VE6AB Mobile Ops
May The Force Be With You
While participating in the 2017 January ARRL VHF contest, I would have to take a break on occasion, as the fog was a factor while I operated from a location near Rosebud Alberta, and from time to time I would have to lower my antennas and break the ice off of them.
The elements on my tri-band (2 meter, 220, 70cm) log-periodic would coat up with ice to the point that the SWR would climb to over 3 to 1, and at that point with the power of my Yaesu FT-897D folding back, it was necessary to break the ice off of the antennas.
This also included the 6 meter loop shown mounted just below the log-periodic that was connected to my Kenwood TS-480HX.
The reason the ice was building up rather rapidly, was the fact that there was a slight breeze blowing, and with the heavy fog and the ice-crystals being driven by the wind, were causing rapid ice build-up on my antennas.
In this photo, I had the log-periodic mounted vertically while working the various FM stations with vertical antennas.
The objective of the VHF contest was to work as many amateur stations in as many different 2 degrees x 1 degree Maidenhead grid squares as possible, using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz.
All in all, I had a good time participating the ARRL January VHF contest, and plan on participating in the next VHF contest as well, as it was a lot of fun, and of course how could it not be, playing radio is always fun!.
Click on the photo for a closer look.....
Oh.....While participating in the VHF contest from this location, my position was being placed in the APRS Network at aprs.fi, with the help of the SCS Tracker/TS-480HX connected to the 30 meter antenna mounted on the rear left corner of my mobile.
When I would transmit a beacon, I was being heard by W3LUZ-7 , located in Wilkes-Barre PA, a distance of 3100 kilometers from my location, and entered the Internet through the HF-Gateway located at this station.
