This picture story is about the second weekend of the 10 GHz and up Cumulative Contest in September, 2009. Barbara and I drove to the island of Martha's Vineyard to meet Dale and Mickie (AF1T and W1MKY) for an extended weekend. Since Martha's Vineyard (or just "The Vineyard" to regulars) is an island it was necessary to reserve booking on a ferry prior to the trip. My pictures start on the morning of September 18 on the ferry.
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![]() This map is a bit out of date because the town of Tisbury has now been renamed as "Vineyard Haven", and Gay head has been renamed as "Aquinnah" after the Indian tribe that lives there. The lighthouse there is still named "Gay Head Lighthouse" and is one of the operating spots we used. |
![]() Here are the four of us posing at the eastern site, a small park that they have used in many prior years for the contest. Dale says they may still go back to this site in the future if his access to his present, better, site should become unavailable. (From left to right: Russ Pillsbury K2TXB, Barbara Pillsbury, Dale Clement AF1T, and Mickie Clement W1MKY) |
![]() It was very cold and windy Saturday morning. We had to tie our antennas down in order to keep them from blowing away. Conditions were poor and we had to leave the lighthouse by noon because a wedding was scheduled there, so we only made 13 contacts Saturday morning.
(See the end of this page for the contacts made.) |
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![]() Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of our operation on Saturday morning (it was hard enough keeping the antennas aimed due to the wind.) |
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![]() This telescope tripod proved to be much to small for serious 10 GHz roving. If I do this more I will have to get something much more robust like the ones Dale uses. |
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![]() Conditions on Sunday afternoon were far better than Saturday and we had a lot of stations in the log. Dale made about 75 contacts for the weekend and I had 52. Best DX for both of us was 704 Kilometers to Va. Beach where we worked both K1MAP and NG4C on SSB. |
![]() My equipment was assembled in a hurry just for this contest and I had never made a contact with it prior to coming to the Vineyard. At the top is the TR-751a, below that is the DEMI 10 GHz to 144 transverter, and at the bottom is a box with a preamp and a 1 watt amplifier. After the contest I had my noise figure checked and discovered that it was almost 4 db! The preamp is just barely better than the transverter alone. Obviously I need to do some improvements in the RX department. It was obvious that Dale's station was working better. He has a 1 db NF and 10 watts transmit power. Even so, he only worked about 3 stations that I could not work. But since I did not operate on Sunday morning he has a much higher score. |
![]() In this shot you can see the little degree wheel I made for my tripod. I used my laptop to calculate sun position and then aimed the dish to the sun by observing the shadow of the feed to be centered. Then I rotated the degree wheel so the pointer rested at the sun's position. After that alignment there was never a problem with aiming the antenna. The computer told us the true heading. We pointed there and the station was always there. |
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On Monday we spent a half day enjoying the island and touring the Polly Hill Arboretum. After enjoying a lobster roll for lunch at the Net Catch, Barbara and I reluctantly left our friends and headed home. Above is the view of Vineyard Haven harbor from the deck of the departing ferry. |
My Total score for the weekend is:
24 unique calls * 100 + 8577 Km = 10977 total score.
1125 (9/19/09) | W1GHZ* | FN41ee | 72 Km |
1223z | N1JFU* | FN42wb | 96 |
1310 | N1DPM* | FN32qb | 172 |
1343 | W1PM* | FN41it | 66 |
1351 | W1VT* | FN31rg | 147 |
1415 | N1JFU | FN51av | 92 |
1416 | W1EX* | FN51av | 92 |
1440 | KA1OJ* | FN32ou | 235 |
1450 | K2AEP* | FN32ou | 235 |
1516 | K1GX* | FN31tt | 141 |
1517 | AF1T* | FN41oi | 1 |
1518 | W1MKY* | FN41oi | 1 |
1547 | KB1VC* | FN41ee | 72 |
1740 - 9/19/09 | W1FKF* | FN33kd | 277 Km |
1748 | N1JFU | FN51av | 72 |
1750 | W1EX | FN51av | 72 |
1805 | WA2BTR* | FN30af | 313 |
1807 | W1JHR* | FN30af | 313 |
1808 | K1MAP* | FN30af | 313 |
1815 | KA1ZD* | FN43bj | 236 |
1840 | K1GX | FN31tt | 150 |
1846 | K2AEP | FN32kp | 244 |
1857 | N1GJ* | FN41rr | 29 |
1928 | WA2IID* | FN33kd | 277 |
1942 | N1JEZ* | FN34om | 381 |
2036 | W1GHZ | FN41ee | 90 |
2037 | KB1VC | FN41ee | 90 |
2118 | N1JFU | FN41vr | 44 |
2119 | W1EX | FN41vr | 44 |
2126 | KA1OJ | FN33kd | 277 |
2211 | WA2FGK* | FN21bf | 440 |
2322 | W1PM* | FN41it | 67 |
0003 - 9/20/09 | K1TEO* | FN31jh | 217 |
0004 | N1SAI* | FN41ee | 90 |
0006 | W1AIM* | FN41ee | 90 |
0007 | AF1T | FN41ql | 1 |
0008 | W1MKY | FN41ql | 1 |
2018 | WW1Z* | FN41bu | 184 |
2025 | KA1LMR* | FN43bj | 236 |
2044 | WB2ONA* | FN20tl | 335 |
2054 | W1AUV* | FN42bl | 152 |
2055 | N1JEZ | FN42bl | 152 |
2057 | K1OR* | FN42bl | 152 |
2104 | KA1ZD | FN31xh | 120 |
2110 | W1JHR | FN31rg | 162 |
2114 | N1JFU | FN41ll | 35 |
2134 | N1DPM | FN32qb | 178 |
2305 | K1MAP | FM26aq | 704 |
2316 | NG4C* | Fm26aq | 704 |
2353 | K3CB* | FM18vr | 565 |
2359 | K1TR* | FN42iu | 162 |
0001 - 9/20/09 | K1RZ* | FM19jh | 608 |