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The 6Y1V contest station is
located in the hills just above the sea coast village of
Hopewell, in Hanover Parish, on Jamaica's northwest coast, 17km
west of Montego Bay and 64km east of Negril.
The location is about 1 mile
from the sea at 850' above sea level and has a panoramic view of
the Caribbean Sea from west through north to east. The photos
below show the view the antennas see from the top of the 135'
tower. The first photo is looking west by northwest towards the
Pacific and Japan, the middle photo is northwest by north toward
the United States and the right photo looking northeast to east from Europe to North
Africa. In this photo you can see Montego Bay and the airport on
the peninsula.
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Click each
photo for a larger image |
Click here to read reports about 6Y1V
signals
The 6Y1V contest station is
designed to operate a variety of amateur radio contests in any
category, including single operator, SO2R, multi-operator,
multi-operator single transmitter, multi-operator two
transmitter and multi-operator multi-transmitter.
The
station is also designed to be competitive in all power
categories including QRP (low power).
The radios are four (4)
Icom
IC-7800 transceivers, one (1) Yaesu FT-1000MP MK-V fully loaded
with filters and mods and a Kenwod TS-2000 used primarily for
VHF.
Each of the
IC-7800's can be
used independently or paired for SO2R operation with EZMaster controllers.
(not yet installed)
The photos below were taken
during the 2006 CQWW SSB contest, although the full installation was
incomplete
at this time.
Each pair of IC-7800's share an
Acom 2000A power amplifier. The Yaesu can use either a
Kenwood TL-922 or a home brew Ameritron AL-80B built by 6Y5GC. The TL-922
and AL-80B will soon be replaced with
another Acom 2000A and an Acom
1000 for use on 6 meters.
The sophisticated antenna
switching system was designed by K1LZ (Krassy) and employs two main
switching controls that permit each antenna to be independently switched
to either IC-7800 pair (L or R SO2R) and then selected
independently using Acom antenna switches. This will soon be
completely controlled using touch screen computers.
Currently, bandpass filters are
switched manually, as are the
SteppIR controllers, however, all
of this will be automated. You will simply select a radio,
touch an antenna on the screen and operate. Everything will be
switched under computer control. Even the SteppIR's will be
locked out while they are changing frequency so you cannot apply
power to their brushes.
We provide high speed wireless Internet
access. The computers are in a Windows domain and connected via a Cisco network with a PIX
firewall. Guests simply login and select the logging program of
choice and operate. Internet browsing, telnet and
checking email is all permitted, however, all computers are locked down
to prevent installing software, download viruses, spyware or malware
from the Internet. CT Win, Write Log, N1MM Logger and WinTest
are all provided for your convenience. Operators may bring their own laptops
and plug into the network, independent of our domain.
The entire station can be
remotely controlled over the Internet using VPN technology and
VoIP. Each piece of equipment can be remotely powered and is
backed up by UPS and their is an onsite generator for emergency
power.
We currently have a VoIP phone
in the shack that is connected directly to our VoIP switch in
the US and permits operators to directly contact the station
manager KY1V. Family members can call the station in emergencies
as a direct non international call.
For your convenience, log files
are automatically backed up over remote VPN to our data center
in Louisville, KY.
The antenna system is
extensive. We currently have 6 towers and planning a few more.
All towers are guyed with Phillystran.
The first tower is a 135' Rohn
45G star guyed tower supporting two
SteppIR MonstIR yagis at 70'
and 130'. These huge arrays are turned using
K0XG heavy duty ring rotors
that generate so much torque the tower had to be star guyed to
keep it from twisting as much as 10 to 12 inches.
Click here to read reports about the
signals
The
Fluid Motion SteppIR MonstIR yagis are stacked
and phased and are designed mainly for run station use and are
capable of providing 4/4 on 10/12/15/17/20 meters and 3/3 on 30/40
meters. Each MonstIR antenna is configured for master/slave
rotation
utilizing
Green Heron
Engineering rotor control boxes. They can also be rotated and
used independently of one another for multi-multi operation.
Don't forget...these antennas
are great for WARC band operation and are also configured to
operate as 6 el yagis on 6 meters.
Tower number two is a 105' Rohn
45G rotating tower. It employs both
RTS
rings and K0XG
rotor system to
turn the tower and is controlled by a
Green Heron
Engineering control box.
Click here to read reports about 6Y1V
signals
The rotating tower supports 6
M2 Inc. long boom mono band yagis. On 20 meters we have 6/6 on 59'
booms at 100' and 50'. On 15 meters we have 6/6 on 44' booms at
65' and 32'. On 10 meters we have 7/7 on 44' booms at 55' and
28'.
The primary purpose for the
rotating tower and stacked arrays is for multiplier hunting.
These antennas have a razor sharp beam width and provide maximum gain. The top antennas are particularly good for early band
openings and long haul DX.
We have four Hy-Gain Hy-Towers
extended to 67' for 80 meters. These provide an excellent 4
square with 25+ DB of front to back ratio. In addition to being
excellent directional transmit antennas, we hear with them
incredibly well.
On 160 meters we have four
slopers draped from the top of the 135' tower. One for each
direction, NE, NW, SW and SE.
We have two 1000' beverages,
one NW and one NE, a K9AY loop and a pennant for low band
receiving antennas.
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