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(Continued from page 3)
Most of the rest of the operation followed the same pattern: we'd set-up either an antenna or a peripheral station device and then set about to resolve the technical issues which the antenna or device presented. It wasn't until about 2 AM Sunday morning, when KI7Y's ANC-4 was finally brought on-line that the station reached its zenith. Along the way, we had AC7KE traipsing in the dark through uneven terrain to pound the 2 foot stakes on
which one of the beverages was mounted; W7PR and N7RX pounding a 7 foot ground rod with a small sledge hammer; the harmonics of both AC7KE and
KC7PXF using the same phrase on separate occasions ("Daddy, can we go home now?"); KK7UE and N7RX tripping over ground wires at nite to install a second beverage; K7RUN building or repairing matching devices for about 10 hours.
In the end, the set-up was rather impressive. We had a Yaesu Mark V, with its Quadra amp and an Icom 765 supported by a 300 foot vertical, a half-wave sloper and two perpendicular beverages, one about 700 feet and the other
about 990 feet long; an ICE preamp and bandpass filter for the beverages; a K7RUN pass-reject filter for the RX antennas to notch local broadcast stations; an ANC-4 noise canceller to eliminate local QRM; two IBM ThinkPad's, one running WriteLog and DX Summitt and the other connected to the W7AC DX Cluster via a Kantronics TNC.
Station performance steadily increased as the contest wore on, alas as band condx steadily dete
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riorated. We weren't able to make our first QSO until 10:40 PM on Friday nite, thus missing a critical time period, namely dusk on
Friday. Weak-signal work was foreclosed by local QRM until early Sunday morning when we finally got one of the beverages working properly with the
ANC-4. Both N7RX and WA0DIM were able to get some runs going Saturday nite, but reports from other stations indicate that condx were better early on
Friday when we were still setting up. The end result was that we scored 252 QSO's, 41 sections and 3 countries. To gauge our performance, we look to a
local benchmark - the fabled contest station W7RM - which scored 403 X 59 X 6. Being 150 Qs off 'RM's pace is pretty respectable for an effort by neophytes. The next serious effort will be the CQ WW CW 160M contest on the
weekend of January 24, followed by the final event of the 160 contest season, the CQ WW SSB contest on the weekend of February 24. After that, its on to Field Day!
There is a long list of people who deserve special mention - not the least of which are W7PR for literally risking his life to install the sloper and K7RUN for risking his job by letting us run amok on Mt. Scott. Also, HRO, for the equipment loan, and KC7PXF, KI7Y, AC7KE and KF6PKU for either loans or donations of equipment and material.
Neal N7RX
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HRO
The club would like to extend special thanks to the gang at HRO, who graciously loaned the W7LT 160M Contest operation a Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V,
together with its companion solid state linear amplifier, the "Quadra." The Mark V is Yaesu's latest top-of-the-line amateur transceiver, and was the icing on the cake at Mt. Scott.
I'd like all club members to be aware that HRO has been extremely supportive of PARC, and has offered us discounts on our Field Day purchases for the
last several years. Rich, NF7D, the store manager, reports that he
appreciates the effort that club members have made to establish a
relationship with the store, and this relationship provides him with an opportunity to provide support to the club which extends into the sponsorship of our operating activities. Rich has clearly gone the extra mile to make the store more user-friendly. Be sure to thank Rich and gang for their continuing support next time you're at the "candy store."
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