[W9RCA-News] Aeronautical Mobile Test

Mon Sep 17 14:54:50 EDT 2012

UPDATE:

I had a really great day, no I had a blast with the whole trip!   My friend has a beautiful 1946 Ercoupe that is polished aluminum. Really a nice plane and Mark is a great pilot, I'm normally a little scared in private planes but not this time. We planned a flight from Westfield IN to Grissom AFB. During this flight I would operate my ham radio on 2M as the distance I could talk at 2000 feet to 4000 feet is much further than I could do on the ground. The flight time from Westfield IN airport to Grissom AFB is about 30 minutes and radio time about 20 minutes so goes by pretty quick. Westfield was a small grass field and of course Grissom had runway that was like 1 mile long. We started on time, connecting everything up and it was working great, had audio coming in the noise cancelling headphones for about 1 minute and then everything quit. I blew a fuse so we had to trouble shoot that, find another fuse, change it, and then lower the power on my rig from 25 watts to 5 watts.

Equipment was Yaesu FT2900M running to mag mount antenna laying on the shelf behind where we were sitting.  I did not make the range I expected in all directions but did get Franklin, IN for around 60-65 miles.

Going up made about 16 QSO's going up and we stayed around 2000 feet above ground and returning about 12 QSO's and peaked at around 4000 feet above ground. Returning I had problems with batteries running out on the noise cancelling headphones and having to reset about every 5 seconds. Getting into Grissom airspace and leaving Grissom took a lot of communication from my friend. While at Grissom we took a shuttle to the Dutch Cafe for lunch and then toured the Grissom AFB museum.  There were times I had 3 or 4 people calling or more.  Was just a bunch of noise.

I hope to try this again, there is actually a hole in the back of my friends plane where an outside antenna could be mounted and he is going to see if he can get an antenna that would work for 2M for that hole. I think an outside the plane antenna would work much better.

Thanks to everyone that listened and to everyone that called. There were several times where I could hear 3 or 4 people calling and had to pick the clearest.  Even when I could hear people it is still hard for me to copy down a call correctly!

Attached are pictures of the plane, Mark (owner and pilot) and myself. Approaching Grissom. Inside the cockpit.

73  WA4OTD

Leroy

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From: Leroy Wignot
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 12:03 PM
To: 'Jim Keeth'; 'W9RCA Newsletter'
Subject: RE: Aeronautical Mobile Test

Here is the information about the test.

Frequency 146.52MHz
Date:  September 15th, 2012
Take off ~11:00 AM from Westfield, IN                               Arrive Grissom AFB ~11:25AM.
Take off from Grissom ~3:00PM                                           Arrive Westfield ~3:25PM
Questions:  wignot at yahoo.com<mailto:wignot at yahoo.com>

Thanks

Leroy

-----Legal Disclaimer-----
The information contained in this message is privileged and confidential, and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee.  No other person is authorized to access, copy or re-use this message (or any other information contained herein).  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me immediately by replying to this message and delete it from your computer.

From: Leroy Wignot
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 10:13 AM
To: 'Jim Keeth'; W9RCA Newsletter
Subject: Aeronautical Mobile Test

Hello Club Members;

This is a notice about an experiment I am doing with 2M, 146.52Mhz.  Tomorrow I will fly from the north side of Indianapolis to Grissom AFB at altitude of 2000 feet.  That gives a line of sight of around 65 miles.  I think Indy area hams should be able to talk with me the entire path.  IF you are able to get on listen or give me a call.

If you could be so kind as to forward this to any hams you know that operate 2M and might appreciate this test I would greatly appreciate that.

Thanks,

73, WA4OTD

Leroy Wignot
Research & Development Director
MS SEDCO
8701 Castle Park Dr.
Indianapolis, IN 46256
lwignot at mssedco.com<mailto:lwignot at mssedco.com>
1-317-842-2545 ext 31
1-317-503-9133 Cell
1-317-849-3387 (fax)

-----Legal Disclaimer-----
The information contained in this message is privileged and confidential, and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee.  No other person is authorized to access, copy or re-use this message (or any other information contained herein).  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me immediately by replying to this message and delete it from your computer.

From: w9rca-news-bounces at lists.w9rca.org<mailto:w9rca-news-bounces at lists.w9rca.org> [mailto:w9rca-news-bounces at lists.w9rca.org]<mailto:[mailto:w9rca-news-bounces at lists.w9rca.org]> On Behalf Of Jim Keeth
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 5:48 PM
To: W9RCA Newsletter
Subject: [W9RCA-News] RCA ARC meeting Tuesday

THE SEPTEMBER MEETING OF THE RCA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB WILL BE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11th, 6:30 PM AT G.T. SOUTH'S,

5711 E. 71st STREET, INDIANAPOLIS, IN
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