VHF+ Programs at HamCon Colorado 2009

What did Hamcon 2009 have to offer to the VHF+ amateurs other than our meeting on Friday? In a word PLENTY. First as you arrived the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Communications trailer was in the parking lot right next to the front door. The trailer was set up to work VHF+ (i.e. USB on 50, 144 and 432 MHz bands) as W1AW/Ø from DN70. First contacts from W1AW/Ø were made by John NØWBW signing W1AW/Ø to Wayne NØPOH and Joan KBØYRX in DM79. If there was no activity on the VHF+ bands, operators were welcome to operate on one of the ICOM HF rigs set up in the hotel. Saturday morning Bill KØRZ gave an interesting presentation on Remote Control of your Amateur Radio Station via the Internet. This explained all the techniques and shed light on Bill’s check in during a recent RMVHF+ net from Oklahoma City! Bill has provided a pdf of the information from his presentation. It is large (4.44 mb), if you want see it Click Here. Another RMVHF+’er Mike Higgins K6AER gave two excellent presentations, one on Antenna Tower Safety and another on Lightning Safety. John Milligan N6NEU came in from his QTH in California and gave a very well attended session on Meteor Scatter which was not only a basic introduction to the operating mode, but an in depth look at the high speed digital software WSJT by Joe K1JT. How in depth? Wayne NØPOH attended and completed his first WSJT (FSK441) QSO that same week on 6 meters with Arliss W7XU in the very rare DN75 grid square. RMVHF+ Rover Jim Duffey KK6MC gave an interesting presentation on his VHF+ Rover. You can view Jim’s comprehensive presentation Here. ARRL’s Mike Gruber W1MG was a featured speaker “The Doctor Is In – Power Line Noise”, something that many of us have had the unfortunate experience of having and attempting to solve. Another RMVHF+ regular Bob Witte KØNR gave a talk on a subject that he knows intimately Mountain Topping and the Colorado 14er Event. All in all Paul WØPSS (another RMVHF+ net participant), who headed up the speakers and forums for HamCon2009, did an excellent job in finding plenty of speakers and presentations for RMVHF+’ers at HamCon 2009!