Another season of field operation bites the dust with the completion of the IOTA contest. This year we operated again from the South Core Banks location near the Cape Lookout lighthouse as part of our N4A activation of the Core Banks. Our team for 2009 was N4YDU, W0UCE, N3ND, and W4KAZ.<\/p>\n
Radio conditions were quite horrid during the first eight hours of the contest. Very high levels of QRN(noise) on 40m and even on 20m. We were seeing storms pass to either our west or our east for much of Saturday morning and afternoon. We were fortunate none developed directly overhead, but the surrounding static crashes made copy difficult. 20m also had a lot of QSB(signal fading), adding to the copy problem. 10m and 15m were completely unproductive both before and during the contest.<\/p>\n
Our cabin was different from 2008, and the amount of space around it was less. That resulted in our antennas being a bit closer to the ground than they might have been otherwise, but we worked within the space available. The run station had an 80m dipole and a 40m dipole, with the 40m dipole oriented to favor europe. The dipoles were at about 33 feet.<\/p>\n
The mult station sported a half sized G5RV, and its apex was at about 24 feet.<\/p>\n
While radio conditions were less than optimal, or even less than the past year, the creature comfort level improved quite a bit. W0UCE provided food fit for royalty, and “Chef Archie” gave us several quite enjoyable meal creations.<\/p>\n
Despite poor conditions, we managed to log approximately the same number of QSO’s as our official score from 2008, and possibly a few additional multipliers. I would expect to lose some in log checking, so no guess about final score.<\/p>\n
Fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another season of field operation bites the dust with the completion of the IOTA contest. This year we operated again from the South Core Banks location near the Cape Lookout lighthouse as part of our N4A activation of the Core Banks. Our team for 2009 was N4YDU, W0UCE, N3ND, and W4KAZ.<\/p>\n
Radio conditions were quite horrid during the first eight hours of the contest. Very high levels of QRN(noise) on 40m and even on 20m. We were seeing storms pass to either our west or our east for much of Saturday morning and afternoon. We were fortunate none developed directly overhead, but the surrounding static crashes made copy difficult. 20m also had a lot of QSB(signal fading), adding to the copy problem. 10m and 15m were completely unproductive both before and during the contest.<\/p>\n
Our cabin was different from 2008, and the amount of space around it was less. That resulted in our antennas being a bit closer to the ground than they might have been otherwise, but we worked within the space available. The run station had an 80m dipole and a 40m dipole, with the 40m dipole oriented to favor europe. The dipoles were at about 33 feet.<\/p>\n
The mult station sported a half sized G5RV, and its apex was at about 24 feet.<\/p>\n
While radio conditions were less than optimal, or even less than the past year, the creature comfort level improved quite a bit. W0UCE provided food fit for royalty, and “Chef Archie” gave us several […]<\/p>\n