Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters
2nd official meeting. “Antenna
Party/Annual Meeting”
2nd Annual Antenna Party
Date:
April 17th, 2004
Meeting place:
Charlie’s place (N0AKC)
Time:
9:00 am, CDT
Members Present:
David Aho
N9TTX
Justin Glasener
K9MU
Ray Johnson
W9RAY
John McDonald
KB9TLV
Robert Rohrssen
KB9PJL
Kayla Kwitti
Studying to be licensed…Is the last name right?
Charlie Betz
N0AKC
Randy Westerberg
KB9POI
Michael Fenske
KC9EXW
Al Schlaugat
N9ISN
Christian Lantz
KC9FVT
Mary Slifer
KC9FVS
Darrell Schriener
KB9LVK
New Members:
Michael Fenske
KC9EXW
Christian Lantz
KC9FVT
Mary Slifer
KC9FVS
Kayla Kwitti
Treasurer Report:
Al was here, nothing to report...start
balance $0, transactions $0, ending balance $0.
Easy Job eh?
Callsign list for club vanity call:
Ok...it is here somewhere.
I think it is in the car yet. Sigh...will
post later. Anyhow, the Callsign of
KC9FTJ
has been issued to us as a club callsign. Ugh...horrid
call, anyhow, I will be listing a bunch of callsigns for us to look at and chose
favorites, and then after that is said and done, I will send in the vanity
application.
The “Site” in EN43
All
antennas are accounted for. 2 meter will be my 14 element homebrew, 220 will be one of
the 10 element commercial ones that John (KB9TLV) will be procuring for a few of
us. 432 will be a 25 element K1FO
design, 902 will be my 45 (now 44) element Looper, and 1296 will be one of the
M2 23 element yagi’s we got from Mark Brown.
6-meter will be whatever one brings down there as of right now.
The antenna concerns were mainly for the windmill tower stack in a
permanent basis. The feedline for
the “plug-n-play” windmill setup will be Hardline (.500” and .875”) and
I think LMR400. Coax ends were
being looked at and I think were found for a reasonable cost.
The rotor plate/bearing assy will be manufactured when I get an open
machine at work, and some stock to work with.
This will essentially be a setup where one can drive up, plug lines into
the hardline ends and start running the bands.
The rotor controller will be there for use.
Antennas Made/modified/Tested:
50 Mhz
4 element MFJ Test/Tune:
SWR at 1.3:1, decent gain
50 Mhz
Darrell’s Loop
Parts cut, but not assembled
144 Mhz
Darrell’s Loop
Tested?
220 Mhz
Al’s yagi
Rebuild/clean/test: Good to
go
220 Mhz
Commercial 10 el.
Construct and tune…Good to go
432 Mhz
Darrell’s loop
Tested?/shown
902 Mhz
Dave’s Looper Modified,
but not tested
902 Mhz
Yagi 16 footer
Last year’s…rebuilt the driven..tuned/tested.
902
Mhz
dish
Test: Gain testing at Aurora on 24th
902 Mhz
Ray’s Looper
Tested/Tuned:Good to goßI
think it was tested
1296 Mhz
M squares Test:
Flat matched.
1296 Mhz
Ray’s Looper
Tested/Tuned: Good to Go
There were others I think
also, but I cannot for the life of me remember what they were.
Email me with your additions and results if you can remember them, and I
will update the list.
Equipment worked on:
Ray’s Transverters were
looked into after pretty much everyone left.
I didn’t stay thru completion of testing…or maybe I did…*L*
What’s the status Ray?
I don’t think anything
else was really worked on outside of the antennas. If I missed it please let me know.
Soapbox:
Remember,
although this is the “Annual” meeting, it is more so known as the Antenna
party. Business is conducted but
officially usually during lunch. Antenna
building and equipment work is the mainstay of the day, but since it gathers the
most together at one place, the annual meeting it is.
Contrary
to the WX forecast, we had a wonderful day.
It was sunny, warm, and no rain. Al
(N9ISN) tore into his garbage dumpster 220 antenna and we proceeded to rebuild
it by replacing the rusted screws, while Charlie (N0AKC) had a good ol’ time
polishing Al’s boom. The
reconstruction went smooth, and the antenna looked 500% better, and it tested
out very well…as witnessed by Al’s beaming face. The 1296 yagis purchased from Mark brown were tested, and at
first we thought the meter was broken because they had no reflected
power…beautiful SWR..WooHoo! a
first on 1296. We tore last
year’s old 902 driven off the 16 footer, and rebuilt it (twice). I think we have the design down now…at least close.
Very touchy (just ask Bob (KB9PJL)) in tuning, but we got it to about a
1.35:1 SWR finally.
Lunch
came around and the grill would not start.
Gas was obtained, and the regulator was bad, another was found and the
masses were fed. Mmm good.
Mike
Fenske (KC9EXW) showed up and signed in thus making another new member in the
club, as well as Kayla…our official go-fer for the day.
Two others joined up, and graced the party with their beaming faces on
their new calls: Christian (the
Green one) Lantz (KC9FVT) and Mary Slifer (KC9FVS).
Congrats to you two on the new licenses.
Everyone was everywhere testing/tuning/constructing/talking, etc…
Justin (K9MU) was everywhere taking pictures, and his results can be seen
via the web at: http://www.qsl.net/k9mu/cvvhf He has also expressed interest into designing our webpage, which in preliminary for can be found
here: http://www.qsl.net/k9mu/club/index.html
Thanks
to everyone that came by and had a good time.
New faces and a larger turnout than last year. Also a special thanks to Charlie and his family for hosting
the party and feeding the monsters. See
those of you at Aurora on April 24th, 2004.
Meeting Adjourned at about 5pm CDT.