2007 Michigan QSO Party
K8MQP Operation From
Cheboygan County
By Dave Pruett, K8CC
|
|
2007 Michigan QSO Party K8MQP Operation From Cheboygan County By Dave Pruett, K8CC |
For the past three years, a
diverse group of MRRC members have traveled north to Michigan's Cheboygan County
to operate the Michigan QSO Party from KN8S's QTH. In 2005 the QTH was a
residence on a suburban-style lot on a canal off of Burt Lake near Indian River,
but in 2006 the group operated from a 10 acre location on the shores of Silver
Lake, near Afton, MI. For 2007, the group returned to the Silver Lake
location, but with more operators and hardware in their quest to be the top MiQP
multi-multi entry. The photo at left shows the view from
the back of the home overlooking the lake.
The objective of the K8MQP effort was to compete in the MiQP multi-operator, multi-transmitter category as we did in 2006. That year, we only had five operators for four stations, so our goal was to have a minimum of six operators this time. Dave/K8CC, Ken/W8MJ, John/KN8S and fellow outdoorsman Tim/KE8OC returned from 2006. Mike/WD8S joined the team for the first time, and Uli/KK8I was able to participate after a conflicting business trip fell through at the last minute. This gave us our six operators, but John also invited his brother-in-law, Jerry/KD8EGH and Jerry's son Scott/KD8EGJ to join the team. Jerry and Scott are relatively new hams, but both made valuable contributions to the effort.
The trip began the Friday morning before the MiQP, when W8MJ, WD8S and K8CC (in K8CC's Jeep) and KE8OC along with wife Nancy (in the KE8OC Ford F-150) headed north for Cheboygan County. The K8CC Jeep was towing a trailer carrying a 48' aluminum tilt-up tower, while the KE8OC pickup was towing K8BB's trailer carrying a 56' aluminum tilt-up tower. Both vehicles were loaded with radios, amplifiers, computers, operating tables and the myriad of necessary radio accessories. Late Friday afternoon, KK8I started north with his Passat wagon also full of radio gear and traveling in caravan with the K8BB/N8NM mobile team.
The K8CC and KE8OC vehicles arrived at Silver Lake around 2:30 PM.
The available space around the house which was clear of trees was carefully
considered, and the position of the towers was dictated largely by the need for
the yagi elements to clear the nearby tall trees as the tower was cranked up
(see picture to the right). Also, the available clear space required that
each be erected separately because the two towers overlapped when tilted down.
A HyGain 153BA (3L 15 monobander) and a 3L CB beam (converted to 10M) with rotator were mounted on the K8CC 48' tower which was positioned in front of the KN8S QTH garage. Rotator and coax cables were run down a tower leg and taped, then the tower was quickly cranked up (thanks for the electric winch powered from the Jeep's battery). Some manipulation of the rotator heading was required to orient the elements in the best manner to clear adjacent trees and branches. By 4:00 PM the tower was fully upright with its guy wires in place and operation of the 10M and 15M yagis had been verified with an SWR analyzer
Work quickly got underway to erect the 56' tower, which would carry a HyGain 203BA (3L 20 monobander). The plan behind this arrangement was to allow the 20M operator to position his yagi independently of 15/10, as 20 was likely to have solid skip to the west and southeast, while 15 and 10 would likely only provide scatter QSOs. Again, clearance to trees was a factor and the base of the tower was positioned in the driveway in front of the front door of the house.
The picture at the left shows
W8MJ and KD8EGH positioning the 3L 20 on the mast of the 56' tower before the
tower was raised with WD8S, KD8EGJ and KN8S lending assistance. Take note of
the rocks surrounding the base of the tree in the right of the picture which are
the same rocks and tree in the picture above showing the first tower going up,
which gives some sense of how close the towers were together. Also note the
density of the woods immediately behind where the work is going on. The trees
on the property are very tall (estimated to approach 100') which is great for
supporting wire antennas but a hinderance for raising (and rotating) yagis.
Once the beam was mounted, the second tower was raised (see the picture at right)
which ultimately made it to the full upright position, but not without
incident. As the tower approached vertical, one of the antenna crew (who shall
remain nameless) attempted to help the process along by using the vertical pipe
carrying the lifting cable (visible in the photograph) as a lever. However,
this pipe is not unintended to take side loading and snapped off where the
threaded end screwed into a fitting welded to the tower base just as it arrived
at vertical. Fortunately, KD8EGH (a plumber by trade) was able to extract the
broken off pipe end from the fitting with a hacksaw. KN8S took the pipe into
town to have the local plumbing shop re-thread the end, the pipe was threaded
back into the fitting, and the repair was complete.
Another problem became apparent once the tower was vertical and we attempted to rotate the 20M yagi. The tower and beam were too close to a nearby tree (barely visible at the top left in the photo of the tower going up at right) which snagged the yagi reflector element enough to prevent rotation. After agonizing over the problem for several minutes, we disconnected the side stabilizing outriggers and while two people held each guy wire, KE8OC simply backed up the trailer (with the tower and beam vertical!) the five feet required to clear the tree. Talk about a big mobile antenna - it's pretty incredible to watch a 60' tall tower moving horizontally over the ground!
