Hi. My name is Keith Sangillo, KZ1Z (formerly KC1IMK). I would like to thank the Nashua Area Radio Society for hosting the 2020 Student-Teacher Contest. The ICOM IC-7300 radio that I won is in good hands and being put to use.
The first thing I did was take the NARS Extra class in December 2020 and get my Extra license so that I could use “all the bands and frequencies”. It turned out that the weather was a bigger challenge than the test questions. After two days of an online class, a snowstorm turned off the power. My dad and I missed most of the Day 3 class sessions as we searched for friends with power. We arranged to take the test at a friend’s house 30 minutes farther south. The VE’s watched us take the test in a basement storeroom during the pandemic when we were not supposed to be visiting friends.
The first big test for the new radio was Winter Field Day 2021. We pushed out the lawnmower and set up the station in the utility shed.
We hung a 20 m inverted V dipole in the adjacent tree and ran the feed line in the window so that we could close the doors when it was windy. We did not use our existing antenna for the shack in the house.
We went for all the bonus points. The shed is non-insulated and considered outdoors. It was far enough away from the house to be remote. We used battery power.
And yeah, we had no heaters either. We dressed up in ski gear and warmed our hands on several cups of hot chocolate and tea so that we could log contacts with N1MM linked to the radio.
With a single band antenna and part-time operation, I made 27 contacts. With bonus points from freezing my butt off, I sent in 4552 points for NARS. Thanks again for putting on the Student-Teacher Contest and hope to see folks sometime soon.
Keith, KZ1Z
