June 10 BARS Meeting/Egyptian Hamfest/ARRL VHF Contest

Sunday, June 10, 2018 BARS members, Ron KO0Z, Herbert AF4JF, Mike N0OBI, Rich N0PQU and Bob N0IS converged on the Egyptianfest (Egyptian Radio Club W9AIU) also known as the Granite City Hamfest around 8:00 am.  It appeared to Ron KO0Z that the hamfest was a bit bigger this year.  This year a forum over APRS and High Altitude Ballooning was given, which proved to be quite interesting.

                                         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.

BARS Get Together June 2017 Pontoon Beach

What a weekend, chock full of ham radio activity.  The ARRL June VHF Contest began on Saturday at 18:00Z, the Egyptian ARC Hamfest in Granite City was on Sunday and BARS had its June meeting after the hamfest at Uncle Linny's in Pontoon Beach.  Zack, W9SZ spent most of the weekend on top on the hill in EN51 blown about the high winds.  Ron, KO0Z operated from his QTH in EM59 and Harry, WA0CNS operated from his EM48 QTH.  On Sunday, KO0Z took a break from the contest to attend the Egyptian ARC hamfest.  Other BARS members were also attended and afterwards we met at Uncle Linny's in nearby Pontoon Beach, IL.  After lunch, Ron tried to operate 10 GHz from EM49ua in Dow, IL, but discovered that his deep cycle battery wasn't charged.  He was able to connect his car's power to his rig and copy the WB9PNU beacon.  WB9PNU/B's telemetry indicated that it is putting 1.10 watts out with 12.9VDC, the enclosure was 98 F and the PA temp was 101.9 F.  However, being tied to the car's electrical system kept KO0Z from being able to move his dish very far from the car, so he made tracks back to EM59ck to continue with the contest, but not before making four, six meter contacts along the way!

All in all, it was a very fun weekend and seeing everyone was well worth the trip.  It was interesting hearing Gene, N0BDS and Mike, WB0SND's accounting of the muddy, Dayton/Xenia Hamvention.  So far the Es season has been great and hopefully uW conditions will be good this season.

I asked Zack if Sunday morning at EN51rl, on the hill, was any better than Saturday.  W9SZ responded, " Yes, actually Sunday did turn out to be better up to a point. The wind
died down overnight on Saturday and was still not bad on Sunday
morning at 7 am, so I set up the 902 and 1296 stations and the tripod
with dish. But then the wind started picking up again around 9 am. I
managed to wok K2DRH and W9XA on 902 and 1296, and K2DRH on 2304 and
3456 too. I did also work a few other stations on 1296.  But I had to
hold the dish and tripod while making the microwave QSO's to keep the
wind from blowing the dish over. I balanced the IF rig with keyer
paddle on top of it on the car window ledge. Lucky nothing got damaged
this time. After that, I took the dish off the tripod to be used only
if I heard someone who had microwave bands. No one else showed up. Ron
W9ZIH never showed up and Jim W9SNR/R wasn't on, either. I have to
figure out how to stabilize that dish so it won't blow over. Something
easier to implement than putting a screw anchor in the ground. :-)

Saturday night I had something interesting happen. The bands seemed
dead so I went to sleep in my car (if you could call it that) at 11
pm. At 12:30 I woke up with some sort of premonition or something that
told me to turn the rig on and see what I could hear. I found KA1ZE/3
in FN01 just booming in on 144 MHz. I worked him. 555 miles away. That
may be my best DX ever on 144 MHz with 6 watts.

I went QRT at noon on Sunday and took everything down without losing
any antennas over the weekend. I wish I could've had the 6m beam up
stably. It's my biggest beam with the most wind load.

One other interesting thing. When I got to the hill, I saw a huge
crane truck parked on the gravel road where I usually operate from. I
think it was there for maintenance on the windmill power farm. I
parked about 50 feet from it. Slightly down from the peak of the hill
but not enough to matter. But I noticed my beams, particularly the 2m
beam, had virtually no directivity in most cases. I worked a lot of
people off the sides and back of the beams. I'm pretty sure it was due
to the proximity of the large truck."

73, Zack

                                            Entrance to the Egyptian ARC indoor hamfest

                                                        Hamfest flea market parking lot

                                            Some of the Egyptian ARC HF antennas.

                                            Check out the Uncle Linny hamburger!

                     BARS June meeting at Uncle Linny's in Pontoon Beach, IL  From left to right:  Mike, WB0SND; Herbert, AF4JF; Bob, N0IS; Wayne, KB0NEO; Harry, WA0CNS; Gene, N0BDS, Rich, N0PQU and Sam, W0PCE.  Ron, KO0Z is taking the picture.

                                 Lewis and Clark historical site near Alton, IL on the way to Dow, IL

                                                 Dow, EM49ua coming into sight.

                                          The Dow, IL AT&T tower in EM49ua.

                          Herbert, AF4JF's more "moderate" burger.  Compare it to the Uncle Linny!  Herbert's burger is small in comparison and he has a good size burger!  AF4JF photo.

                          WA0CNS photo, from left to right:  Rich, N0PQU; Sam, W0PCE; Ron, KO0Z; Mike, WB0SND; Herbert, AF4JF and Bob, N0IS.