Category - M0XXT Archive

CQ WPX SSB is over for another year, Thanks to the whole team at M0XXT and to everyone who worked us.

We will be posting a full write up soon, for now though here are some of the photos from this year’s M0XXT entry. Head over to the gallery page Here for more higher quality photos

A3S No. 1 on our 50ft Generator Mast

The Big Tower ariving on site

The Tower in place ready for it’s antennas

Simon the mobile welder making some emergency repairs to the tower.

Fitting the antenna’s

The tower in it’s upright position, ready to be extended.

The Tower now fully extended with it’s 80m Dipoles, 40m 2 ele beam and 2nd A3S

Another shot of the tower

Close up of the antenna stack

The cable entry in our new shack

Callum M0MCX & Terry G4MKP operating

CQ WPX SSB

27th March 2010

The UK Scout Contest Team will be entering CQ WPX SSB this weekend in the M/2 category, we have been working very hard over the last few weeks and months to get the station ready in time.

Operators for CQ WPX will be

Callum M0MCX

James M0YOM

Terry G4MKP

Simon M0VKY

David VA7AM

Please listen out for us on the bands

We will be updating our score live during the contest, check out www.getscores.org for details.

Station Details for this years CQ WPX SSB Entry are as follows

Station 1 & 2

Elecraft K3

ACOM 2000

Heil Proset Plus

Antennas

Full Size 40m 2 Element Yagi @ 120ft

80m Dipole NE/SW @ 145ft

80m Dipole NW/SE @ 145ft

160m Dipole @ 90ft

A3S @ 100ft

A3S @ 50ft

Megaloop @ 85ft

All antennas are available to each station

See you in the contest

James M0YOM

WPX Build Started

24th March 2010

The major build is now well and truly in progress for CQ WPX SSB this weekend

The 1st A3S is on the 50ft Generator Tower

Some additional Studs being added to the Versatower rotator cage

Callum M0MCX and Terry G4MKP installing the shack ground system

Lots more happening tomorrow including the big tower going up.

73 James M0YOM

Shack Progress

22nd March 2010

Just a quick update, lots of things happening at the moment to try and get the station ready in time for CQ WPX this weekend.

The Shack is looking really good, electrics are all in, room is painted, the cat5 needs to be terminated yet though.

The cable entry is finished in the ceiling, cable track is on the wall ready for Coax runs and you can see the wifi gear on the shelf, internet is provided using radio too, this is via a long distance 2.4Ghz link using Andrew 24dbi 2.4Ghz dishes.

Lots of homebrew engineering going on too, this is a nice home made guy point bearing made by Callum M0MCX

Here is some of our HEAVY engineering, more info on what this is soon 😉 (Yes that is a scaffolding joint)

Getting Plastered

14th March 2010

Lots of progress this week.

The new shack is now plastered, we should have electrics by next weekend so we can finally start putting things back together ready for WPX SSB.

Lots of development work on new antenna systems this weekend too.

Here’s a few pics of the freshly plastered shack.

Antenna Switching

9th March 2010

I’ve finally got the antenna switching finished tonight, nice new connectors fitted to the SixPak and the control box. We will finally have full sharing of antenna’s between all the stations now.

The new wifi router arrived today too, this is used for our long distance 2.4Ghz broadband link. Previously we have used a PC to share this around the network, a dedicated router is a much better solution. It’s a Buffalo WBR-G54.

VHF/UHF/Microwave Mounting

8th March 2010

Made some progress at the weekend on the mounting brackets for the new VHF/UHF/Microwave stack, these are modified 24″ K brackets. Some of the brackets have been cut away to allow them to be mounted side on to the supporting brick post on the roof. Also got the drilling finished for the new connectors on the SixPak we will be using for antenna switching.

New Rotator (Create RC5-1) and rotator control cable arrived last week.

High Power Stub Filters Completed

3rd March 2010

Over the last couple of days i’ve managed to finish off the High Power Stub filter system. Last time we used this it was a bit of a lash up, so i’ve now completed the Band Pass Filter to HPF Junction Box system.

New connectors fitted to the SixPak’s, not sure why they don’t fit connectors normally, i suppose it keeps costs down.

Connectors fitted to the junction box.

Wiring of the junction box in progress

The completed junction box wiring

SixPak wiring completed

Testing of the system, you can see one of the BPF filter boxes below the junction box, this drives the SixPak relays.

All in all this should make for a much neater and easier installation of the stub filters.

New Shack Build Update

23rd February 2010