“Storm Watch”

Newsletter of NZ1U – The Barnstormers Contest Group

                                                            Volume 14 No.3. March 18, 2009

Our Contesting to date….

 

Well, we have gone through the four major contests for the 2008-2009 season. Two CQWW and two ARRL DX contests. Our efforts have been very good even with the disadvantages we have with broken antennas and towers not finished. We have stuck to the M/2 category and with the available people this has been our best category to compete. The propagation gods have not been good to us and the boys further south have had the advantage on 15M and 10M. Our lack of a horizontal antenna on 40M has really hurt and we hope to remedy that this year.

 

We added a few new operators with KB1NRB and W1WBB coming on board. KB1NRB has been especially helpful with work and even tower climbing. He has been quite an inspiration to the crew and really has been quite a motivator. I believe his enthusiasm has rubbed off on some of us and renewed efforts have been seen.

 

My other goal of getting the station on many of the contests has been successful too. We have missed very few weekends and even have been in a few RTTY contests.

 

We have plenty to do this year but we our renewed spirit I am sure we will meet our goals.

 

Great work guys!!

Barnstormers Chatroom…

 

Jay has installed a “chatroom” on one of the computers in the barn. You can find the link on the Webcam page of our website. You will be logged in as “anonymous”. Next use the command “/nick <your callsign> “ and you will be logged in as your callsign. So far a few of you have dropped by occasionally and you can find W1UJ, KB1NRB, and KB1H there almost every evening.

 

New 10M Beacon:

 

You can find KB1NRB/B on 28.251.5 Mhz. Allan is running 10W with a vertical strung up in the trees. Location is Dayville, CT. Beacon transmits every 2 minutes.

 

Official Barnstormer Apparel

 

W1UJ has arranged with B&B Embroidery (also known as Hamthreads) to make available hats, shirts, jackets, etc. Jay has set up the digitized logo and you can go online at www.hamthreads.com and order anything you want. Here are pictures of the hat that was sent as a sample and also the tee shirt. Some of us are ordering denim shirts for Dayton. We have requested that the logo be put on the right side and the callsign name on the left pocket.

 

Again, any product can be ordered with our logo and your name/callsign. Take a look at the website.

 

20 Meter Antenna Repairs

 

Recent problems with both the upper and middle 20M antennas meant multiple climbs by AA1CE, KB1NRB, and KE1LI. One of these climbs by AA1CE was in the dark! The others were made mostly in sub-freezing weather. A big thanks has to go out to these guys!

 

New Rohn 45 Tower Progress

 

Well, with a break in the weather we have been able to start on this project again. Last weekend JP, NB1U, and AA1CE cleared the path for one of the guy anchors. It was determined that one or more large trees will have to be taken down to clear for the upper guys. Please be ready to help out. Also the brush pile to be chipped is growing and we will get a chipper which attaches to my tractor soon so again we will need help. A horizontal 40M antenna at 150’ will make us competitive on this band soon!

 

 

 

 

VHF/UHF News

 

On these bands Kim has been making some progress. He is well along on building a new power supply which will be used on 6M. This means no more sharing the power supply with 220 Mhz or 432. A nice transformer has been ordered from Harbach Electronics which took over the Peter Dahl line of equipment. Big power on all bands! Also the repaired 432 preamp is back and waiting to be reinstalled on the tower.

 

CQWW WPX SSB – 28-29 March

 

There have not been many replies to my asking about operation during this upcoming contest. Remember, NZ1U is one of only 26 available multipliers for this prefix. The callsign will be sort after. My plans are now to set up for a Multi/Single effort and if someone is here the station will be on the air. As suggested, this also might be a good time to work on outdoor projects for those not operating at the time.  I am hoping to put in a very serious effort for the CW portion of this contest in May.

 

Dayton 2009

 

Plans have been made for another Dayton pilgrimage. So far the Barnstormer van will take W1UJ, KB1DFB, NB1U, and KB1H on another adventure. Please let us know if you are going. We probably have room for more.  Also planning on being there are K1ZE and K9ZO.

 

I am sure I have much more to report but I want to get this issue out. I hope another will be sent out soon. Don’t forget the ECARA Flea market this Saturday and also the YCCC Area meeting here 12PM-2PM after the flea market.

 

73 … Dick