“The  Barnstormers News”                                                                        Volume 5 No.9 October 10, 2000

Yes, NZ1U!! It’s Official

 

Effective October 3, 2000 we now have our permanent callsign. NZ1U should be a fun prefix for CQWW WPX.  KB1FOX was short lived and kinda neat but too long. Kim did get it on the air for the last VHF contest so some people have a rare contact.

 

 

CQWW SSB Preparations:

 

Here is what we have been able to accomplish the last two weekends.

 

            The 10 meter system was repaired. Bad PL-259 up at the Stackbox.

 

The 40 meter 3 element was repaired after two days on the tower. The driven element had to be lowered and rebuilt. Loose or missing hardware.

 

The computer network has been installed but all computers now have to be re-configured to new settings for radio control.

 

All the radios/amps are here. Starting Wednesday we will set up the stations and get CT talking to the radios.

 

The south 20 meter beam did not go up. We did not have enough help either weekend to get this done. Can we plan on this the weekend of October 21-22?

 

Again, we will be operating 4 stations. The final roster of operators has not been set yet. Please let me know if you are coming. I suspect we will have enough as I think W1JAD and ex-WB1CBY (sorry Tom), both who are YCCC members are coming to help out. There are the usual crew of KB1DFB, K1EBY, AA1CE, N1XS, N1BU, NB1U, and myself. Question mark still on Ted, W3TB and Paul, KE1LI.

 

I expect one more newsletter before the contest.

 

 

If you haven’t heard…

 

Frank surprised us when he brought over his new FT-1000MP Mark V. The IC-775 is gone and boy the new rig is slick. You wouldn’t think they could improve the MP much more but there are some neat new features.

 

Chris, N1XS, picked up a used TS-850 so we are rig-heavy now. I like being in that position. Now if we can move into that position with amplifiers.

 

Bob, N1BU, bought a drake L4B amp at Rochester. Bob says it has output up the kazoo! Probably be one of our back-up amps during the contests.

 

Oh yea, No. 4 W/VE in ARRL DX SSB 2000! What a great accomplishment for our group. I wonder what we did so wrong on CW weekend? We were 11^th in that mode.

 

KB1H was No.1 in the U.S. Multi-Op in the Worked All Germany Contest. KB1H and N1XS operators.

 

 

October 21-22….. A must!!!

 

On these two days we will be definitely shaking down the stations. We need operators to do this. Plus if enough show up we can get the 20 Meter South beam up. I realize this is the weekend before the contest and two weekend in a row is tough but can you make an effort to show for a few hours. I suspect Saturday is the better day as this would leave us a rain day Sunday. I hope to have all the stations set up by this weekend, Oct 14-15.