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Figure 3 — ARRL Louisiana Section Offi cials and Louisiana Contest Club Offi cials announce a new ARRL-affi liated club in Louisiana. (L-R) Louisiana Section Affi liated Club Coordinator Jim Bookter, N5NVP, LCC Director Roland Guidry, NA5Q, LCC President Mark Ketchell, K5ER, Secretary/Treasury Scott Dickson, W5WZ, Vice President Charlie Morrison, KI5XP, and Louisiana Section Manager Gary Stratton, K5GLS. ARRL Louisiana Section Manager Gary Stratton, K5GLS, and Louisiana Affi liated Club Coordinator Jim Bookter, N5NVP. Just one week after organization, the LCC fi elded two fi ve-person teams for the North American QSO Party SSB event. We feel that was a great success. Louisiana Contest Club will provide a vehicle for members to further develop their contesting skills and strategies while allowing them to share their collective knowledge and experiences through mentoring. The LCC is a special-purpose Amateur Radio club devoted to the pursuit of operating and technical excellence. Our goals are simple: � To promote the fun, satisfaction and competitive thrill of radio contesting � To assist members in developing their operating and technical skills �To foster increased friendly competition and sportsmanship � To become a competitive force in Amateur Radio contesting club competition � The LCC has chosen to mark the center of its membership circle near Marksville, Louisiana, at coordinates 31.226894° north latitude and 91.944580° west longitude. Consequently, the entire populated area of Louisiana along with much of southwestern and west-central Mississippi and southeastern Texas fall within the 175-mile radius imposed by many contest rules (see www.louisianacontestclub.org/maps.htm). � Anyone interested in Amateur Radio contesting is eligible to apply for membership. Dues are $20 a year. Visit our Web site, www.louisianacontestclub. org, or contact us via e-mail, info@ louisianacontestclub.org. As our mascot Chomps Boo-TAY says, “Laissez les contest roulez!” (Let the contest roll!) 10 November/December 2008 NCJ W5KGT W5KGT Figure 4 — LCC founders (foreground, clockwise from left) Charlie, KI5XP, Mark, K5ER, Roland, NA5Q, and Scott, W5WZ, at the signing of legal documents on August 9, 2008. Not pictured: Pat Sonnier, W5WMU.
Solving the Long Rotator Cable Problem for Larger Rotators Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article appeared in April 2008 edition of "The Black Hole," the newsletter of the Society of Midwest Contesters. It’s being published here with the author’s permission — Al Dewey, KØAD Hams have struggled for years with fi nding cost-effective methods to address the necessity of long rotator cable runs. A variety of methods have been proposed for the ubiquitous Ham-M family. For short runs of up to 100 feet or so, the traditional method has been to use a specifically designed cable having two AWG 18 wires for the brake solenoid/motor common and six AWG 22 wires for direction sensing, limit switches/motor windings and starting capacitor. For longer runs, more expensive cables with AWG 16/20 or even AWG 10/14 wire are available at a substantial increase in cost. Other hams have substituted multiple runs of Romex house wiring cable, which generally starts at AWG 14. Some also suggest adding a “booster” transformer. This transformer is wired in series with the leads from the control box to the brake solenoid/motor common. The key is to make sure the voltage adds to (boosts) rather than subtracts from (bucks) the normal 24 V ac output of the control box. Hams who have used larger rotators, such as prop pitch motors, seem to have relied upon one of two methods to deal with long cable runs. The fi rst uses large wire. At my station I have a run of approximately 500 feet from the shack to the top of the tower. When I used an M 2 Orion, the AWG 12 Romex was barely adequate. When I upgraded to a prop pitch, I couldn’t get any rotation at all. Doubling up with another run of AWG 12 — for an equivalent cross-section of AWG 9 — still left the antenna motionless. With the increase in the cost of copper, further investment in wire seemed unwise. A second approach to dealing with long runs of cable has been to install a remotely controlled power supply at the tower base. At the 2007 Dayton Hamvention®, Green Heron offered such a unit. Whether commercially manufactured or