AB4UG Radioblog

Tower lowering

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in a tower lowering party this afternoon and met a group of really nice hams in the process. A local business with a 140 foot tower didn’t need it anymore and offered it to anyone for free as long as they took it down. One of the local hams took them up on the offer and today the tower lowering began.

Having no experience with towers, I was eager to see one up close, watch how one gets taken down and do what I could to help out. By the time I got to the site, the antennas and hardlines had already been taken down (a task that took up most of the morning). Here’s the ground crew and two of the guys up on the tower working on undoing the top section.

Lowering a 140' tower — Lowering a 140′ tower

I counted 14 sections of tower, which I was later told was Rohn 45 (commercial grade stuff). The guys climbing the tower were working pretty high up. The top section of the antenna turned out to be pretty stubborn to get off, but eventually it came off and made it onto the ground.

It took the bulk of the afternoon, but eventually three more sections of tower were brought down. I guess after being up for 30 years, those sections of tower get stuck to each other pretty good.

I didn’t do any tower climbing (left that to those more experienced than me) but I did help out on the ground with lowering the sections. As a relatively new ham, it was a great learning experience for me just being able to watch the process. Got to see how a gin pole works, see just how much work it is to take a section down and handled tower sections.

Four sections of tower down, ten more to go. Looking forward to the next session.

10m Moxon in the air

Got the 10m Moxon up in the air on my PVC mast. Using both 10 foot sections of the mast proved to be a little too cumbersome for just myself to handle, so settled for using one 10 foot section and propped it up against a ladder for support. This gets the Moxon 4.15m (13.6 feet) up in the air. Not quite as high as I wanted, but for testing purposes, it will do.

Fiddled with the antenna element lengths and was able to get the SWR as low as 2.5-2.6 across the band, which is pretty close to the limit of what the tuner in the radio will match. Should be able to get it lower but I’m sure the ladder is messing things up some.

In any case, the antenna is up in the air and connected to the radio. Receive seems to be working pretty well. Loud stations come in louder, and the fainter stations come in just a little bit louder. I could definitely see a difference switching between the Moxon and the dipole while watching some 10m PSK.

Haven’t tried transmitting on the antenna yet. I’d like to see if I can get it a little higher and tune it so that the SWR a little lower.

Working with the shortened version of the mast seemed to work out pretty well, so I think as a platform for antenna experiments, it will do nicely.

Now to work on getting the antenna up higher and installed more permanently.

Juggling QSO parties

There were a bunch of QSO parties happening this weekend: MI, ND, NE and ON along with the ARRL Rookie Roundup (SSB). I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend playing on the radio this weekend, but I did spend a few hours juggling log files tuning around for QSO party contacts. Caught handful of MI stations and a few ON stations, but didn’t hear any ND stations and only a couple very faint NE stations.

Michigan QSO Party
 Band    QSOs    Pts  Mul
     7       3      3    2
    14       5      5    4
 Total       8      8    6
Score: 48

Ontario QSO Party
 Band    QSOs    Pts  Mul
    14       3      12    3
 Total       3      12    3
Score: 36

Tuned around for a little bit during the last half of the Rookie Roundup, but didn’t hear too many stations playing. Found four stations wandering around 20m. This will be my last year as a “Rookie”, so I figured I might as well take part in the Rookie Roundups while I can.

ARRL Rookie Roundup (SSB)
 Band    QSOs    Pts  Mlt
    14       4      8    4
 Total       4      8    4
Score: 32

Georgia QSO Party 2014

This past weekend was the Georgia QSO Party, a 2 day affair that I only played for a few hours in. The only activity I was hearing was on 40m again, like with the other nearby state QSO parties I’ve participated in.

Made 19 QSOs in 18 counties tuning up and down 40m over the two days, including one who was using an /AG suffix as a new General class ham.

 Band    QSOs    Pts  Mul
     7      19      19   18
 Total      19      19   18
Score: 342

CQ WW 2013 log check

The CQ WW log check report for my submission dropped into my mailbox last night and it looks like i’ve got a few busted QSOs. Ended up with 177 contacts and 60 828 points (down from the 185 QSOs and 70 716 points in my initial submission). Turns out there’s also a point penalty for QSOs that aren’t in the other person’s log, or incorrectly copied call signs. 4 of my QSOs got dropped for not being in the other contact’s log, which is kind of disappointing because I know at least two of them were clearly copied by both sides (at least I thought so anyway). Another 4 QSOs got dropped because I didn’t copy the call sign correctly (either typo’d or heard incorrectly). Rats.

On the other side, 2 stations didn’t copy my call sign correctly, and 3 got the exchange wrong.

I like these log check reports. Gives me some things to keep in mind for the next contest.

************************** Summary ***************************

     185 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)
     177 Final   QSO after  checking reductions

     498 Claimed QSO points
     444 Final   QSO points

      94 Claimed countries
      91 Final   countries

      48 Claimed zones
      46 Final   zones

     142 Claimed mults
     137 Final   mults

   70716 Claimed score
   60828 Final   score

   14.0% Score reduction
    4.3% Error Rate based on claimed and final qso counts
       4 (2.2%) calls copied incorrectly
       0 (0.0%) exchanges copied incorrectly
       0 (0.0%) band change violations
       4 (2.2%) not in log
       0 (0.0%) duplicates (Removed without penalty)
       0 (0.0%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)

************************* Not In Log *************************

28338 PH 2013-10-26 1626 AB4UG            5 ED5N            14
21303 PH 2013-10-26 2215 AB4UG            5 D4C             35
14247 PH 2013-10-27 0020 AB4UG            5 XP1A            40
14223 PH 2013-10-27 2301 AB4UG            5 NR5M             4

********************* Incorrectly copied *********************

21245 PH 2013-10-26 2101 AB4UG            5 KP4BDC           8 correct     KP4BD       
21285 PH 2013-10-26 2129 AB4UG            5 HI3Q             8 correct     HI3K        
21336 PH 2013-10-27 2040 AB4UG            5 PX2T            11 correct     PX2C        
 7171 PH 2013-10-27 2235 AB4UG            5 SN2T            15 correct     SN2B        

********* Stations Copying Your Exchange Incorrectly**********

28000 PH 2013-10-26 1436 TM7F            14 AB4UG            4  should be 5 
 7182 PH 2013-10-27 0218 ED5N            14 AB4UG            4  should be 5 
14202 PH 2013-10-27 2256 CT3MD           33 AB4UG            4  should be 5 

************* Stations Copying AB4UG Incorrectly *************

21367 PH 2013-10-26 2258 ZW5B            11 AB4U             5
 7169 PH 2013-10-27 0212 RN3F            16 KB4UG            5