Amateur Radio Page

January 2003 VHF contest:

I just picked up a Yaesu FT-736R a month or so before the contest, and also picked up a Heil proset plus and the RCI 5054 for 6 meter just in time for the contest (in fact the day before). I spent Friday putting together the setup...revamping the tower assy with the Yaesu Rotor instead of the usual NTE. I am a machinist so I fabricated a HD rotor plate, and also a chintzy wooden thrust bearing for the top. I was scrambling (again..*LOL*) to get antennas together. This time I had put together a homebrew 18-element 432 beam (3/8" solid rod for the elements), a 31-element 1296 yagi. Both ended up utilizing a folded dipole for feed elements.

I used the 10 element 220 beam from before, and KB9LVK's homebrew 12 element 2 meter yagi. 6 meter had the 4 element from the earlier contest also. I just needed to run more coax (of course), stuffed it all under the house and fed it up through the floor. All I needed to do now was to finish the feed element on the 1296 beam. I had a nice foot long chunk of itty bitty semirigid coax, I cut a section to length, and proceeded to strip the insulation off. The outer conductor pulled off so I ended up with the dialectric and the center in one hand and the outer in the other. Recut. Taking more care in stripping off the dialectric, I almost had it good, and the center conductor pulled out completely this time.

Tried another and the whole end clipped off when I tried to strip it...circular file. I got ahold of Charlie, and he cut one and stripped it ready to go...WooHoo!...in the process of mounting it, the center conductor broke right at the sheild...&$&@!!! By this time it was starting to get toward twilight...and the aluminum is NOT in the air. I cut a section of RG141 (I think) and made another matching balun. 1/4 inch round coax does NOT bend well at that short length. Finally got it together (utilizing the stripped off sheild of the semi-rigid to ground the shield to the connector body.

I quickly made a dipole for the feed on the 432 and hooked up a 2 meter matching balun to it (theoretically it should work and I was in no mood to play with another section when this was already made. Darrell and I started erecting the antennas. I figured this time to get around the tree, I would clamp the antennas onto the mast section at the top of the 20 foot tower (yes I used a harness)..Thanks Bob. The 1296 went up 1st, Darrell fed the mast pipe up and blocked in into place for the next spacing, then the 432...feed up the mast and block. By now it was dark and 8pmish. My hands were cramping up from the cold. Tried to mount the 2 meter...no such luck so I went inside to warm up. I got tired of stewing, so I went back out...tilted the tower down, and mounted everything while horizontal.

Everything was clamped tight, lines connected and taped off, and the tower cranked up (yes fighting tree branches). Darrell was winching and I was using a pole to fend off the branches from the antennas. We forgot to reconnect the slip in mast sections (standard Rad Shack style)...the bottom masting fell out with a clang down the center of the tower sections, and the top 10 foot section with all 5 yagis kilted off to 45 degrees with a foot showing beneath the wooden thrust bearing. We did finally get the tower down safely by tying off the bottom of the masting so it wouldn't fall out completely and tilted it all down. The six meter took a digger and the plastic element mounts on 2 of the elements broke. So the masting now is a bit shorter to get through the tree easily, and 4 beams are attached...up thru the tree again and it is on the air.

The 2 meter is mismatched..giving 4:1 SWR, the 220 is good, and the 432 is okay at about 2.5:1 No way to check the 1296. I loaded up my 10 meter Flagpole for 6 meter and Saturday contesting was begun. The contacts were okay, but I was having problems with signal from the mismatches.

When everything died down Saturday night, I decided to go to bed for a bit. As I couldn't sleep well, I got up and fixed the 6 meter beam. Sunday Morning rolled around and I again tilted everything down and reattached the 6 meter, retuned the 2 meter, and did not want to fiddle with a dipole on the 432.

The fixes worked and I got better reports from everyone and I worked more Q's thoughout the day. I waited til the next day to take the antennas down as I did not want to do it in the dark again. It worked out well, and I am redesigning a few things for the 1296 for this year. What a weekend!!

Results are: 348th out of 798 overall; 124 out of 440 in class; 16 out of 51 Class A Central Division; and 9th out of 15 Class A Wisconsin.

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