M1CRO :: October 2005 UHF Contest
I said after May that we were looking forward to getting back in October...
Second try with the big 70cms array, different dish and feed for 9cm (thanks
to G4FUF and G4NNS), a change to the dual feed for 6 and 3 cms and a modified
mounting arrangement that resolved the wind-shear factor experienced last outing.
'APZ was unable to complete 24GHz in time for this one so you can look forward
to that opportunity next year.
...more
Oct UHF 2005 - continued
Propogation was not particularly startling throughout the weekend and it appeared that there were
several stations MIA. Nevertheless, a good total for 70 & 23 cms was gathered with ODX
exceeding 800Km on both bands.
The higher bands did not appear that well populated to us and we were pleased to complete
with so many stations under the conditions.
The first few hours (UK 23cm & 13cm Trophy period) seemed more difficult than usual -
the run rate even on 23cm seemed slow compared to VHFNFD; especially as the October
contest is essentially a uWave specialists' event.
This could, in part, have been due to low generator volts causing reports of FM'ing and chirp
on 13cms. Once the generator was pursuaded to behave the 23cms amps took a benefit too and
power output improved somewhat.
Curious serial failures of the mode switching on the IF drivers for 6 and 3 (and 144.175 Talkback)
plagued us during the dark hours and we were forced to swap feeders occasionaly, which slowed
the rate and made contacts hard and frustrating from time-to-time.
It was a disapointment that the number of "known to be active" versus "worked"
stations was poor and even some that were worked on the lower bands were not in a
position to test on the higher bands this time round.
[We'll be looking for you in the warmer weather in May '06! Ed.]
Overall though we had a successful outing, the weather was not as appaling as it could have been
(though we got wet during the tear-down) and we were pleased to make as many contacts as we could
under the circumstances.
CCG 10 Oct 2005
