Welcome to the K8GP contest station, a place where a mix of commercial and home brew designed and constructed equipment have come together through member participation. The station is capable of simultaneous operations on the amateur frequencies from 50 MHz through 75 GHz and laser. As of 2007, the station is contained within 3 school buses and employs a combination 15 kilowatt generator and mobile tower trailer. The buses, Red Bus 1 (RB1), Red 2 Bus 2 (R2B2) and the White Bus (WB1) transport and serve as the 8 operating positions containing transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, computers and the various interface and switching components. The group has worked diligently over the years to optimize station performance, operation and setup time. Engineering skills have been tested in dealing with the issues involved with the transport and erection of multiple tower and antenna systems. The group has developed and constructed various swivel, tilting and winched towers and their accompanying support mechanisms. These mechanical marvels allow the group to stand up to 9 separate towers ranging from 30-60 feet, all supported off of the 3 school buses and generator trailer. With the inclusion of fixed and collapsible vertical masting, fixed cabling and rotating systems, many of the complete antenna and tower systems can be built, wired and erected by one person. The tilting towers make for much less climbing and man handling of tower sections, antenna arrays, masts and dishes!
The station employs a local area network of eight Pentium III Windows PCs running RoverLog and other member written support software. This allows all the K8GP contest operators to determine and share remote station antenna headings, call sign and location information. The ability to pass or schedule operation on other MHz bands with remote operators is both a feature of the computer system as well as a needed operator skill to be employed to optimize station activation during any particular contest weekend. Click on one of the pictures above to enter the entire station and equipment gallery, which is organized by MHz band. There you will find a selection of station equipment employed over the years atop Spruce Knob. Additionally you will see all the other support equipment to include the buses, trailer, towers, winches, antennas, coax, rotator and control cables needed to complete the operation.
Follow the pages below to find more specific information about the equipment that currently comprises each MHz and GHz band operating position.