Ohio State and LSU – Tailgating on the Air

CQ Buckeyes,  CQ Tigers  -  Ohio State And LSU Radio Clubs Celebrate BCS Gridiron Championship

On Monday, January 7, members of the Ohio State University Amateur Radio
Club and The Amateur Radio Society at LSU will be on the air to celebrate
their respective schools’ football teams meeting in the New Orleans
Superdome for the BCS Championship. Game time is 7 pm CST, Jan 7
(0100 Jan 8 UTC), when the 11-1 Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten take on
the 11-2 LSU Fighting Tigers of the SEC.

W8LT (OSU ARC) and K5LSU (ARS at LSU) will operate from approximately
1200Z, Jan 7 until 0600Z, Jan 8. Modes will include SSB, CW, and PSK-31 on
20 m, 40m, and possibly 75/80 m. The clubs will be making contacts with any and all
operators, and are particularly interested in other collegiate club stations and alums of OSU and LSU.  

Commemorative QSL cards will be available for a SASE, and a unique special joint QSL card
will be the reward for operators who contact both club stations during the day-long event.

Approximate frequencies are listed below:

SSB 14260 +/- 7260 +/- 3960 +/-
CW 14050 +/- 7030 +/- 3560 +/-
PSK 14070  7070

Operators at K5LSU and W8LT will be self-spotting on the Straight Key Century Club
spotting cluster, AI4OF-1, through the generosity of Phil, AI4OF.  
To access the spotting cluster via telnet, log into skcc.matrixlist.com on port 7300
using your call sign.  The usual DX Spider commands work: e.g.  SH/U shows all users
logged in and SH/DX will list all recent spots.

Additionally, the Adventure Radio Society's Spartan Sprint CW QRP Contest
http://www.arsqrp.com/ is set for Jan 8, 0200 to 0400 UTC, and ARS at LSU members
will make a special effort to participate as a QRP CW station.

OSU ARC and ARS at LSU each boast a storied past. The OSU club dates to 1926 when the
original call sign, 8LT, was issued. Now located on campus in Bevis Hall, the
club station at one time was housed on the fifth floor of the football stadium.
While in the stadium, the OSU ARC signal  could often be heard rather loudly when using
the infamous W8LT long wire antenna that stretched from the stadium to the
smoke stacks of the University Power Plant – about a quarter mile.  
After the renovation of the stadium, the move was made to Bevis Hall.  The club celebrated
their 80th anniversary in 2006 with a special on air event, works with the
University Disaster Team to provide emergency communications, and participates
in several contests throughout the year, the big one being Field Day.   http://www.w8lt.org

Originally issued the call sign 5YW in 1925, the LSU club became W5YW a few years later
and still holds that call sign for its station at the BREC/LSU/BRAS Highland Road Astronomical Observatory.  
Housed at various times in the Electrical Engineering building, and even for a time in a
quonset hut in the middle of a (populated) cow pasture, the present on-campus station is
K5LSU, located in Nicholson Hall, the home of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
During the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita club members worked with the
Red Cross and Salvation Army to provide needed communications.
Field Day and the School Club Roundup are the popular operating events for members,
who boast a couple of top finishes in the SCR.

QSL routes:

to W8LT:
ARS W8LT; 1080 Carmack Road, Room 20 Bevis Hall; Columbus  OH 43210

to K5LSU:
ARS K5LSU; c/o Department of Physics and Astronomy;
Louisiana StateUniversity; 202 Nicholson Hall; Baton Rouge LA 70803-4001

Contact persons:

Jim Giammanco, N5IB, n5ib@juno.com
Dana Browne, AD5VC, ad5vc@yahoo.com
Dan Kulhanek, AB8VE ab8ve@arrl.net