The Loudoun Amateur Radio Group
de Loudoun County,  Northern Virginia
K 4 L R G   -  5A VA
Station #1 - 15 CW es 80 CW

     Station #1 has been used for the past several years on 80-Meters CW and on 15-Meters CW but Norm has been looking for better antennas each year. The old 80 - 40 dipole off a single coax with the 40-Meter dipole tuned for 3 quater-wave on 15-Meters was a little disappointing last year. Maybe it was conditions but  Norm opted to try a new single 80-Meter dipole and a new Hy-Gain Long John 3-element 15-Meter yagi that he had shipped in from AES in Cleveland. And instead of the ropes in the trees, Norm devised a simple but effective crank-up 28-foot ladder mounted on his car hauler trailer. The yagi weighed only 21-pounds so Norm decided to try a small TV antenna rotor to eliminate trip out to the antenna to grab the rope on the boom and reposition the antenna. That worked well but the set up was calibrated poorly and north turned out to be west - a real bummer when you wanted to look for 9s and 1's. The yagi was at 33 feet with the ladder was fully extended and the dipole was hung under it - a real cloud burner. Maybe next year Norm will try a separate and higher support for the 80-Meters antenna.

     The heart of Station #1 is the LARG's Kenwood TS-440 HF Transceiver. Since last year, Norm has added a new 2-position coax switch and a second Johnson Matchbox that he acquired from Jack Hammett - K4VV at the 2006 Manassas Hamfest. Of course, there were several CW keys and electronic keyers provided along with a method for two operators to listen on headphones. The newer IBM Thinkpad Laptop didn't like the 12-volt regulation so the old Compaq 386 laptop was put back in service. It only locked up three times due as usual from someone bumping it a little too hard. Four deep-cycle marine 12-volt batteries powered the station.

    Station #1 was assembled and tested the week before Field Day at Norm's barn. The 15-Meter yagi really performed with several nice QSOs across the USA. Norm had bought new 12-gauge stranded copperweld antenna wire and planned to do the final tuning on 80-Meters CW once the station was up on site. The pretuned lengths proved a little too short and Norm was not pleased with having to tack on more expensive wire plus the BALUN connections were found loose during testing on Friday night. Thanks goes to those who helped debug the problems. But it all came together very nicely and the station performed better than last year. A very special thank you goes to Merc - N4TGA, Chester - WA9LAZ, and Mark - W3ZI for assisting with the antenna setup on Friday night.

The Rates At Station #1

    Station #1 started on 15-Meters CW; it was wide open and many, many times several called at once. It reminded Norm of the old days at EP2SN. Then the storm closed us down and when we got back 15-Meters was too slow and we went to 80-Meters for the rest of the night. Mark - W3ZI took the night shift and put 250 Q's in the log. Norm was hoping that 15-Meters would be there in the morning and it was. Gary - NC4S, Paul - N4PD and Jim - WØMAZ all held their own for many hours. Thanks to all. The final good totals were better than last year and were 429 on 80-Meters and 262 on 15-Meters for 691 total QSOs. Norm says he'll work on one more 80-Meter antenna for next year as these rates could and should still be improved. Not counted were several dozen dupes that would have put us well above 700 if good but they were from folks who must not copy CW well or don't run a dupe sheet - a big waste of time. But it's faster to work them again then to explain that they are a dupe and already in the log; some of this may come from new operators taking the controls on the other end. Sometimes, you want to think that you have a big signal and folks just want to talk to you again - HiHi.

Station #1 on 80-Meters CW es 15-Meters CW

The 15-Meter Long John and 80-Meter Cloud Burner
This baby sits it self up and then cranks up with one hand. Here it is nested waiting out the storm on Saturday afternoon.

The Upper Barn Stations
It was a little crowded with 80, 20, and 15-Meter Band plus the big satellite rig of Tom Dawson - WB3AKD. But we had no complaint of intermod as experienced last year.

Paul Dluehosh - N4PD At The Controls

Gary Quinn - NC4S On 80-Meters CW On Saturday Night

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The Score

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