W100AW/4 August Activation

On the weekend of August 17, the North Alabama DX Club will be activating W100AW/4 from the Huntsville Hamfest - one of the six regional Centennial Hamfests. Plans call for two stations running CW & Phone to commence operations around 1800Z Friday and conclude 2000Z Sunday.

This is a portable operation at the Hamfest facility so we won't be running legal limit into stacked monobanders. We will however run a respectable 200w into directional antennas on the high bands and wire dipoles as high as we can get them. We'll self-spot on the clusters when changing bands / modes. See you in the pile-ups!

73,
Mark N4BCD
North Alabama DX Club - President

 

A great weekend for all who participated. Some inter-station interference kept us from working some band/mode combinations but we did the best we could with the manpower & equipment available.

Band CW Phone Totals
80 47 47
40 6 1075 1081
30 51 51
20 268 1229 1497
17 115 151 266
15 91 45 136
Totals 531 2547 3078


Station 1 TS-990
Antenna 1 - 132' Ladderline fed doublet @ 50' into Murch Tuner and DXE Balun.
Antenna 2 - Mosley MA5B at 35'. Tied a rope to the boom for aiming.

Station 2 TS-990
Antenna 1 - Force 12 40/30 Dipole @ 65' on loaned 55' US Tower.
Antenna 2 - Mosley MA5B @ 56' on same tower.
Ham 3 or 4 rotor.

Two things did not go to plan. A personal cellular internet connection succumbed to (we suspect) high RF from adjacent ladderline and failed on Saturday. The Force 12 dipole was non-resonant anywhere and remained unused. Sure looked impressive though.

Actual operating times (approximate local times)
Friday Noon to 11:30 PM
Saturday 7 AM to 12:30 PM
Sunday 7 AM to 12:50 PM (QRT due to approaching storms). Took down antennas in the rain.


Trailer visits by:
ARRL Southeastern Division Director
ARRL Southeastern Assistant Division Director
ARRL Section Manager - Alabama
ARRL Delta Division Director
ARRL Delta Division Assistant Director
ARRL Public Information Coordinator - Alabama
Alabama State EMA Director
Phil Parton - Kenwood Rep.
Apologies to others I missed.

73 & thanks for the Q's
Mark N4BCD
North Alabama DX Club