Dave Clingerman W6OAL
Starting off with a big Happy New Year to all of you net members and would-be net members. Remember you are a net member by virtue of the fact that you live in the Rocky Mountain Region and have checked into the Monday night 2M net at least once (144.220 USB, 8 PM local, 52 weeks a year), not to exclude our five surrounding states that have checked in. We certainly appreciate and welcome the DX check-ins as propagation allows. Our roster now indicates a compliment of greater than 350 members. Please be advised we are horizontally polarized and changing from your quarter wavelength FM stinger to, at least, a 3 element yagi in the horizontal plane is equitable to the difference between night and day (not to mention that you will drop about 10 dB of noise). The net is a great place to meet, converse and exchange ideas with like-minded VHF operators.
There have been some changes in our services over the past year, namely our beacon(s) location. The Beacon Consortium of the RMVHF+ Group supports 6 VHF/UHF radio beacons. Five of these are in DM79bh in Como, CO. These are in the guest house of Russ, WØTTT’s, on his 225 acre ranch at 10,000 feet AMSL. Since the move from DM79ch, we have only had time prior to snow flying to get a single run of transmission line and have the 2M, 70cm & 23cm beacons operating via a tri-plexer, thanks to Terry – KCØVFO who donated it, to a 2M Big Wheel antenna. These beacons all ID as WØTTT/B. The WØTTT/B beacons are operating today thanks to the efforts of Fred, WAØSIK who lives within five miles of the beacon site in Jefferson, CO. The beacon frequencies are available in our Nearby Beacon List. The 6M beacon operating on 50.065 MHz is located where it has always been at DM79os, just east of the Denver Metro Area, and is now using Karen Schultz’s call sign of KAØCDN/B full time. This beacon has been completely rebuilt from the ground up and now has a 50 watt output to a horizontal omni antenna. A 33cm beacon on DN70km is in operation at the QTH of Jim – KBØRBT in Fort Collins under the ID of WØBA/B. This beacon better serves the Front Range than the 33 cm beacon at Como, 60 miles to our west.
The RMVHF+ Group is represented at every hamfest from Fort Collins to Monument and is manned by one of our net control operators Dave, WØEDW. Flyers advertising the net are available at the table where many of the net members gather. Please stop by and make yourself known to us; look for the blue placard. Dave also keeps ‘rogues gallery’ of photos of all net members who stop by. So, to have your picture located other than the post office you can have it on file with the groups’ album.
Besides our Monday night net we have activity nights every night of the week at 8 PM from the 1.35 meter band up through the 3cm band. Look for the frequencies in our Front Range VHF+ Nets List All are welcome to join us in the rarefied ether. Line-of-sight, you say? You’d be surprised; no repeaters necessary to work 125 miles on 10 GHz.
The RMVHF+ Group offers an Award certificate program for those interested in collecting “wallpaper”. Check out the Worked Colorado Awards.
In closing I’d like to suggest that our Net/Group is alive and well as it has been for the past 25 years. CU, 73