RBCC Team WX8S briefly participated in the ARRL 10 Meter contest as a group effort with a mix of SSB and CW. Operating time was limited due to other prior commitments by team operators but much fun was still had.
Since the ARRL rules specify that all equipment must be from one location, only Remote Base 1 from Location Alpha with the HexBeam was used. Without having in-band filters for mode isolation between SSB and CW, only one transmitter was active with operators switching out participating casually. We would have liked using SSB from Location Alpha and CW from Location Bravo simultaneously but rules are rules.
Operating Notes:
- We were surprised how 10m was working into Europe after dark.
- Asia was nearly unheard from our location
- What little was coming from Africa created pileup walls we did not have the patience to endure
In this contest, we did park and run for a bit vs. all hunt and pounce.
In the future we would like to integrate sharp in-band filters to allow simultaneous operation on SSB and CW but the low use and switching complexity of such would not be very conducive for remote base operations. It may not be worth the time/money/setup for the little it would be used, unless multiple bands were ever built for Field Day style operations.
Remote Base Contest Club 