VHF “QSO Party”

By | June 12, 2023

Five of us gathered to practice setting up stations, with the excuse of the ARRL VHF Contest… formerly known as the QSO Party.

Ben had a “field day” tuning Cushla’s Buddy Stick antenna on 10 meters. we had to adjust it quite a bit to make it tune. Tried it out on 10 Meters, but made no contacts.

And learned a lot about antennas.

We treated it as a party, spending much more time talking, learning to tune antennas using a nanoVNA, talking, shooting ropes over trees, and making a couple of contacts.

Charlie wanted to try out a 4 element beam using Don’s rig. So we used a ladder as a tower, putting the beam up 30 feet. Thanks to the bravery of those raising the beam!

We never did get a shot of Norm… but can thank him for the photos! Also, he used a weight launcher to put ropes over two trees, useful for after the contest.

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