 |
|
 |
Front
Page
President's
Corner
Callsign
Changes
Member
Notes
Most
Wanted
DX
Notes
ZF2YG DXpedition
Dauphin Is.
Article
Parting Words
MDXA Home
to Dauphin Island, NA-142
By Ernie Orman, W5OXA
Once upon a time there was a ham, Floyd N5FG, who had an idea to go to an IOTA for a week end. As the days, weeks and years went by his friends got older and older. There still was no IOTA week end. One day, Ernie W5OXA, got tired of hearing all the talk of a trip and nothing ever happening. As luck would have it Bob, KC5LZY, suggested that we go to a place on Dauphin Island, Al.. where there was an old Coast Guard Station converted into a get-away for active and retired military personal and their guests. The idea was outstanding. Ernie said "Lets go there and see what it has to offer". The plans seemed to be under way. I was not to excited about this because we have been here before. Behold! one Sunday morning Floyd called me and we saddled up his auto and down we went to old Alabama with our Banjo on our knee. Just a little humor. Of course I still don't know just how Floyd got the car away from the house with out his XYL finding out. But he did, and we were off to the races.
The trip down or over or whatever was sort of exciting. I-10 was relatively
uneventful but when we turned off of the interstate onto route 188, Floyd
decided that we needed some fuel for the auto so we picked a very nice
place to fuel up and stopped. Being growing boys we also needed some fuel
for our tanks. We stopped at the pumps and the credit card would not work.
Being electronic engineers we were not going to let that pump get the best
of us so we kept trying until some dude came up and said the pumps did
not work. Well that busted our ego all to pieces. So we went in and was
going to get a bit to eat. The reason the pumps did not work was because
the computers were down. Guess what, we could not buy anything to eat either,
so we went on, stopping at the next place that looked like it had gas.
Full tank, a couple of drinks and some snacks then we were on our way again.
Down the road a ways we came upon an antenna farm that would be the envy
of old Marty himself. There must have been a 100 antennas and towers stretched
over at least fifty acres. The rest of the way we took in the sights of
old fishing villages and buildings. It was a nice drive and I sure did
enjoy it. As time passed, up loomed the causeway and just over the high-rise
sprang Dauphin Island. Now all we had to do is find the place that we were
going because none of us had ever been there. Of course we did make a few
small errors but being determined, we finally found the place and at once
started looking for antenna sites. After a few minutes we went to the office
to get the specs on the place. The manager was extremely nice and gave
us all the information that we wanted. He allowed us to look in one of
the houses and scope out the place. Looked good to me. Lots of beds, a
deck, bar-b-que, some trees, lots of water, a small exchange, what else
could you ask for.The only draw back was we could only get it for the weekend
of the CQ WW Phone contest. We did not want to wait any longer so we decided
to take and make the best of it. I suppose it was a good idea because we
seemed to have plenty of participation in the effort. We started out to
operate an IOTA and it has escalated to CQ WW station, a CW station, A
packet spotting station and a few mobiles. We decided to put up two 30
foot towers with a couple of tri-band beams on them, R7000 vertical on
the beach, WARC band dipoles and a G5RV wire antenna in the trees. We had
come a long way from one radio and an antenna stuck out the window.
As the clock ticks down to the 29th of October the excitement increased
at an
exponential rate. On the 29th at 06:00, trucks all packed and
setting on ready, I gave Darryl KD5CQT a call on the land line and made
arrangements to start the trip. We hooked up at McDonalds and off
we went. Floyd, N5FG started from Wiggins via Kiln to pick up Randy,
W5UE and his tri-bander, then Ocean Springs to meet up with Bill, K5YG.
We all seemed to have timed it so that we got to our destination around
12:00 hours. Ernie W5OXA checked us in and the fun began. The first
tower with a tri-bander was put up by team one and Bill, K5YG put his R7000
vertical up on the beach with about 500 feet of coax. At some point
in time the 40 meter inverted-v was put up on the first 30 foot tower.
After the first antennas were put up the radio stations were readied and
checked out. The operators could not wait so they began trying
to find out just how well the antennas were working. Later that afternoon
the second tower was put up and the other tri-bander was lifted into the
air. Then the 80/160 antenna supplied by Bill was installed
and checked out It worked just fine. The Packet station was the problem
area. It seems like no matter how much you try you can't get it all
right. We could not get connected. Another system was brought
out the next day with a 25 watt radio and that worked for a good while
but then it crashed also. I think that it must have been the node
or some complicated quirk in the system. Before the contest started we
had some other contesters drop in. Drop in is a good word because
the flew in from Hattiesbrug, Ms. in a single engine, 4 seat airplane.
They were Stan N5UE and Charlie N5ZJ, a couple up and coming DXers.
Their stay was short because Stan had to work on Saturday flying his airplane.
Tick, tick, tick down to 0000 UTC and we are off and running. CQ
CQ CQ TEST sprang into action and the laptops flew into operation logging
Q's. After finding out that not to many wanted to work the States we started
chasing DX. Then all you could hear was W4D W4D W4D W4D all night.
There was of course the usual ZZZZZZZZZZ's blazing away. Some were
so powerful they penetrated the wall. The first night was filled
with excitement and anticipation. The coffee pot was filled over
and over. All three stations were in full swing. The first
few hours the contacts were sort of hard get, the Big Guns, you know.
After they ran the bands it was our turn and the contacts started to mount.
The running station mounted over 686 Q's and the IOTA stations got
balance of the 1370 Q's. In the CQ WW Test we contacted 255 countries
and 100 Zones for a total point count of 656,395. All in all that
ain't bad for a bunch of old wore out DXers. As the week end neared the
end we all started talking about what to do next. Several things came to
mind, such as an island Dxpedition to another IOTA next July. All
matter of things passed through our thoughts like how much, where, who,
and so fourth. As time passes we will surely come up with something. Well,
as you would have it the weather on Sunday turned for excellent to not
so good. It sprinkled a little in the early morning and it turned
into a light rain around 11am and would you know that was when we decided
to start taking down that antennas. We did get them all down before
the big stuff came in. With all out equipment loaded and ready to go the
last thing that we had to do was clean the building. Floyd and I
started a little earlier with the bedrooms and all we had to do was the
kitchen and operation room which did not take too long. All cleaned
up and checked out we were of the house. ( no sunset to ride off into).
We did do a caravan type trip back and what a trip that was. We talked
about everything under the clouds. It was a very enjoyable trip home.
After we arrived in Ocean Springs, Ms everyone split up and made their
way to their homes. When I got home I looked at that truck load of equipment
and antennas and wished it all was in the dump and I would not have to
off load it. But after a good long shower and my own water I felt
a little better so I got most of the big stuff off so that I could make
the biscuits and coffee the next morning. Well I guess it is time
to put this one to bed and start preparing for what ever else we have in
mind to do. Before I leave I would like to say that there is no better
bunch of Hams to be around than the ones in the Magnolia DX Assn.
Remember: DXers never sleep, DX IS, and what ever else you use.
73,
Ernie, W5OXA
