Site of Egyptianfest 2018 in Granite City, IL
W9AIU
Ron KO0Z and a Raspberry Pi APRS tracker
Nicely attended hamfest
Herbert AF4JF
Dan giving his APRS balloon presentation
This is a sensor used for APRS, but it could work for beacons as well!
Unfortunately, this hamfest conflicts with the ARRL June VHF contest, but some of us made time to do both. Ron KO0Z put in about 12 hours in the contest. Ron made 56 Qs, 63 QSO pts, 43 mults for a claimed score of 2,709 from his EM59 QTH. Most of the contacts were on 6 meters using FT8; however, there were some CW and SSB contacts made as well. While calling CQ on 2 meters, Sunday evening, Rob AA9MY from Pekin, IL, EN50 gave him a call. It's been at least 10 years since they chatted last. It was fun running the bands with him which included a 23 cm 76 mile CW and SSB QSO. Ron also worked Craig, K9CT on 23 cm, CW.
Earlier in the evening KO0Z tried to work AF4JF from a St. Charles County park, but his antenna was aimed at 70cm RF absorbing tree leaves. H was barely able to hear KO0Zs signals and Ron wasn't able to hear AFJF's transmissions. H has tried transmitting from this park before and he feels that it is not a good spot for VHF+ unless EME is involved. This park has an open view to the sky and an astronomical observatory dome. Herbert plans to do some EME work on 2m and 70cm this summer using JT65.
The top picture is AF4JF's 70 cm in EM48 aimed towards KO0Z in EM59. RF absorbing trees make two-way Qs a bit difficult. The bottom photo depicts the dome used by the St. Louis Astronomy Society.
A big find at the hamfest was a Surecom combination digital wattmeter, SWR bridge and frequency counter for VHF and UHF bands for the low price of $40.00.
Combination SWR bridge, wattmeter and frequency counter
At the hamfest, Mike N0OBI brought the finished 10 GHz slot antenna that he milled out of WR90 waveguide for Ron KO0Z to be used in a future beacon. Tnx Mike for your craftmanship!
Mike N0OBI 10 GHz slot antenna
After the hamfest, we gathered at Uncle Lennie's Restaurant in nearby Pontoon Beach and enjoyed good food and good company before heading back to home and the ARRL June VHF contest. Ron made a slight detour to his favorite watering hole, Starbucks for much needed venti coffee with extra cream in Edwardsville, IL!
After leaving Starbucks, KO0Z looked 50 miles to his north towards EM59 and his town of Girard and saw a line of thunderstorms.
Looking north from EM58 Edwardsville towards EM59 Girard fifty miles away
RadarScope screen shot of the storms
By the time KO0Z drove home, he had just missed the rain. Upon arriving home, not in true contest fashion, he took a nap until AF4JF's phone call awoke him to remind him of their 70 cm sked. This narrative now brings us full circle back to the beginning of this blog. It was a fun, productive day. Looking forward to the next BARS meeting in July 14th at Stone Hill Winery in Herman, MO. After that there is the CSVHFS conference in Wichita, KS July 26-29th.
