Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner
The Latest Contest News -
A NARC Bulletin Exclusive
A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE
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OaK to Me
The rainiest June I’ve ever experienced in
New England has been a boon for anything
that grows, especially trees. It should come
as no surprise that I find myself busy with
trimming the bushes and trees around the
yard as the Summer draws to a close. I was
getting tired of constantly bobbing, weaving,
and shoving my way through branches just
to cut the grass. The encroachment of Nature
reached critical mass, however, when I
found it very difficult to turn the beam on
my short tower. I had just put up a home-
brew rotatable dipole for 17 meters and I
was in the process of testing it out when I
noticed the rotor scale did not want to move.
A walk out back and a survey of the top told
me what I already knew: the oak tree that
towers over my short tower had a firm grip
on the end of the reflector to my tribander.
In past years the task that lay ahead was
usually greeted with a lot of head scratching
and muttering about what to do. Past
attempts to correct the problem usually
meant getting a rope over the offending limb
with the wrist-rocket and pulling until it
broke. This may sound simple, but they
aren’t called mighty oak trees for poetic
license. I have found that any oak branch
larger than an inch in diameter is very
difficult to break. If I succeed, the tree
exacts some measure of revenge in the
strained muscles on my end. Getting at the
wayward branch sometimes involves
looping the rope over another limb that is
even larger in diameter. This then calls for
more muttering and starting over again.
I remember a friend mentioning a rope saw
device that is made for cutting limbs that are
out of reach from the ground or from a
ladder. I have tried off and on over the years
to find such a gadget but I always came up
empty. Finally, Rich, W1HZN, mentioned a
web site that advertised a camp saw that is
made for what I wanted to do. I checked out
the site and finally found what I had been
looking for all these years. The saw is
articulated like a chainsaw blade but
contains a single row of cutting points like a
regular saw. The blade curls up like a
scorpion’s tail and fits in a snuff-sized can.
It is about 30 inches long when unfurled and
is fitted with two hooks and rope handles. At
last, I finally had a sneaky idea to spring on
the forces of Nature; oak tree, are you ready
for THIS?
The first trick was to get a line over the
offending branch to pull up the saw. A
couple of shots with the wrist-rocket got me
pretty close, meaning I had to cut another
branch to get to the one I wanted. It was
clear the oak tree was not going yield
without making me work for it. I had some
concerns that the saw would not align itself
correctly and I would end up trying to cut
with the unserrated side. Luckily, it crossed
over the branch right side down and I began
pulling back and forth with the ropes.
Progress was slow, partly because I couldn’t
see what I was doing (the branch was over
60 feet up) and the light snow of sawdust
was not a good measure of progress. About
the time I thought my arms and hands would
fall off, I heard a crack and watched a large
branch fall away. The limb appeared to 3
inches in diameter which, for an oak tree, is
probably strong enough to support a car. For
once I had won a battle with Nature that left
my psyche unscathed.
My rotatable 17-meter dipole sits snugly
above my tribander and works very well. It
is virtually flat over a megahertz of
bandwidth which is a lot more than needed
for this narrow band. I was a little surprised
to see that the measured performance agreed
closely with the model as predicted by
EZNEC. I’ll have more to say about the
antenna in the next few months - at NARC
project night in January, to be exact.
The real news this month as even the casual
operator knows is the beginning of contest
season. This year holds the promise of being
a very good one if recent propagation
activity is any indication. I noticed the
sunspot flux index shot up to 170 just before
Labor Day and hung around the 140s
through the middle of September. The Far
East has been coming through consistently
on 15 meters well after sundown. There
hasn’t been a lot of activity from 10 meters
yet, but I’m sure that will change in the next
few weeks. I’ll be busy playing with my new
tree trimmer as I clear the wire antennas for
these upcoming contests:
VK-ZL-Oceania Contest, 3-4 Oct (SSB), 10-11 October (CW)
This contest starts at 1000Z for each
weekend and is 24 hours long. The object is
to work as many VKs, ZLs, and islands in
the Pacific as possible. The exchange is
simply a signal report and a serial number
starting with 001. Operation takes place on
80-10 meters; scoring breaks down as 10
points (80 meters), 5 points (40), 1 point
(20), 2 points (15), and 3 points for 10
meters. As you can see, the level of
difficulty working the Pacific is reflected in
the scoring. Final score is total number of
points times total number of prefixes worked
per band. This contest should be a good
precursor to Fall band conditions. Printed
logs go to the NZART, POB 40-525, Upper
Hutt 6415, NZ by 14 November.
JARTS Worldwide RTTY , 17-18 October
If you had fun participating in the CQ
Worldwide RTTY contest last month, here is
another RTTY event to enjoy. The Japanese
are sponsoring a 48-hour contest that covers
80-10 meters and allows you to work
stateside as well as DX. The exchange is
RST and operator’s age which is “00” for
YLs and XYLs, “99” for multi-operator
stations. Multipliers are the call areas in the
JA/VE/VK/W mainlands, and each DXCC
country. QSO points for contacts within own
country count as 2 while contacts with other
countries are worth 3. Total multipliers
times total QSO points determine the final
score. This contest features an award for the
16th from LAST in each category, so don’t
worry if you don’t work a lot of stations.
Logs go to JH1BIH by 31 December 98.
QRP ARCI Fall CW QSO Party, 17-18 October
Shifting gears and reducing output, the QRP
folks hold their annual Fall get-together
beginning Saturday at 1200Z and running
through to 2400Z on Sunday with a 24-hour
operating time limit. The contest covers 160
up to 6 meters on frequencies well up into
the General part of the bands as well as the
Novice bands. Contest exchange is RST,
state (for us), output power, and ARCI
membership number, if applicable. Each
DXCC country and each W/VE/VK call area
count as a multiplier. These multipliers are
further multiplied by 7 (< 5 W); 10 (< 1 W);
and 15 for PW signals less than 250 mW.
QSO points with ARCI members are worth
5; with same continent, 2; and 4 for other
continents. Scores may be submitted for
Single Operator on single band, all band,
high band (20-6 meters), or low band (40-
160 meters). Logs to N6GA by 18 Nov 98.
CQ WW SSB DX Contest, 24-25 October
The “official” start of the big DX contests
begins with the annual CQ contest that is
probable the largest in terms of participants.
Amateurs in many countries literally plan
from one year to the next on how to have a
bigger signal on every band for this contest.
Any station with a microphone and an
antenna on 160 through 10 meters can join
in by simply saying “59, zone xx”. There are
numerous categories from the QRP station
with a dipole on an island on up to the multi-
multi behemoth. You can operate all bands,
single band, with or without packet
assistance; high power, low power (100
watts or less), and QRP (less than 5 watts);
multi-operator/single transmitter, and multi-
operator/multi-transmitter. The team
contesting category is again offered this year
where 5 hams can operate as any of the
single operator categories. Each team
member can still submit his score as part of a
radio club. Thus, for example, if I operate
from team KB1SO, my score counts as part
of the KB1SO team and I can also include it
with the Yankee Clipper Contest Club. Each
QSO is 2 points for same-continent contacts
and 3 points for countries on different
continents. Multipliers are the number of
zones and countries worked on each band.
The contest also features more award
opportunities than the number of participants
in some contests! Remember to submit your
log to CQ Magazine by 1 December 1998.
Well, back to roping and sawing limbs while I’m on a roll. Hope to hear you.
73, de K2TE
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