September 2005 VHF QSO Party

On Sunday September 11, 2005 a group of us went up to a location we call Contest Peak to participate in the ARRL September VHF QSO Party (http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2005/sepvhf.html).

Shayne N6SPE, Kyle KB6OLL, Dave KC6YFG, and Robert KC6UDS left the Davis area around 10am for the roughly hour-long drive to Contest Peak, located in BLM land in the far northwest corner of Yolo County, in Grid CM88uu.

Here are some pictures taken by Robert KC6UDS:

Getting things set up - the first mast is up, working on the shade and operating table:

First mast - top to bottom: X200 VHF/UHF omni vertical, 3 element 6m beam, 2 horizontal 2m beams in phase:

Second mast - top to bottom: 1290 MHz bowtie panel antenna (vertical polarization), 220 MHz beam, horizontal 70cm beam, vertical 70cm beam:

Close up of 1290 MHz panel antenna:

Some earlier visitor spend their time piling up rocks. Very nice of them, made a convenient table for tools:

Big puffy clouds in the sky - the weather was nice, cool with a light breeze:

The operating position, L-R: Shayne N6SPE, Dave KC6YFG, Kyle KB6OLL:

Third mast - 6m vertical, 2.4 GHz wifi dish - we tried connecting to our link on Mt Vaca, but no luck. Mt Vaca antenna doesn't aim this way - maybe next year:

All three masts. On Kyle's truck, horzontal omni loops for 6m and 2m:

Kyle KB6OLL at the radio:

Shayne N6SPE solves a critical problem with Dave's radio (the antenna jacks aren't labelled):

Tools tend to collect in the oddest places:

View to the south - the peak under the cloud is Berressa Peak, the ridge in the far background is Mount Vaca, and you can see the north end of Lake Berryessa to the right:

View of the site from a little way down the ridge:

Closer view:

Pictures taken by Dave KC6YFG

Working on the first mast, L-R: Shayne N6SPE, Robert KC6UDS, Kyle KB6OLL:

Kyle works on that most important thing, shade: