Hi all,
I have received responses from most all of you regarding who is coming and
when for CQWW CW. Here is a list

K3JT Full contest
K4LT Full Contest
N4TY ????????????
AF8A Fri night through sometime Sat evening
K8RF ???????????
KU8E Early Sat till end of test
N8DCJ Early Sat till end of test
W8RZ Sat late afternoon/evening till end of test
W8WTS Fri through Sat evening or Sun morning
W8AV Plans to be here for whole test

OK now that we know who is doing what, let's put it to a vote. I feel that
with this many operators and two potential additions we could do a good m/m.
However, keep in mind that we are going to get waxed by guys like K3LR, W3LPL,
and N2RM. But we can make a whole bunch of points for MRRC. If we do m/m we
should try to beat up on K8CC who will be our biggest competition. Besides
local competition is good!

W8WTS and KU8E have good points also. We will be very competitive as a m/s
station. But there is the band change restriction. With funky openings on 80
and 160 of late, we are going to have to be a very vigilant on making a lot of
band changes at night to catch the mults and will miss a lot of them as they
will disappear (especially on 160). Also with 10,15, and 20 all being open
during daylight hours, we can run huge rates on all three of the bands m/m
that we can't sustain for longer periods of time as a m/s.

Since I have always taken the approach that we should first have fun in a
contest, I vote for m/m. But I want your ideas since I feel that the
operators should have some input into the station operation. What do you
think? Please let me know and I will summarize and post the choice.

W8AV 1998 CQWW CW

Multi/multi _______

Multi Single _______


73......................de Goose W8AV

A lot has been happening at W8AV over the past few months in order to get the station ready for the upcoming contest season. Some of the improvements that have been made to the station are the following:

Multiplier antenna
The KLM KT-34A has been replaced as the multiplier antenna by a Mosley TA-36 tribander. This antenna is 4 elements on 10 meters and 3 elements each on 15 and 20. This should be an improvement in mult hunting and snagging during the ARRL and CQ contests. The KT-34 is now the property of Jeff, KU8E and should provide him with many years of service. The access to the TA-36 antenna through the multiplier switch in the shack remains the same.
The 5 element 10 meter beam that shares the tower with the mult antenna has been removed from the tower and is now in the care of N8LGP who is in the process of optimizing and refurbishing it for use on Dxpeditions. The antenna will be coming back home in the near future and may be reinstalled on the multiplier tower, if needed.
Because of the added wind load to the mult tower, I am presently considering dismantling that tower next year and replacing it with 50 feet of the same tower as is used by the 160/40/20 tower. I still have 50 feet in the tower pile and it should be able to stand unguyed at this height while supporting the mult antennas as well as some VHF stuff. There is a possibility that the present mult tower will be re-erected in the location presently occupied by the Hygain Hytower.

20/40
The aging individual stack boxes for 20 and 40 meters have been removed from the big tower and have been replaced by one larger weatherproof nonmetallic box that now contains the stacking circuitry for both antenna systems. The construction of this new stacking box was the result of about 20 hours of machining and wiring. The new stacking circuitry was put up by Doug, K4LT at the end of last month and is performing perfectly.

80 METERS
The prototype 80 meter triangular inverted-L system has been dismantled. As you may remember, this antenna system showed some promise as a directional antenna during the last contest season. The 80 meter triangular array now consists of three full- size 80 meter verticals that are now supported by the 160 tower. The array is complete except for the relays and phasing circuitry. It took three weekends, but there is a ground system around each of the three elements that consists of 20 1/4 wave radials around each of the elements that were "dug-in" under the sod with a shovel. All radials are silver soldered together at the feed point to each element and are also connected to the 160 meter ground system providing an excellent ground system for both antennas. Modeling of the 80 meter antenna system showed that it would be necessary to detune the 160 meter antenna system for 80 meters so as to not distort the 80 meter pattern. The detuning is a fairly simple circuit that consists of a parallel resonant circuit tuned to the 160 meter band and a 10æH coil to anti-resonate the tower on 80 meters. This circuitry will also be in place in the next week or two. Modeling of this triangular array shows that the antenna gain of this system is within 1-2 dB of a four-square and should put us on par with the rest of the big boys on 80 meters.

15 METERS
The 15 meter beams are due to come down this weekend Oct 31-Nov 1. The feedpoints are due to be replaced and Radiokit "Super Bead" bead baluns are going to be substituted for the present BN-86 baluns. This will make the 15 meter feeds the same as those in use on 20 and 40 meters. Gary, AF8A and Doug are planning to make the trip to Wooster this weekend to assist in the task

I want to take a minute to thank Doug, Gary, and Jeff for all their help with the antenna work weekend that we had last month. We got the new mult antenna up, the 80 meter elements prepared for installation, and the stack box completed for installation. That was a lot of work for one weekend by just four guys. Thanks again!

Finally, I need to tie down how many operators we are going to have for this year's CQWW CW Contest. We will have Terry, K3JT back in the chair this year. I spent about an hour on the phone with him last Thursday night and he is looking forward to coming. As you get a chance in the next week please e-mail me and let me know when you are coming and how long you are planning to be on hand. I have a pretty good idea from some of you, but we need to get commitments now cast in stone. Also indicate your preference for category. I feel that if we get 8-10 guys maybe we should do multi-multi again. If we have less, then we should probably do multi-single and go head to head with K8AZ. It also looks like Ken, WA9S will be joining us for this year's contest. He wants to become a more seasoned operator so we should all plan some time sitting with him to help him hone his skills. Ken is a good CW op but has only been involved in one contest operation, other than FD, which was VP5FXB. So please take a minute and let me know about you plans to be at W8AV for WW.

73..........................de Goose, W8AV