The end result of all of this work was that by 5:00 PM, both towers were in the air and all of the beams functional. Our next tasks were to erect the wire antennas. John has a 160/80/40 parallel dipole antenna permanently installed at the QTH. We folded back the 40M wires and used the antenna for 80 and 75 meters. The final two wire antennas were separate inverted-vees for 40 CW and SSB, installed down near the lake. Several years ago, an overhead power line had been relocated underground, which left behind a clear path through the woods, perhaps a hundred feet wide and broadside south-southeast. This open area allowed us to position the CW and SSB inverted vees approximately 50' high and end-to-end about 200' apart, providing enough isolation that the 40M receivers are not bothered by the RF coming from the 1.5 KW transmitter on the "other" mode. KN8S's "EZ-Hang" was used to shoot fishing line over tree branches, then green "Wire Man" antenna rope was pulled up to support the antennas. The photo below shows an overall view of the K8MQP antenna towers and beams.
All the wire antenna work was complete, with coaxes run and SWR checks complete, by 8:00 PM, so the antenna crew broke for the drive into town and dinner at a excellent Italian restaurant in Indian River. Around 10:00 PM, KK8I and the N8N mobile team (K8BB and N8NM) arrived and we talked them in through a combination of VHF FM and cel phones. (Not many GSM cel services in northern Michigan). We regaled them with tales of our adventures of the day while the evening was spent setting up the inside stations and equipment. Most of the gear was in place and hooked up by midnight so the team hit the sack.
Station Arrangement and Setup
One of the advantages of the KN8S QTH is that John has a large, heated workshop
located adjacent to his garage, which when cleared of his woodworking and
archery tools can be turned into a comfortable multi-station ham shack with good
access to the outside to route coax cables. It’s also away from the other living
areas of the house which avoids disturbing other family members. After
struggling with a haywire 220 VAC wiring lash-up to power the amplifiers in
2006, this year John fabricated a custom power distribution cord out of 10 gauge
cable providing plenty of 220 VAC to each operating position. The photo of the
shack at left shows (back to front) KN8S on 40 CW, KE8OC on 40 SSB, and WD8S on
20. The 80/15/10 station is located to the right behind the camera.
We learned from experience in 2006 that most modern radios emit a broad spectrum
of in-band phase noise whenever the radio is in transmit which severely
interferes with the other radio sharing the band. This caused us to search
for older, yet contest-grade radios for the two 40 meter positions. On CW,
we again deployed K8CC's 1970s-vintage Drake C-Line which we used successfully
in 2006 along with another 70s artifact - a Dentron MLA-2500 borrowed from K9TM
(see photo at right with KN8S at the key). The computer was "borrowed"
from the K8CC multi-multi ham shack at the last minute as two other PCs checked
out DOA the night before the trip. The 40 CW antenna was the inverted-vee
described earlie, and broadside roughly south-southeast, an orientation required
to place it end-on to the 40 SSB antenna for maximum RF separation. During
the weekend, the antenna did not seem to play very well out to the western
areas, a condition aggravated by high QRN levels on the band. However, the station
never experienced any problems with QRM from the 40 SSB station, so in that
sense the setup was a success. Dave/K8CC and John/KN8S were the 40 CW
operators.
For 40 SSB we had to go looking for an appropriate, contest-grade radio to avoid our phase noise problems of the previous year. Our prior experience with the FT-1000MP and IC-756ProIII from 2006 had proven these radios to be "phase-noisy" in-band, which proved to be a significant problem for the operator on 40CW. Based on some comments from W8JI's web site, K8CC decided to test an IC-751A owned by W8MJ, but saw similar problems. An old Yaesu FT-107M owned by K8CC (but which has been on loan to his relatively inactive friend WR8W) owned proved to be totally clean on transmit, but the radio had other operational problems due to a decade or more of disuse. While discussing the problem with the team while planning our trip, we discovered that Mike/WD8S owned a Ten-Tec Corsair I transceiver which is an older non-synthesized radio. Testing by K8CC verified that Mike's Corsair did not exhibit phase noise on transmit. With some R&R through the application of contact lubricant to resolve some noisy controls, we had our rig for 40 SSB.
The 40 SSB position is shown in the photo at right with KE8OC at the mic. He's
logging on a laptop he provided, while the Corsair with its power supply and
W8MJ's AL-1200 amplifier and K8CC's MFJ-432 voice keyer sitting atop the
Corsair are clearly seen. Again, an ICE single-band 40 bandpass filter provided
isolation from the other bands. One odd problem we had with this laptop (both in
2006 and 2007) was that it would lock up from RF getting into it when run off
the AC power brick, but no problem if we ran it off the DC power adapter from
the 12V power supply seen on the shelf behind the rig. The antenna was a 50'
high inverted vee described earlier and the isolation from 40 CW was sufficient
to prevent major problems to the Corsair's receiver. Tim did most of the 40 SSB
operating, but WD8S and KD8EGH also spent time in the chair.
