[RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!
LANCE COLLISTER
w7gj at q.com
Thu Jan 31 09:10:10 MST 2008
Good Morning, Phil,
Phil Krichbaum wrote:
> I'll never forget to listening to the Space Shuttle work WA1JXN on
> 2m FM for the first Amateur QSO ever from the shuttle. Of course I
> never did hear Lance but knew that he had an EME station up there in MT
> as I'd also worked him on 2m MS as W0KEA from DM69. It might have been
> in 1982 along with Ken in the Perseids. I immediately knew he had buco
> more ERP that me.
Yes, that contact with W5LFL was pretty memorable for me, too...and quite a
surprise! I think 90% of it was just being in the right place at the right time.
And my calling him for 5 minutes before he started to transmit. I figured with
him running 5w and my running 1000w, he was sure to hear me before I heard him ;-)
> I was at our mountain top Aspen contest site with Lloyd, ND0E, where
> we'd put up one of those 20 element Cushcraft satelite yagis (10
> horizontal and 10 vertical with NBS spacing) with no elevation and was
> running a Icom 251A into a Mirage brick for all of 90w and were using it
> to work the 2m up, 10m down low orbit satelites. During this same
> pass my old Heathkit 13.8 VDC PS caught on fire and flames were coming
> out the sides and it stunk up the shack pretty bad. By the next orbit,
> we had cleaned the ashes out of the PS and had it operational. I never
> did make a QSO with Owen Garrret, W5???, but heard him several more
> times on my Icom 2AT and rubber duck that I carried with me while
> working as a ski instructor for Vail.
Yes, that is one thing about FM - it only "captures" the strongest station...so it
makes it tough to break through if you only have QRP and there are lots of others
calling with a little bit more ERP. It was interesting to hear the recording of
the QSO from the W5LFL end...I was strong, but there was lots of noise in the
background from all the other callers. Of course, he was clear as a bell here.
> I do wish to get something going for EME on 6m and 2m and enjoyed
> Lance's presentation at the CSVHF convention in Colorado Springs a few
> years ago and still have his paper.
> 73 Phil N0KE
Phil, you said you had a 6M7JHV and a preamp. Most of the 6m EME stations use a
preamp in the shack, although if you have good low loss feedline it doesn't help
that much. I have a good preamp here in the shack and I figure it helps me about
1 dB on receive. Of course, the amount of improvement you see will depend on the
noise figure of your receiver front end without the preamp. Most commercial 6m
rigs seem have noise figures up around 5 or 6 dB, so a preamp will help a little
bit if you have low feedline loss. I run mine into a recently acquired Hamtronics
receive converter (which already has a low noise figure) so with the current
configuration it doesn't help me much (if any).
I have worked MANY dozens of single yagi stations on 6m EME, most of them with
smaller antennas than yours. So you should do quite well on your moonrise or
moonset. Do you have power on 6m? I have worked a few 100w stations, but almost
all the stations have amplifiers of at least a few hundred watts. Remember, Phil
- a 6M7JHV on the horizon will have additional ground gain that, depending on the
terrain in front of your antenna - can add up to 6 dB to the free space gain of
your antenna! So, a single yagi can perform like a 4 yagi array - for short
periods of time at least - while the moon moves through the sharp ground gain
lobes near the horizon. That is how most 6m EME stations get started, and is how
it is possible for single yagi stations to do so well on 6m EME - they use the
ground gain. It usually doesn't make sense for stations to add elevation (and
lose all the ground gain) until they decide to increase the size of the array to
two or four (preferably) yagis. ZL3NW is one of the most active 6m EME stations
with a single yagi, and has worked over two dozen other single yagi stations
around the world.
When you live in a place in the greomagnetic far north like Montana, you have to
be creative in figuring out how to work DX on 6m ;-) Fortunately, the bottom of
the solar cycle (NOW) is the quietest time on 6m, and is therefore the best time
for 6m EME. The 6m stations in Europe are quite active on their moonsets and
moonrises, but stations here in the USA seem to be slower to try 6m EME for some
reason. I don't know exactly why, but many of the single yagi stations I work
tell me they are surprised they could do it and tell me they had never bothered
trying before because they just figured they couldn't do it with a single yagi
without elevation. That seems to be a pretty common misconception...a single yagi
station NEEDS to be on the horizon for ground gain - the last thing in the world
they should worry about is trying to add elevation!
