6M SPRING SPRINT 2016
SINGLE OPERATOR
N2SLN hilltop portable in FN22
ANTENNA SYSTEM
new 2-inch hitch-mounted Tipper with rotor
2-inch OD mast plus one short section of smaller mast for mounting the antenna
Moxon Rectangle antenna at about 27 feet above ground
RADIO EQUIPMENT
Icom IC-7000 at 10-15 watts
new RF-sensed ARR preamp
ICE bandpass filter
TE Systems amplifier at about 200w
DESCRIPTION
One week before the sprint I opened the shipping container to begin building the new 6m rover yagi only to discover that the
element sections are not held together with hose clamps. I was counting on the hose clamp design so I could collapse the
elements inward to make the antenna fit in the cargo area of the new rover van, but the element sections are riveted. So now
the antenna options for the upcoming sprint are dwindling. The forecast for sprint day didn't sound good early in the week
and got worse as time progressed. The chance of rain increased to 90 percent and wind gusts to 30 mph were being predicted.
The day before the sprint I disassembled my home station's 5-el yagi and loaded it into the van incase I had time to
re-assemble it on the hilltop, but I also brought the Moxon. On sprint day I arrived at the hilltop more than an hour early.
There were extremely dark and low clouds to the west, and high wind gusts, but no rain at the moment. Since most weather
comes from the west, I figured that I was only moments away from being hit, so the decision was made to minimize setup time
and use the Moxon, an antenna that I can transport already fully assembled, and can take back down quickly. I positioned the
van, drove over the leveling blocks, removed the antenna and other equipment from the cargo area, all the while watching the
ominous clouds for signs of direction of travel. Luckily there was no lightning. I suddenly noticed that the dark blob was
getting closer as expected. At this point the tiltover system was fully assembled and on the ground, minus the antenna and
feedline, which I threw under the van to keep rain off the connectors and ran inside just as the first raindrops hit at 6:08
PM. While the tempest unleashed and rocked the van side to side, I enjoyed staying dry and kept busy with the indoor tasks,
then noticed pea-sized hail for about 30 seconds at 6:24 PM. The torrent was over at 6:40 so I went back outside and was able
to stay dry while finishing assembly. One other operator to my southwest reported hearing thunder, and the news media
reported that Ohio had thundersnow (and I had snow flurries at home for several hours the next day which actually
accumulated to a dusting).
I started calling CQ and was pleased to see the new external preamp working well (the main purpose of participating in the
sprint this time). The rotor control box had somehow got into a different count ratio and the display was not showing the
actual beam heading. This same issue happened two years ago but I couldn't remember the fix. So I survived by looking outside
at the antenna whenever possible as well as peaking the signals by ear and on the S-meter. With so little antenna gain there
weren't any long-haul contacts, but it was still a treat to work into FN44, which was probably my best DX at
240 miles / 387 km. Apparently, at this location, the power lines get noisy in wet wx, because by pointing the antenna where
the power lines were closest, the QRN went up to S9+10 dB as rain fell almost constantly for the whole sprint. It's difficult
to get away from the QRN with an antenna that has a huge 80-degree beamwidth, so even quiet directions were noisier than
usual, and I missed some contacts as a result. There were no skywave contacts here; chances of band openings would increase
if the event were moved to Memorial Day weekend, which is historically the best time in the month of May. The solar flux was
down to 103 from the previous year's 155 after four consecutive years of increases.
POINTS SUMMARY
BAND QSOs GRIDS SCORE
----------------------------
50 11 8 88
LOG
MD TIME CALLSIGN GRID
------------------------------
PH 2307 K2ZD FN21
PH 2328 KJ1K FN32
PH 2340 N1JEZ FN44
PH 0006 KE2DN FN12
CW 0014 N2DCH FN22
PH 0021 KC2SFU FN22
CW 0038 N2NT FN20
PH 0059 WA1WK FN31
CW 0128 WB2JAY FN30
CW 0130 W3KM FN20
PH 0155 K1TEO FN31