homebrewed, this generally requires a run of cable to carry 120 or 240 V ac to the tower. In addition to the safety and code considerations involved with such high voltages external to the shack, there is a complication with many of the newer-style control units. Both M 2 and Green Heron use pulsed power to produce a ramped startup and slowdown of the antenna to reduce Figure 1 – Wiring diagram for using large rotators with long cable runs. stresses on the tower and rotator. This means the pulsed-control circuitry needs to be housed at the base of the tower. This is a duplication of cost, however, since the circuitry already exists at the control end and generally cannot be separated from the display electronics of these units. I verifi ed that my prop pitch worked by temporarily connecting the control box at the base of the tower. Stationing my XYL outside to run the box during a contest, however, seemed undesirable, since I choose to Terry Zivney, N4TZ/9 n4tz@arrl.net enter the single-operator category. Being short of funds and wanting to keep my spouse happy, I opted for a third approach (Figure 1). This is nothing more than a version of the bucking voltage used years ago with the Ham-M. Because the prop pitch and newer Orions use dc motors, I inserted an inexpensive spare 12 V dc power supply in series with the negative (common) lead at the control box. The positive lead of the external power supply is connected to the negative lead at the control box. The wire from the rotator that went to the negative lead at the control box now goes to the negative lead of the external power supply. I’m using a cheap Samplex switching supply purchased some years ago from RadioShack for a packet radio no longer in use. You can buy one for less than $100, far cheaper than a long run of Romex or an external Green Heron controller. All features of the control box remain unchanged, including the pulsed dc for the speed control. It really is that simple. As a side note, my TIC rings nicely turn my 10/15 duobanders through 450 feet of AWG 18 wire (doubled to be equivalent of AWG 15) and one dc motor. The same ring with a full-size 5 element 20 and 2 element Cushcraft 40 needed the Romex treatment (doubled AWG 14 to be equivalent to AWG 11) to enable rotation with the standard TIC box. Today, I would use the smaller wire and boost the voltage with an external dc power supply. TIC uses only two power wires, and switches the polarity inside the control box, so a small modifi cation would be required inside the control box to insert the boosting voltage at the correct location. Build a Better Antenna with DX Engineering! High quality components to help you build the best amateur antenna possible! • 5KW/10KW Baluns • Stainless & Aluminum Clamps • Vertical and HF Receive Antennas When You Want The Best! Secure Online Ordering: www.DXEngineering.com Order by Fax: 1-330-572-3279 24 hrs./7 days Order by Phone: 1-800-777-0703 Mon.-Fri. 8:30 am-4:30 pm EST Product Support Line: 1-330-572-3200 Mon.-Fri. 8:30 am-4:30 pm EST NCJ November/December 2008 11
Page 1 and 2: ■ Contest University 2008 at Dayt
Page 3 and 4: “I was struck by how clean, natur
Page 5 and 6: Editorial Our “Better Halves” T
Page 7 and 8: the presenters are entertaining —
Page 9 and 10: adio no longer budges when you’re
Page 11: The Birth of the Louisiana Contest
Page 15 and 16: connecters to the chassis. Replacem
Page 17 and 18: their sunrise enhancement using the
Page 19 and 20: Simplifying the Four-Square The fou
Page 21 and 22: optimum phase angles for the curren
Page 23 and 24: Tips for Tuning a Full-Size 160 Met
Page 25 and 26: Figure 5 — The sidebands show abo
Page 27 and 28: Figure 10 — The VSWR = 1.03 at 18
Page 29 and 30: NCJ November/December 2008 27
Page 31 and 32: NCJ Profi le: Bob Naumann, W5OV Tis
Page 33 and 34: Workshop Chronicles As Plato and ot
Page 35 and 36: mostly runs stations at these times
Page 37 and 38: Contesting 101 Welcome back to Cont
Page 39 and 40: Contesting on a Budget That Very Fi
Page 41 and 42: RTTY Contesting Just two years ago,
Page 43 and 44: Results: 2008 West Coast Regional R
Page 45 and 46: Results: July 2008 North American Q
Page 47 and 48: Call Sign Score QSOs Mults QTH Team
Page 49 and 50: Shortwave Listeners (SWL-ers) have
Page 51: MORE DEALS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STI

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