N2SLN -- secondary coordinator, partial equipment supplier, 2m op



ANTENNA SYSTEM

tower/antennas | tower/antennas | view from above

two 9 ft. sections of Rohn 25G tower attached to the hinged back of a trailer

hand winch for raising and lowering the tower assembly

newly refurbished TR44 rotor

6 meter Par Electronics OA-50 horizontally polarized omni

6 meter 3-element yagi

2 meter 5-element yagi



RADIO EQUIPMENT

6 meters:
    Icom IC-746
    100 watts

2 meters:
    Icom IC-706 original
    10 watts
    Mirage B1016G 160 watt amplifier



ADDITIONAL PICTURES

final tests before leaving for the contest site

part of the operations table

on site fire tower from decades ago

overlooking FN22 from the fire tower

and a view from another direction

part of the AA2YG backup crew

DESCRIPTION

The ARRL June VHF Contest starts 2 pm eastern time each year, and runs through 11 pm the next day. We decided to meet Saturday at the contest site at noon local time, two hours before the official start of the contest. That way, we would have a couple hours to set up the antenna system, make adjustments, and set up the tent and operating table before the contest begins. We ended up running a bit late due to an antenna element refusing to assemble properly, and we made our first contact at 2:18 pm. Soon after, the generator ran out of fuel, then we decided we needed a larger generator anyway. Eventually we acquired another one and began operating again. Then we discovered a poor SWR on the 2m beam and our only choice was to lower the tower and adjust the matching section of the 2m beam, so we did. The SWR dropped to near 1.2:1 and we were once again ready to resume operations. The 2m amp was wired so it would "hard key" with the transmitter, but when we first turned on the amp, it was stuck in TX mode! Unplugging the relay cable from the amp allowed the normal RF-sensed keying of the amp on transmit, but no way to deactivate the receive preamp ahead of transmitting. We operated through about 7:45 pm that same evening, at which point we noticed activity starting to diminish. It was at that moment we decided it was time to break down the station and start packing up. We had a couple guest operators and a few other interested parties stop by and check out the station. Unfortunately, there were no band enhancements of any kind on either band, but we were both able to reach as far as West Virginia...the famous K8GP contest team in gridsquare FM08, as well as the Mount Greylock Expeditionary Force (W2SZ/1) in Massachusetts. We worked one contester in NJ who asked for a QSL card. We were able to reach as far northeast as the state of Maine (FN43). In all, we worked 7 states and 15 grids in 5 hrs and 28 minutes of contesting.



CLAIMED SCORE

6 meters:
    24 raw QSOs
    10 unique gridsquares

2 meters:
    23 raw QSOs
    13 unique gridsquares

TOTAL SCORE: 1081

The AA2YG team thanks all the local area hams who loaned us equipment for the 2001 ARRL June VHF QSO Party including WB2DTW, N2RXK, and KA2MYD. Special thanks to Tony WB2DTW for additional technical assistance, and Tom KA2MYD for his technical assistance and help during tear-down after our contest effort. Another thanks goes out to all the local weak signal VHFers who pitched in and gave us contacts on 6m & 2m SSB including WA2LSK, KE2DN, KA2HNG, and N2RXK. All photos of the contest site courtesy of AA2YG. Long live VHF!