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A Tale of Two Roundups

 

W4TA 2017 RTTY RU Award

SPARC received word that we did well in last year’s RTTY Roundup, Multioperator Low Power category.

  • First in the West Central Florida Section
  • Second in the US & Canada
  • Winning the Southeast Division

Operators enjoying this victory are: KA4IOX, KB8ESY, KP2N, KR4U, N2ESP, N4GD, N4KPJ, N4RI, NY4I, VE3XD, W4CU and W4TSP.

Final tweaks on the 40M Vertical Dipole
Dave, KR4U Connects Surge Arrestors

Not to be out done, the 2018 Roundup just ended. Some new antennas and software enabled the W4TA team to beat last year’s score. This year’s team consisted of many experienced operators as well as some first timers. Operators braving this year’s cold weather and poor propagation were: KA4IOX, KB8ESY, KP2N, KR4U, KX4HL, N2ESP, N4BUA, N4GD, N4RI, NY4I, W4CU, W4TSP and WA4EEZ. Helping us brave the chilly weather was a crock pots of chili provided by Tom, W4CU and Sloppy Joes courtesy of Ron, KP2N.

Dee, N4GD Running
Dave, KR4U Works on Triplexer
Leslie, WA4EEZ Running
Pat, KX4HL Learning the Ropes on the Run Station
Ron, KP2N Cursing Propagation at the Mult Station

Lisa, KC1YL [L] Watches Leslie, WA4EEZ [R] Running
Problems with our triplexer prevented us from taking advantage of the log periodic antenna on multiple bans simultaneously. Dave, KR4U quickly diagnosed problems with the band pass filters, so our new 160/80M fan dipole was quickly put into service. The new 40M vertical dipole combined with the 160/80 dipole enabled the late night ops to run as well as search for multipliers on 40M & 80M throughout the evening. A few of the ops were new to contesting and N1MM+ software, so there was a bit of a learning curve. There was a lot of Elmering (mentoring) and hand holding for the first few QSOs, a small price to pay for bringing new blood into the Radiosport arena.

Many thanks to all those folks who worked on the station improvements that lead to another good effort by the SPARC Contest Team.

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