6m antenna finished… TOO Cold to install yet

Well I did find the parts in the junk pile…  Some PVC Pipe along with a U clamp with 4 hose clamps and an 108 inch long length of copper pipe and suddenly I have a rotatable dipole (that won’t be rotated) for 6m.

The hose clamps attach the copper pipe to the pvc pipe which acts as a boom and an insulator all in one time.  The copper pipe that was just over 9 feet long suddenly became two 54 inch lengths and the one U clamp will let me attach the pvc boom to the masting ….

All I am really hoping for now is the gosh darn temps to rise enough that I will want to climb an aluminun ladder to clamp the  dipole (aimed for maximum signal east-west) as high as the ladder will let me on my 20 foot masting which also hold the 2m J Pole.

I figure I should be able to get the dipole up about 15 feet or so and thats plenty high enough.  If the band is open I will get heard and if the band is not open my signal should be heard good enough in Ottawa and hopefully Gatineau QC for the two possiable multipliers on 6m (if the band is closed).

Oh yes and if you forgot all this is being set up for the RAC Canada Winter Contest which runs starting tomorrow (Friday Evening) at 1900 Eastern or 0000hr Sat am UTC  for a period of 24 hours.

Just incase your forgot or don’t feel like checking a few entries back in this blog…

In December each year, Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) sponsors the Canada Winter Contest. Amateurs all over the world are invited to participate.
Contest Period: 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC December 19, 2009.

2009 RAC Canada Winter Contest

Bands and Modes: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters, CW and
phone (SSB, FM, AM, etc.)
Suggested Frequencies: CW – 25 kHz up from the band edge and
for SSB – 1850, 3775, 7075, 7225, 14175, 21250, 28500 kHz. Check
for CW activity on the half-hour.
Exchange: Stations in Canada send RS(T) and province or territory.
VEØ’s and stations outside Canada send RS(T) and a serial number.
QSOs: Contacts with stations in Canada or VEØ’s are worth 10
points. Contacts with stations outside Canada are worth 2 points.
Contacts with RAC official stations are worth 20 points.

RAC official stations are: VA2RAC, VA3RAC, VE1RAC, VE4RAC, VE5RAC, VE6RAC, VE7RAC, VE8RAC, VE9RAC, VO1RAC, VO2RAC, VY0RAC, VY1RAC and VY2RAC.

You may work any station once on each of the two modes, on each of the eight contest bands.
It is prohibited to make CW contacts in the conventional phone
sub-bands and phone contacts in the conventional CW sub-bands.
Contacts or soliciting QSOs through a repeater during the contest
period is not allowed.
Multipliers: Thirteen in total, Canada’s 10 provinces and three
territories.

Each multiplier may be counted once on each mode on
each of the eight contest bands.

With this contest as all others I always set a few goals for myself due to the fact that winning is not an option.  Placing would be nice but show is more realistic.  Therefore my goals as simple but as follows

Have Fun (a given…  if its not fun then why do it???)

Work all the 13 multipiliers ( so far I have worked all but one of the Canadian Territories (VY1… I am still looking for you…) It would be really fantastic IF I could manage at least one contact coast to coast and the North as well.

Try and improve on my one good score…  2003 Canada Winter Contest and I was operating QRP with my VA3RCS Callsign (before I had VA3QV) and things were going great.  The band was cooperating…  The newly purchased (September 2003) FT 817 was working great and heres what the scores looked like:

2003 RAC Winter Contest QRP Results

CALL SCORE CDN RAC DX QSO’S MULTS
VA3NR 162,870 190 23 155 368 61 **
VE3NZ 104,142 148 13 151 312 51
VA3DF 97,308 153 8 73 234 53
VE5QRP 80,580 121 12 65 198 51 *
K4LTA 62,848 137 7 227 371 32 *
VA3RCS 50,690 110 11 25 146 37
K3WWP 45,560 94 8 120 222 34 *
WB6BWZ 35,420 81 3 71 155 35
VE2TH 25,230 51 5 26 104 29 *
VA7MM 20,272 61 2 37 100 28 *
W7QQ 13,288 44 7 12 63 22 *
K4ORD 8,760 35 4 4 43 20
VE4RRB 7,176 49 2 11 62 13 *
VE3UZL 6,804 37 4 18 59 14
VA7CAB 5,724 26 2 9 37 18
WA4CIT 5,376 25 3 13 41 16
VE3WZ 4,794 22 2 11 35 17
VE8NSD 4,158 28 3 19 50 11 *
K6MI 3,690 18 3 3 24 15 *
VE3VHY 3,472 21 1 9 31 14
KE0G 2,840 19 2 27 48 10 *
VE3JDF/VE6 1,274 14 0 21 35 7 *
JR1NKN 390 3 2 4 9 5 *
VE5BCS 384 5 1 29 35 3
IK1RAC 264 4 0 24 28 3 *
JI1AQY 264 3 2 9 14 3
JA2MWV 156 4 0 6 10 3
UU9JQ 22 0 0 11 11 1 *
PA1B 18 1 0 4 5 1 *

6th place in my catagory…  No Paper…  but 6th place….  For a non contester this was about the best I could of hoped for.  Remember that I was also competing against the CW operators and i was operating SSB only.  Everyone knows that a CW QRP signal should go further than a QRP SSB signal.  Its a good thing no one told me that before the contest…

So this year the major goal would be either to improve on 6th place or improve on the score by getting ove 51,000.  Seeing that I would be adding three  more bands as I had nothing up for 6m, 2m or 160min 2003 and was only using a g5rv for 10-80m I am guessing improving on the score should not be too hard.  Improving on the place could be rough however…  Lots of good operators out there with more antenna than I have to play with…

By now you should of figued out that I am planning for the QRP Catagory again with the same FT 817 that did me so proudly in 2003.  However to keep in with the first goal of having fun if the band is closed or not that good then quickly QRP will go out the window and the 100w FT 847 will take over because fun is the most important than scores.

So the plan is tomorrow early afternoon with the heat of the sun warming up the air ever so slightly get the 6m dipole up and then hook all the antennas up to the FT 817 and sit back and wait for the fun to start.

Hope to work you… Hope you work me…  I’ll need all the help I can get…

73bob

Tags: amateur radio, amateur radio contesting, RAC Canada Winter Contest