“The Barnstormers News”                                                            Volume 9 No.2, February 2, 2004

 

Sorry I did not get a newsletter out sooner. Hard to believe it has been more than 3 weeks since the Christmas Party already.

 

A few highlights of the party are in order…..

 

The coveted “K1GX Award” went to Rocky the Flying Squirrel. So far we have had to repair control cables three times in the attic. The darn squirrels are eating the heck out of the insulation and conductors. Kim has put on his combat gear and to date we have whacked 9 flying squirrels, one mouse, and we think winged a gray squirrel. THIS IS WAR BABY!!

 

A few played in the NAQP which was going on.

 

KE1LI’s beer was great! Paul stuck in there until we emptied his keg. He had to fly to California the next morning.

 

Lots of kidding and BBing. There were a total of 17 attendees which I think is most we have had here for the party. Sorry everyone didn’t make it. It was nice to see Don and Claude make it for the first time.

 

If you contributed over and beyond the normal help or if you operated here in the four major DX Contests you received a CQ Radio Calendar.

 

 

ARRL DX CW Coming up Feb. 21-22

 

This contest is coming fast! I have asked everyone for their availability so I can make up another Operator’s Spreadsheet. This worked really well in CQWW and I am trying this again. So far I have N1XS, NB1U, K1EBY, N4XR, KB1H, and K1IN. I have a maybe from K1AM.

 

Can I just make a schedule or do some of you have times you CANNOT make it?

 

We will be Multi/Multi with four stations again. This time we will beat K1RX and maybe even K1TTT. Why you ask? We fixed 160! During 8 hours of the CQWW 160 test we worked 407 QSOs with 37 countries with about 85 QSOs with Europeans. This is a nice total without the usual Caribbean multipliers which were not on. A 160 total like this during CQWW would have vaulted us way past K1RX and approached K1TTT.

 

Come operate with us during ARRL and be part of a record breaking effort for KB1H.

 

 

Repairs

 

Unfortunately the weather has not been that great but we have gotten some things done. During the VHF SS last weekend I climbed in near zero temperatures to put up a 3-element 6 meter beam. While up the tower I found the #2 10 Meter beam coax dangling in the air. I knew there was a problem but not so bad or so simple to fix! It is fine now. This past weekend in 20 degree weather Dave and I put the reflector back together on the lower 15 meter beam fixed on Europe. Luckily everything went well and we were up the tower for a short time even though it meant taking the antenna off its clamp and turning into the tower so we could reach the element.

 

It looks like we are in pretty good shape at this time for the contest.

 

 

Please let me know if you are operating in ARRL DX CW ASAP

 

73  Dick