The Loudoun Amateur Radio Group
Operating From Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve, Loudoun County, Virginia
K4LRG's FD-2005 Station # 1 AI2C - Norm Styer Captain
15M CW es Fone + 80M CW

        Station #1 was the LARG TS-440 Kenwood Transceiver, a Johnson Matchbox Antenna Matching Unit, an IBM Think Pad Computer running TR Log and a set 40 and 80-Meters dipoles fed from a common balun and coax. Four 12-volt deep-cycle batteries powered the station and only one switch was required on the transceiver's battery around 7 AM Sunday morning. The 40-Meter dipole was lengthen to permit it to perform on the 15-Meter band as 3 quarter-wave elements. After the antenna installation complications were resolved, things went well. There was tremendous noise on 15-Meters from adjacent power lines and although the Noise Blanker worked; it also reduced many of the weaker signals. TR Log performed without error. We tried several keys and keyer combinations but a dual paddle connected into the parallel port worked best and in sync with TR Log.

        This station operated on 15-Meters and on 80-Meters CW. Many thanks to Jim Banks - W0MAZ, and Dave Putman - KE4S, and Mark Johnson - W3ZI who all pitched in for long hours of operation. There was one 50+ hourly rate at 0200Z on 80M CW. Mark did a remarkable night shift from 10 PM to 5 AM on 80-Meters CW. Thanks Mark.

        The Friday night set up did not go well with a bad line on the sling shot that had memorized too much but we were determine to continue. Thanks goodness that folks stayed with me. This turned out to be a lesson in perseverance; a weaker crew would have folded. Many thanks to Merc Skaggs - N4TGA, Alan Garies - KB3LVU, Boyd Garrett - N5CTI Chuck Graham - KI4IEO, and others. Next year we'll try fresh and smaller line.

        Operating 15-Meters at the low end of the sun spot cycle is not much fun so to stay awake we tried a little Fone and went to 80-Meters CW often during the daylight hours but found no new ones there. Also, we did go to 80M earlier this year since 15M dried up very early. Twice on late Sunday morning, we made sweeps through the Fone segment and quickly picked off a couple dozen without knowing calls and simply asking for their call at the end of the exchange.

        The numbers are a little down from last year's Station #1's performance but still respectable: 81 on 15- Meters CW, 41 on 15-Meters Fone, and 422 on 80-Meters CW for a total of 544 Q's and 1047 contact points. Next year we will try bigger and separate antennas for this combination of operating. Best Regards, Norm Styer - AI2C

We tried several keyer combinations
but TR did the trick !

Jim Banks - WØMAZ
Of Leesburg, Virginia and Places West

It is a little slow on 15-Meters CW.
And, Jim really doesn't like computers !!!

Op Schedule

Org Chart

Score

Rates

Friday Nite Set Up

Station # 1

Station # 2

Station # 3

Station # 4

Station # 5

VHF - UHF Opns

Support Operations

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