K4VPI Field Day 2002
The VPI Alumni Radio Club
"We don't need no stinkin' microphones"
Click
here for pictures
(courtesy of Josh, KF4YLM)
Station Location: Virginia Tech Antenna Lab, 6th floor Whittemore
Hall, Virginia Tech Campus, Blacksburg, VA
Antennas: all located on roof of Whittemore Hall (see picture
link above for antenna farm shots)
80m - dipole hung off of SW corner of building
40m - quarter-wave sloper from top of penthouse to outer
wall
20m - quarter wave vertical with two quarter-wave radials,
choke balun fed
15m - quarter wave vertical with two quarter-wave radials,
choke balun fed
10m - quarter wave vertical with two quarter-wave radials,
choke balun fed
Tri-band 2 element wire yagi (November 2001 QST)
Radios: Station 1 - Omni
V.9 (N4PY software upgrade)
Station 2 - Omni VI+
Both
radios used Dunestar bandpass filters to provide additional isolation between
stations
Logging software: NA 10.47 (old, but its what we had
on hand!)
Participants: WA4DOX, KF4YLM, KF4RGF, W8IVF, N4GU, KF4TRT, KC9LC,
KG4OOM
Exchanged Information: K4VPI 2A VA
Hours of Operation: 23:58
CW CW SSB
SSB FSK FSK
band QSOs
pts QSOs pts
QSOs pts
---------------------------------------------------------
80 172
1720 0
0 0
0
40 279
2790 0
0 0
0
20 353
3530 0
0 3
30
15 194
1940 0
0 4
40
10
11 110
0 0
0 0
---------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 1009 10090
0 0
7 70 SCORE: 10,160
Summary
Field Day 2002 was a smashing success despite mediocre band
conditions and the loss of a member of our operator cadre. Everyone
pulled together to produce an amazing 25% increase in QSOs from last year
and almost a 20% increase in points. But besides the excellent results,
this was a plain enjoyable Field Day - as it should have been. Despite
the best efforts of Virginia Tech's Finest to take us off the air during
the wee hours of Sunday morning, we managed to keep two stations on the air,
pumping out QSOs for 24 hours - and had a good time doing it. Murphy
gave us no insurmountable headaches during the weekend and the weather cooperated
as well.
I fear that we are reaching the limits of what we can accomplish at this
location. Especially now that we are on the downhill slope of the sunspot
cycle, low band performance will become even more important, and our location
at Whittemore does not offer many opportunites to improve upon those antennas.
But what do I know? I never would have predicted we would have
trashed last year's score so throughly!
More Stuff Than You Ever Wanted to
Know About The K4VPI Field Day
Rates
Overall
QSO Rate
80m QSO
Rate
40m QSO Rate
20m QSO Rate
15m QSO Rate
Breakdown of QSOs by Sections
Previous Year's Results
Why do our verticals
work so well?
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