Well today (so far) it has not rained so I thought I would take advantage of this rare event and get the antennas up in the air for the CQ WW VHF Contest which runs this weekend.
CQ WW VHF Contest
Begins: 1800 UTC Saturday, July 18, 2009
Ends: 2100 UTC Sunday, July 19, 2009
Even though I am still concidering taking the FT 817 out and competing in the “Hilltopper” catagaory I am leaning towards just operating from home, run my maximum power and just have fun, give out some contacts and see how many Grids I can get.
As I have said in the past… if us “Little Guns” don’t get on the air for these contests then who will the “Big Guns” have to talk to…
So in anticipation for a home station event (subject to change) today I brought down the FM Dual band J Pole and put up the 2m full wave VHF Loop in a Horizontal configuration.
The 6m dipole was brought down from its vertical polarisation and re installed in a horizontal configuration favouring South West and North East. Its not that I like those directions other than thats the easiest way to get things aimed given the accessability of my maple tree branches.
If I stay at home the rig will be my FT 847 (above) although right now I am doing the testing with my FT 897 (below).
I always like to try and sneak this in to see if my kids read the blog so…
Happy Birthday Trisha
From this blog a year ago today….
“Trisha is the daughter who has helped me out at more than a few “Talk to Santa” events at the local museum and has happily donned “a set of antlers” and “elf like costumes” to make a child’s eyes light up when they talk all the way from Ottawa to the North Pole …. AH YES….The magic of radio!!!!!”
Now back to Amateur Radio for a bit… Since the antennas are attached and the SW(EA)R is good I will be monitoring on 50.125 USB for a while just incase anyone wants to give me a signal report. Right now the band seems not to be open but that can change at any time….
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio Antennas, CQ WW VHF Contest, Trisha's Birthday, Yaesu FT 847, Yaesu FT 897
