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ARS BumbleBee Contest July 25, 1999
Near Conifer, Colorado
Latitude 39 Degree 31Minute North
Longitude 105 Degree 30 Minute West
July 25, 1999
View Log - Log of all contacts made
View QSLs Received - Images of all QSL cards received
My
original plan for the Bumblebee sprint was to operate from South Dakota with
good friend WU0H. When he ended up having to work that weekend I was
on my own. There is a huge granite outcropping just a couple miles
from my house. I'd always wanted to operate there and it looked like
this was the time. Since it is only two miles away it was a short hike,
but since it was basically a huge granite boulder, that last few feet of
the hike were pretty much straight up.
When I got to the top, I was surprised at the ruggedness. Basically,
a 5 foot by 35 foot boulder field. The two long sides were sheer dropoffs
of 75 to 150 feet. There were, however, some beautiful views. The
picture to the right is the view to the east (note the radial wire running
over the rock).
This is the view to
the west.
To the south.....
And finally.... to the North
When I arrived at the top
I didn't know for sure if I was going to be able to get an antenna up amongst
all the boulders. My antenna is a vertical made from a 20' fishing
pole. The radiator is a piece of TV twin lead with one element cut
for 20 meters and the other cut for 15 meters. I usually attach the
fishing pole to a handy dead limb. Up here there were no handy dead
limbs. I usually spread the 20 & 15 meter radials about 15 foot
from the base at a 45 degree angle and use them to guy the antenna. Up
here there was no room spread radials. I carefully eyed the flat ground
100 feet below me thinking how easy my antenna would go up but the appeal
of an antenna on top of a 150' rock tower was too much and I went to work
I got the pole up and wedged it between two handy boulders, wrapping
several miles of string around the boulders and the pole to get it to stay
put. That done, I very cautiously climbed up and down boulders, hanging
wire radials over cliffs or tying to anything I could wrap a string around.
Definitely nothing scientific
about
this antenna configuration. All I wanted was an erect antenna and a
low enough swr that my sierra would put a load into the antenna. I
figured my 150' tower would take care of the rest. I got the antenna
up about 25 minutes before the contest began. Five minutes later I
had the sierra hooked to the antenna and battery, the bulldog paddle
and radio shack mini headphones hooked to the sierra and I was ready
to test. With the strange radial configuration I was using I was anxious
as I loaded her up and checked the swr. Viola!!! SWR was almost
flat on both 15 & 20. I immediately launched into a pre-contest
qso with W8VQ, Len in Columbus, OH confirming that I could communicate! At
11:00 MST I was on the air in the Bumblebee. It seemed that my 150'
rock tower theory worked like a charm. I ended up with 69 qso's: 60
on 20 mtr and 9 on 15 mtr. Seemed like I was getting excellent reports
from everyone. My only concern was that it seemed my 150' rock tower
was boosting my xmit signal more then my rcvd signals. It seemed like
many times I would hear a very, very faint signal answer my CQ but not be
able to dig the call out for the QSO. After the contest was over, I
wrapped up with a very nice little rag chew with N0HJ, John near San Rafael,
CA whom I had worked on both 15 & 20 during the contest. All in
all this was a very satisfying experience. The extra challange of climbing
the boulder and getting my antenna up in the middle of that boulder
field
make the whole thing a little more worth while. I might have started
a whole new hobby of operating from challenging places. Speaking of
difficult places, note the operating position at right. I was squatted
in behind a boulder, legs nearly dangling off the edge of one of the
aforementioned 100' drop offs. Anyway.... had a great time, hope to
see you next year. 73, N0SXX - Gary Slagel