K6DGW - Flight of the Bumblebees

[k6dgw]

Total QSO's: 15
Bumblebee QSO's: 12
Score: 540 pts, I think
RIG: K2 #4398
ANT: Buddipole
PWR: 12 Ah solar charged gel cell
QTH: Overlook Park, Auburn CA [38+53+22.6N  121+04+05.3W] 1,510 ft AMSL
WX: Clear, sunny, about 98F [36C]
OPR TIME: 3h 45m [battery finally got too low]
CONDX: El Stinko

I set up on the edge of the American River canyon [about 1,000 ft deep
at this point], looking NE across it.  It's called Overlook Park because
it used to be the Bureau of Reclamation's viewing and info site for the
now defunct Auburn Dam.

Signals were whisper weak, nothing heard on 10 and 15, heard WA7LNW very
weak on 40, nothing else.  Only one signal actually indicated on the
S-meter.  My K2 is very quiet [guess they all are :-) ], and I had the
AF up to "afterburner roar" to pick signals out, and then I tuned across
N7OU who was 20 over from OR.  That creates interesting intermod in your
head.  Fortunately, I'm already nearly deaf.

I don't know what has happened to 20m recently, but the last couple of
weeks, Kevin has been S9 or better on ECN, whereas he was barely if at
all readable prior.  He's about S9 right now calling ECN.

Since my contest rate wasn't even close to 100/hr, I got time to mess
around with my new Buddipole, and also made some Vitamin D for my body.
  Had several visitors.  I had made up an explanation page since I
thought I might be ripping Q's off fairly fast.  That not being the
case, I had time to give them a chance to listen and talk to them a little.

Fun outing with the K2.  The Buddipole is a huge step up from the 27'
wire I was using.  Had the KX1 as backup, but decided to pack-it-in with
only 15 min to go.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2007 CQP Oct 6-7
- www.cqp.org
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[Bob Cunnings NW8L]

Hi Fred, you were my first QSO, tnx. Here's the story from NM:

28 qso's, 21 bees, 7 home-based stations, all 20 m.

Rig: KX1, 10W solar panel charging a 2AH gel cell. The antenna was a
"coupled resonator" 40/20 meter inverted vee with apex at about 20
feet above a sharp N/S ridge line at 9600 feet near South Sandia Peak.
A great position, but required a four hour hike to get up there. 20
ran hot and cold, for a while the guys in the West (esp. UT) were
fairly strong, but not so for other call areas, the furthest east I
worked was N3AO in VA. Three hours into the contest a line of
thunderstorms arrived from the west and I had to pack up and head back
down, it's very exposed there, and QRN from nearby lightning was
getting awful.  20 was fading at that point, strong stations like N7OU
and WA7LNW were much weaker than in the first hour. Never got around
to trying 40 m.

The KX1 is just the thing for these outings. I used one of those $5
powered plug in speakers from Walgreens instead of earbuds and found
it very agreeable.

Bob NW8L
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[Chris Kantarjiev K6DBG]

Total QSO's: 14
Bumblebee QSO's: 8
Score: you mean we're keeping score?
RIG: KX1 #1048
ANT: 31' wire w/ 17' counterpoise
PWR: solar panel feeding 7Ah gel cell
QTH: Fresno Dome, Madera County, CA grid DM07fk, 7,000 ft AMSL
WX: Clear, sunny, light breeze, about 80F
OPR TIME: 3h
CONDX: worse than last year

Last year was my first time as a Bee. I wanted to operate from a high
QTH near our vacation cabin south of Yosemite, but we had company with
us. So I walked all of 30 yards down the yard to where I could reach
our big cedar tree and threw a wire up.

I didn't do very well. We're in a valley (they don't call the area
Cedar Valley for nothing), so we have about -1000' HAAT in pretty
much every direction except south. Post-contest reports indicated that
my signal was getting out as far as AZ, but the responses weren't
making it in...

I was determined to find a better place this year :-)

When my patient XYL heard about my plans to operate from Fresno
Dome (about 7000' in "southern Yosemite"), she allowed as how it
would be nice to make it a picnic. So we packed for a somewhat
higher comfort level than I would have myself (i.e., we took camp
chairs and a cooler of "adult beverages" and sandwiches!) and headed
out at our usual Sunday pace. It's a 45 minute drive up rutted
Forest Service roads, followed by an easy 15 minute hike. We arrived
at the trailhead just before 11am (1800z), an hour after the contest
started. It was about 20 degF cooler than at our cabin, which was
a welcome change.

A few tosses got my 31' wire "high enough" into a Jeffrey pine. I set
up in the sun so the solar panel had something to work with, dug
out my earphones and hooked up the KX1's paddle. Quickly heard and
worked 3 or 4 other /BB stations on 20 ... and then all I heard was
those four stations! Well, I heard them working other people, but
I couldn't hear who they were working.

I did hear one KL7, but so faintly that I never got the complete call,
and he certainly didn't hear me. I heard Randy K7TQ well, but he didn't
hear me, either.

The second hour was almost a complete goose-egg. I tried setting up the
PAC-12. It gave me a couple dB better receive, but wasn't radiating at
all - the ground there is sandy and dry where it isn't rock, and
that's pretty much the performance I expected. I really have to make up some
tuned radials for that thing.

I moved my chair to reorient the wire by 90 degrees and got a few
more dB signal (which meant that I was getting about S3 signals now!)
and finally worked NG7C.

Time to switch to 40m. Got a run of 5 contacts, wow, this is getting
exciting! But that was about all...

Total of 14 Qs, 8 BBs, 5 states. Better than last year's 12 Qs in worse
conditions, so I guess that's progress. It was a beautiful QTH with
nice views of the Central Valley, but blocked to the north and somewhat
to the east ... I'll try somewhere else next year.

And it's time to go back to experimenting with other wire antennas,
like a W3EDP or OCF dipole. I think they're a little more fussy to
set up (I have to get better at throwing, too) but should give
better results!

73 de chris K6DBG
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[Bob Cunnings NW8L]

I took a camera this year and got some pictures. They, and some info
on the antenna, are now up at:

http://www.whitemesa.com/nw8l/fbb07.htm

I sure like the telescoping fiberglass poles.

Bob NW8L

On 7/30/07, Chris Kantarjiev <[hidden email]> wrote:
<snip>
> And it's time to go back to experimenting with other wire antennas,
> like a W3EDP or OCF dipole. I think they're a little more fussy to
> set up (I have to get better at throwing, too) but should give
> better results!
>
> 73 de chris K6DBG
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