COAST WATCHING ON BUZZARDS
BAY
On April 9, 2005 a coast watching exercise
was held at Buzzards Bay, MA in preparation for the passage of
the LST-325 in early June. Organized by Dale Gagnon,
KW1I, a network of 5 stations was planned, and four
participated, with one lost to contingency. The net
control station was KW1I at Massachusetts Maritime Academy,
aided by Larry N1PHV. The LST is due to dock there on
its east coast cruise. Other stations were W1NZR/W2ILA
on Gooseberry Neck, KA1GON and his friend Van on Gunning Point
Beach near West Falmouth, and K2WI/N1SNG on West Island in
Fairhaven. Gunning Point and West Island are right
across from each other in the middle of the Bay, and separated
by 9 miles. The other stations were about 15 miles in
each direction from there.
The K2WI team had little idea of what to
expect, as their TBX set had only been used on skywave
communications with the typical results on the Old Military
Radio Net being, "All stations 5/5 except K2WI who is
weak." NAVSHIPS 275 says of the TBX, "These
equipments are intended for ship and shore communication
purposes between similar equipments and other units of the
Navy Communication System at ranges of approximately 30 miles
for A1 transmission and 15 miles for A3
transmission." While our operation was within the
range indicated, I did not know how hard the operators were
expected to work at maximum range. We had in our favor
that most of the paths were 100 percent over
water.
With Glenn, N1SNG's help, the TBX-4 and EF-8
gasoline-powered generator (hand cranking is tough on the
tennis elbow) were hauled 150 yards to the beach and deployed
in less than an hour. One 30-foot and one 60-foot
counterpoise were deployed. Having loaded a wire model
at the K2WI home QTH, the approximate loading settings for the
7-section, 24-foot vertical had already been determined and
were found to agree. The TBX receiver was powered by an
inverter made out of a GE mobile rig by Ray
KA3EKH.
Upon deployment, 3885kc was monitored with
the usual crowd coming in. We were quite early so we had
a lot of time to anticipate the start of the net. Two
sets of headphones allowed Glenn and I to both listen in on
the action. After a long wait, we were blown away when
we heard "KW1I testing" at ear-splitting volume. The TBX
provides this kind of experience as it has no AVC. We
established contact with Dale and then tried to move off of
3885 to avoid QRM, at which point we lost him.
After re-establishing contact on 3885, we
successfully moved down to 3875, and W1NZR checked in from
Gooseberry Neck. Initial contacts with both KW1I and
W1NZR were made with each using GRC-19 sets, but both switched
to GRC-9s, which are quite similar to the TBX in
capability. Contacts were solid from the ends into the
middle of the Bay with those sets. W1NZR could hear KW1I
most of the time, but KW1I had trouble hearing W1NZR on the
lower-powered sets, so K2WI relayed. K2WI had to reduce
sensitivity to keep from being overloaded by W1NZR, especially
when Brown was running the GRC-19, when it was also found
necessary to detune the antenna trimmer on the TBX.
Operating with reduced sensitivity caused K2WI to miss KA1GON
calling from across the Bay. Charlie(KA1GON) ran a TCS
set on battery power with a dynamotor power supply. Once
Charlie got Dale's attention on another band, we turned up the
sensitivity and heard him well. Apparently he had some
difficulty loading into a dipole at 20 feet with a series
capacitor, but in the end he worked all stations.
Contact was established from K2WI to both
end stations when they were using BC-611 handhelds. In
both cases, the BC-611s were crystalled for 3885 and it was
found unnecessary for K2WI to tune the TBX from 3875 to be
heard, the handhelds were broad enough to hear us. W2ILA
was heard from Gooseberry Neck in between transmissions by
distant stations on 3885. When Dale transmitted on his
BC-611, 3885 was fairly quiet so copy was about 80
percent. These results were quite surprising.
The K2WI group was able to identify the
KA1GON location visually with radio towers and buildings as
landmarks. Charlie had the very good idea of deploying
smoke to mark his location, but unfortunately the stiff breeze
kept the smoke low to the ground so it was not visible from
West Island. Charlie was able to see the satellite dish
at Round Hill Point but had a hard time spotting the WWII fire
control tower on West Island. The tower is only about 40
feet tall and may not create a silhouette against the sky, but
may rather have land for a background.
Access to the tower at West Island was
unfeasible due to a 1/4-inch steel plate bolted over the
doorway. It would be an ideal place for visual
signalling. A possible challenge to signalling from West
Island to the LST as it goes though the Bay, is that the sun
may be behind West Island when the ship passes.
All stations except K2WI were equipped with
50Mc radios and contact was made with PRC-25 (KA1GON) and
PRC-77 (KW1I, W1NZR) sets. 30 miles is a good haul for a
low-powered backpack set!
The day after the exercise, I redeployed the
TBX on the beach at Sconticut Neck with help from my nephew,
who was celebrating his 4th birthday that day, and my
2-year-old son. My nephew screwed all the antenna
sections together and pounded in the guy stakes with a 1-pound
hammer. My son pulled out the guy cords and also took a
go with the hammer. These little guys are doing very
well as Radioman Strikers and will make RM3 in no
time.
Once I set up the rest of the set, I
experimented with counterpoises. With a single 30-foot
counterpoise, antenna current was hard to read. Adding a
60-foot one brought the maximum antenna current up to .2A.
Using that 60-foot wire as two 30-foot radials, for a total of
3, brought maximum antenna current up to .4A. K2WI was
heard at check-in on the OMRN that night, missed on the first
round when another net was running nearby, and then heard by
at least some on the second and final round, with the usual,
"All stations 5/5 except K2WI" reports. I looked at the
Big Dipper through my antenna while I worked the net.
I look forward to trying a 15-mile path over
land some day, and to working the LST in June.
