See the pix and video by clicking HERE
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The Grid Pirates were unable to mount an multi-op effort from their FM19bb contest location due to severe ice and wind damage this past winter. So, this past June Terry W8ZN and Andy K1RA roved as K8GP Rover in the ARRL June VHF 2014 QSO Party. They entered the Classic Rover category again after a successful rove in the ARRL Jan. VHF SS 2014 contest. Check out their most recent roving adventure by clicking here. Terry W8ZN and I (Andy/K1RA) will be roving this coming weekend as K8GP/R. Our FM19bb location was hit hard this past winter with wind and ice damage, so we were unable to repair it in time for June. We hope to continue bus and tower repair work over the summer and attempt a fixed operation again sometime in the future. This contest we will take a somewhat similar route as to what we tried in Jan. VHF SS 2014, but this time starting north at FN00. We’ll also again be employing N3UW’s rover with some new improvements. Here’s our route map info. Click on colored map markers on the left or in the map for details. Zoom in for terrain info. The above breaks down to the following grids, local and GMT times: Sat. Local GMT FN00wa - 1400-1600 1800-2000 FM09wx - 1600-1800 2000-2200 FM19aw - 1830-2000 2230-0000 FN10ca - 2100-2300 0100-0300 Sleep - 0015-0630 0415-1030 Sun. Local GMT FN10ni - 0700-0900 1100-1300 FN20bi - 1030-1230 1430-1630 FM29ax - 1330-1530 1730-1930 FM19xx - 1600-1800 2000-2200 FM18dv - 2100-2300 0000-0300 I will be mainly operating the low band seat (50-432 MHz), while Terry operates 902-10368 MHz. We pride ourselves on quick band hopping and appreciate your working all the bands with us when we call in and request you to attempt QSO’s. Even if there is an amazing 6m ESkip opening, please take the time to work us across the bands, as our time on sites will be relatively short. In tradition with Bill/W3IY (SK) and the recently decommissioned W1RT Jitney, I will be using 144.247 MHz as our coordination and calling frequency. Please look for us there often. My other pass/jump frequencies will be 50.247, 222.147 and 432.247. Consider putting these in your rigs memory channels if available to assist in the frequency hopping exercise 🙂 I will be tuning mainly 6&2m to otherwise find CQ’ing stations – so make lots of noise in our general directions!  N3UW rover to be used by Terry/W8ZN and Andy/K1RA as K8GP during the ARRL June VHF 2014 contest. 73 and GL to ALL this weekend. Terry W8ZN and Andy K1RA activate K8GP / Rover in the ARRL Jan VHF SS 2014 using the newly improved rover of Rich N3UW. Terry and I worked on outfitting and rebuild the rover during the month of January. We had several nice weather days that allowed us to get the masting and antennas affixed to the vehicle. The weather contest weekend was quite cold and we’d had snow the night before. This impacted operating from some of our planned locations. Overall we did quite well considering few problems with equipment and considering poor radio conditions. To read more about the weekends activities as well as see pictures and videos, please read the article located here. Andy K1RA activated the K8GP Grid Pirates contest station on 144 MHz during the SVHFS Fall 2m Sprint. Â There was some excellent tropospheric enhancement during the 4 hour event and Andy captured several weather and tropo maps and discussed why conditions were so good. Â As well as he has posted his log, his grid map and audio he recorded from the event. Â Check out his article by clicking here. Dr. Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ (SK) will have passed away one year ago this June and the Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society, K8GP and the Grid Pirates Contest Group, as a memorial to Gene, are republishing a recorded Webinar on our website and making it available before this years June and September ARRL VHF Contests. We do not want Gene’s memory to fade any faster than it already is, this may help to keep his memory alive for a while longer. In May of 2010 Gene provided this presentation on “VHF Contesting – What to do and How to win” for the PVRC webinar archives. The presentation is ~90 minutes and covers station siting, station design, station integration, winning strategies, digital modes and the ideal stations. We have acquired a copy of the presentation and made it available for those interested in reviewing it HERE The K8GP Grid Pirates Contest Group set up operations from their new location in Virginia, grid FM19bb. This was the first contest since June 2008 that the group entered the unlimited-transmitter, multi-operator category. Since leaving Spruce Knob, WV in 2008, the group has only operated the low 4-bands (50-432 MHz). To read more about the weekends event, see pictures and videos and hear audio from the stations please click here. Terry W8ZN and I attempt to rove in the past ARRL Jan. VHF SS. If you care to check out the article I put together that covers our preparations leading up to the contest as well as our adventure on contest weekend please click here or the picture below.
The Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society and K8GP Grid Pirates Contest Group operated the ARRL June VHF 2010 contest from grid square FM19bb atop Mt. Weather in northern Virginia around 1800′. This is the second time the group has operated from the new and expanding location. K8GP has suspended operations from it normal operating location atop Spruce Knob in West Virginia (FM08fq) due to cost, time, distance and lack of bus drivers to make the 5-6 hour trek. The group has been building a new V/UHF and microwave site in Virginia closer to home of the core station designers and operators. Read more about the weekend by clicking here. Welcome to the home of the K8GP Grid Pirates Contest Group and Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society (DVMS). Please navigate the menu links across the top of this page, beginning with About, to read, see and hear more about the our organization, its members and their efforts to deploy a multi-operator, multi-radio contest station to the highest point in West Virginia. ARRL June VHF Contest 2009 The K8GP Grid Pirates Contest Group will be operating from grid square FM19bb in Virginia at an elevation of ~1,800′ for the upcoming ARRL June VHF Contest Satudary June 13 1800Z through Monday June 15th 0300Z. We will mainly be active on SSB, CW, FM and digital WSJT on 50 MHz through 432 MHz. Please listen for our CW, SSB & WSJT from 50.125-50.275, 144.100-144.250, 222.100-222.230 and 432.100-432.150 MHz. Listen for our FM on 52.525, 146.55/58, 223.5 and 446.0 MHz. We may be active on 903 MHz and above through 10 GHz, so please ask us during the contest and if we’re up and running there we will attempt a microwave QSO with you. Good luck and look forward to hearing you in the contest. Any pre-contest skeds or other correspondence can be directed at k8gp2009@k8gp.net Make ARRL VHF Contest Logs Public? Are you interested in having your ARRL VHF contest logs made public? Send your logs in an email to logs@vhfscores.info – Cabrillo format is preferred, but we will take any contest output if it helps get your data online quicker. We will be using the www.vhfscores.info site for publishing logs for those with no public hosting capability. For those groups or individuals that wish to post their logs on their own web sites, please send us a direct URL link, so we can point to your station log info as well. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or concerns, please visit the web site above and drop us a line. Thanks! Captain’s New Call Our leading captain (Terry K8ISK) has been awarded a new call sign under the F.C.C. vanity system. He shall now be known as W8ZN. Listen for him in the pileups! Sept ARRL VHF Contest A small group of K8GP club members were active from Mt. Weather, VA FM19 during the Sept. VHF contest. They deployed an Limited/Multi station and it appears they may have won the category with ~307K points. Look for more info in the following months in QST and here on this web site. July CQ WW VHF Contest The Grid Pirates Contest Group and Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society will be activating the K8GP club call sign from Mt. Weather, VA FM19 on 6m and 2m this upcoming CQ WW VHF contest. We will be operating SSB, CW and WSJT. Look for us via random meteors using WSJT on 50.275 and 144.140 MHz, or please contact k8gp2008@k8gp.net for more info and/or scheduling. June VHF Contest 2008 The Grid Pirates Contest Group and Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society activated the K8GP club call sign from Spruce Knob, WVa this past ARRL June 2008 VHF contest. We operated from grid square FM08fq employing frequencies from 50 MHz through 47 GHz. We were active using SSB, CW, FM and WSJT. We thank all of those who made skeds and we would like to report a great success rate! View a night time photo of our operation taken by K1RA here. The rest of our photo album from the weekend is now online. Please click on this link to see the full operation. HP 3000W Switching Power Supply Info See photos and read what W8ZN has learned about these great power supplies! Click here. MOASU Read more about the Mother of All Switching Units and get updates if you are building a MOASU by clicking here. January VHF SS 2008 K8GP operated from the Eastern Shore of Maryland (FM18vr) this past ARRL January VHF SS contest. We operated the bands 50 MHz through 10 GHz. Pictures from our January expedition to the Eastern Shore of Md can be seen by clicking here. September VHF Contest 2007 The members of K8GP ventured to the top of Spruce Knob, WV this past Sept. 2007 ARRL VHF contest and would like to thank everyone who got on the VHF, UHF and microwave bands to contact us. We officially won the Multi-Unlimited category, clinching back to back wins (June & Sept) for both ARRL 2007 VHF contests. To see our Sept 2007 VHF gallery please click here. Please come back soon to read more about the weekend’s event in an upcoming blog post. Spread the word After reviewing this site, please consider rating it at both contesting.com and/or dxzone.com to spread the word about weak signal VHF, UHF and microwave contesting. Thanks ! |
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