
looks like the mounting bolts for the rotor fell out. This is the second time
this type of failure has hurt us. If it gets warm enough we will have to go up
and Locktite any rotor mounting bolts that are no so. I think only the 20M
rotor is already done. We also lost a reflector tip on the lower fixed on
Europe 15M beam. Should be easy to fix.
160 Meters….
If
you have not heard, we think we found the problem regarding our 160 Meter poor
performance. We always knew there was a noise and the beverage even was noisy.
The one thing we were afraid to do during contests was shutdown the node
computer. One night while Chris was listening on 160 I shut it down and shazam!
The band came alive. Europeans booming in. Working them with 200 watts. Deep
into Russia. Chris worked the 5X easily. If these were the conditions during
CQWW CW I projected we would have had a minimum of 300,000 more points. Putting
us ahead of K1RX and close to K1TTT. We
changed the power supply and all seems right. This will be an exciting band in
the upcoming contests.
ARRL CW
Feb. 21-22
It’s not too early to
be thinking about the next major contest. I plan on the same approach of an
Operator’s Schedule. Be prepared to discuss during the party any changes we
want to do to the schedule. There has been a few brought up like shorter
operator periods.
QSLs
Just
when I thought we were caught up with QSLing Chris brought another 1500! More
typing and sticking labels to follow.
40 Meter Tower Project and Progress
Kim
has started to go up with the mast pipe. The prop pitch enclosure is anchored,
the bearing on top to it, the first bearing up about 13 feet, and the first
section of mast pipe. It will go fast
now and I will be the bad guy as I have not made any progress on the boom for
the “Dallas”. Kim will need climbers to help with the next bearings mounting.
See you all in about 48 Hours!!!
73,
Dick