Compared with the challenges of getting two rigs to function optimally on the
same band, our other two stations proved to be relatively straightforward. Our
20M station covered both CW and SSB, and utilized KK8I's FT-1000MP which posed a
couple of twists. First, Uli had purchased some optional filters for the radio
from another ham, which had arrived the day of the trip north. So, once he
arrived on the Friday night before the contest, the radio was popped open and
installation of the new filters was undertaken with some kibitzing from K8CC.
The second twist was that Uli had never used his FT-1000MP with an amplifier
before so there was some uncertainty about the amp relay keying, but the
concerns were unfounded and the radio functioned flawlessly.
The photo at the right shows our 20M position with Uli at the controls. K8CC's Ten-Tec Titan amplifier provided boost to the MP's signal, while an ICE single-band 20 bandpass filter provided isolation from the other bands. QSOs were logged on the on the small Acer desktop in the left of the picture along with a 15" flat screen monitor, and the computer was equipped with a W9XT Contest Card which provided voice keyer functionality. The rotator control for the 3L 20 can be seen on top of the Titan. Uli made most of the 20M QSOs, but WD8S also spent time in the operating chair. This position made the most QSOs of any of the stations, largely because of the seemingly endless supply of new amateurs on SSB.
Our fourth position covered 80M, 15M, and 10M, both CW and SSB. For this
station we took advantage of the equipment from the KN8S station that was on
site. Seen in the photo on the next page with W8MJ at the keyboard, the rig is
KN8S's IC-756ProIII driving the KN8S AL-1200 amplifier through W8MJ's IC-419
multi-band bandpass filter. The Alpha-Delta coax switch (seen to the right of
the transceiver in the photo at right) selected either of the 15M or 10M yagis,
or the 80M dipole through the Palstar automatic antenna tuner (the black box at
the right end of the desk). QSOs were logged on another Acer desktop computer
with a 17" flat panel monitor "borrowed" from John's wife's computer, and
equipped with a Contest Card for voice keying. Sitting atop the computer is the
Yaesu rotator control for rotating the 15M and 10M yagis. W8MJ made most of the
QSOs at this station, with help from WD8S and KD8EGH.
This station setup posed several challenges. First, the 12V power supply for the transceiver for some reason would not put out power. We're not sure we ever found the problem, but the supply eventually began working. The second problem involved the Palstar automatic antenna tuner, which was used to match the 80M dipole on both CW and phone. It accomplished that task admirably, but when operating on 15M and 10M on the yagis it would try to tune the 80M antenna to that band as well. Getting around this unwanted behavior required deactivating the tuner through a series of button presses, and in certain scenarios putting the amp in standby as well. None of this prevented QSOs, it just made the bandswitching process a lot more complicated and offset the advantage of the automatic tuner.
At the start of the contest, 40 CW hit the ground running with a 70 hour while
the SSB team struggled with RF problems transmit audio until the voice keyer was
grounded to the radio. Despite the poor in-state propagation on 40 meters, we
managed roughly 100 more QSOs per mode than last year, which is still much less
than we expect the band is capable of when good in-state propagation returns.
20 SSB had a terrific first hour with 116 - a lot of seemingly new callsigns.
80/75 meters started producing as early as the 17Z hour, and a lot of these were
in-state QSOs which bolstered the multiplier totals. In the end, 15 and 10 were
pretty much a waste of time with a total of five QSOs between the two bands and
both modes, which is very discouraging given the mount of effort spent to bring
the second tower. 20M was up roughly 100 QSOs as well, largely due to SSB being
a bottomless pit of QSOs. It was impressive to be able to make QSOs on 20M
every hour of the contest. 80M was a big improvement, with roughly 200 more
QSOs, thanks largely to the increased early daytime activity.
Our current claimed score is 1715 QSOs and 221 multipliers, for 529,737 points. We are quite pleased with the results, which is the first time a MiQP score has exceeded a half-million points. This score puts us neck-and-neck with our cohorts over at the K8XXX multi-multi, who also broke the half-million mark. K8XXX has more QSOs but we have more multipliers and a higher ratio of two-point CW to one-point SSB QSOs. It appears the winner will be the team who best survives the logchecking process.
Sunday morning, after a great breakfast provided by Linda Sullivan, the K8MQP crew gathered for the group photo around the base of the 56' tower in front of the KN8S homestead (see left). In the front row, from left to right, is KK8I, KD8EGJ, W8MJ, KN8S, WD8S and KD8EGH. In the back, standing on the trailer is K8CC and KE8OC. Everything was taken down and the vehicles re-packed for the trip home in about three hours. Before departing, we were taken on a tour of the KN8S hunting preserve in the woods.
The team would
like to thank Linda Sullivan, for allowing us to invade her home once again for
our MiQP effort. Thanks also go to Nancy Sullivan, who provided encouragement
and helped keep us fed in fine style.