GL to you Phil, and please let me know when you are ready to run some EME
skeds...I would be happy to add your email address to the Magic Band EME email
reflector. VY 73, Lance
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* rmvhf-bounces at rmvhf.org [mailto:rmvhf-bounces at rmvhf.org]*On
> Behalf Of *Ken Anderson
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 30, 2008 5:37 PM
> *To:* rmvhf at rmvhf.org
> *Subject:* RE: [RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!
>
> Hi Lance, W7GJ (ex WA1JXN/7):
>
> You mention the 704 mi distance to the Denver area from your QTH for
> which there is no usual terrestrial path. I'm sure you are right
> but one unusual meteor scatter QSO I had on August 12, 1982
> (probably the Perseids) was with WA1JXN/7 when you worked 4 Denver
> area stations. I worked you with a 10w ssb rig and a 7 el antenna
> and have appreciated your QSL in my file for years. The ms contact
> spurred me to get onto 2m ssb in a bigger way with 100w and a 17 el
> m2 at 80 ft. It was a fun QSO and I will always remember it.
>
> I hope you've signed on to the RMVHF reflector.
>
> 73 Ken, W0ETT
> Parker, CO DM79
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: k7tnt at bresnan.net
> To: rmvhf at rmvhf.org
> Subject: Re: [RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!
> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:42:46 -0700
>
> Lance, sometime look for the K7KMT/b just West of Gillette,WY on
> 2m. 144.298 in DN64 Good luck. Richard K7TNT DN74
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* LANCE COLLISTER
> *To:* rmvhf at rmvhf.org
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:06 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!
>
> W6OAL at aol.com wrote:
> > Lance,
> >
> > You are always more than welcome to our group. Actually
> you are a
> > Rocky Mountain VHF+ Member just by virtue of the fact
> that you live in
> > the Rocky Mountain Region. We are a fairly loose knit
> group of no
> > officers, no dues, no rules (other than FCC) and the best
> 2M (144.220)
> > Monday night net in the 'nation'. We average 30 check-ins
> Monday nights
> > at 8 PM local. Don't know that we can reach Montana on
> other than a
> > little sporadic E, or tropo but please give a listen and
> try to check in
> > with us when the basement heats up. 'Tis been a terrible
> cold winter
> > thus far here in CO also.
> > Say, check out our web site, www.rmvhf.org ,
> > see what we been up to, what we do and what we propose to
> do. Our roster
> > runs about 250 members. A member is anyone that checks-in
> at least once.
> > Hey, stay warm up there, always enjoying hearing from you
> on 6M in
> > the mornings.
> >
> > CU 73, Dave... (First Monday of the Month Net Control
> Station)
> >
> > Olde Antenna Lab of Denver
> > Dr. David A. Clingerman, Sc. D. (CEO)
> > 41541 Dublin Drive
> > Parker, CO 80138-4604
> >
> > Phone: 303 841 1354
> > Cell: 303 648 1255
> > E-mail: w6oal at aol.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape
> >
> > in the new year.
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rmvhf mailing list
> > Rmvhf at rmvhf.org
> > http://lists.rmvhf.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rmvhf
> TNX Dave!
>
> I am not sure that I have ever tried making 704 mile
> terrestrial contacts on 2m
> ;-) That, as we have seen, is just on the short end of
> possible D layer scatter
> and probably also a little short for most possible 2m Es.
> And I doubt there is
> any tropo ducting possible because of all the mountains
> between us...but I DO
> faintly hear the 6m beacon over near Bozeman, MT fading in
> and out of the noise as
> if there might be some tropo QSB somewhere along the path
> ;-) So it just might be
> interesting to try :-)
>
> I don't untie the 2m array too often but I have worked Salt
> Lake City before on
> ground wave. Are you QRV with digital modes? It would be
> interesting to try a
> JT65 mode sked with you on 2m to see if the extra 15 dB
> sensitivity might make
> such a path possible.... I ran some JT65 skeds with W6OUU a
> couple weeks ago
> because he still needed Montana on both 2m and 6m and both
> were VERY easy
> contacts. But you are a LOT further away than Twin Falls ID!
>
> Anyway, pse let me know if you want to give it a try
> sometime ;-) GL and VY 73, Lance
>
> --
> Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN,
> WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
> P.O. Box 73
> Frenchtown, MT 59834 USA
> QTH: DN27UB
> TEL: (406) 626-5728 URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
> 2m DXCC #11, 6m DXCC #815
>
>
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>
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--
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT 59834 USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728 URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
2m DXCC #11, 6m DXCC #815
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