Home once again….
Another trip to Texas, where the intended focus was some HF repairs & then the ARRL’s CW Sweepstakes, which W2GD & I were primed to do. KU5B was added to the team, & we were suprised to find NX5M thrown in the mix by George, NR5M, at the last minute. The repairs were ready & we managed a slightly-below last year’s score effort, which is again 2nd to W6YI’s multi-op effort. Their six man team was better than us four! For some reason, we could not achieve the hoped for high rates on 40 & 80.
Anyway, after SS, we went back to work on the big M2 2M EME array. George came out on Wednesday & wondered what the huge boom was laying in the yard! He was surprised to discover it was 55 feet long…& it truly is an inspiring assembly. I’m still not convinced putting it atop the LM-470 crankup is a good idea, but so it goes. All my work on converting the tower to handle the small prop pitch AZ rotator went off w/o a hitch, & we were able to fabricate a new top for the tower using pieces & parts okay. The local machine shop did yeoman service machining the needed parts overnight. As always, the K7NV motor turns smoothly, using the Green Heron controller.
Yesterday afternoon, we managed to tram back up the 2M & 6M Yagis atop the 15M stack tower, so George will have some high beams for the upcoming VHF contest. It took us 3.5 hours, not too bad considering all the work involved.
More work remains at the Round Mountain Radio Ranch.
Hereabouts, the WX is pretty wet & soggy–remnants from the Hurricane, off the coast. Local work hangs in the balance. Hope to get to the AI0O job in MO asap….then back to MD/VA at the end of the month for work & CQ WW.
stay tuned….
