San Antonio Hams

Members of the BEXAR OPERATORS BROUP will be running, W5BOG/R in this contest this weekend as a rover station and plan to be in the following grid squares at the following times and on the following bands:

Saturday July 18th

Grid                          Time                     Frequency (SSB)

EL09XA             1 – 2 pm local            144.200 mhz

EL09XA             2 – 3 pm local             50.125 mhz

EL08XX             3:30 – 4:30 local        144.200 mhz

EL08XX              4:30 – 5:30 local        50.125 mhz

EL18AX               6 – 7 pm local          144.200 mhz

EL18AX               7 – 8 pm local            50.125 mhz

EL19AA               8:30 – 9:30 local      144.200 mhz

EL19AA               9:30 – 10:30 local      50.125 mhz

We will drop down to CW on request and as time permits.

Times/Bands/Grid Squares subject to change.

W2IK writes: I have listed a few tips which may make your field day setups more successful and more enjoyable.

1. When setting up antennas within close proximity: If you are using wire antennas such as dipoles, and they run parallel to each other there will be interference on your HF operating bands in the form of hash so arrange them at right angles to each other and at slightly different heights. If you use wire antennas such as dipoles, try to stay away from trap dipoles and use full length antennas instead.  You may also wish to run your dipoles in different configurations such as have one as an “inverted V” and another as a sloper, etc. An antenna cut to the exact band you are using will decrease interference to and from other bands. Do not use compromise or “all band” antennas. On HF, stay away from vertical antennas as they receive too much man-made noise from sources such as generators, etc.

2. When operating within a tight area, as required by FD rules, it also pays to use “band pass filters” such as those manufactured by ICE. I have a full set of these HF filters and they work great. They are only about $ 38 per band and drastically reduce interference from your other operating posts. If your pocketbook can’t afford them, use coax “stub” filters. The lengths of these and how to build them can be found at: http://www.k1ttt.net/technote/k2trstub.html They are simple to make and easy to use. Both systems have been used by the major DXpeditions all over the world with great success. On HF frequencies make sure each operating station is properly grounded. Do NOT use a common ground for all your operating posts.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the reasons some hams don’t wish to participate in amateur radio contests is that they believe they can never win a top spot using simple equipment against thousands of stations.

There are several ways to answer this.

One, you aren’t competing against the big stations in most contests as they usually break down the entries in to level playing fields such as entries for high and low power levels, etc.

Second, you should be thinking of your own contest operation as a challenge to yourself and not to others, to see how well you can do based upon the set up you have and your choice of bands based on propagation.

Read the rest of this entry »