K8CC Tour

On Saturday, January 15, 2005, our club had the great pleasure and privilege of touring Dave Pruett K8CC's super contest station.

Dave was an outstanding host, giving us a thorough tour of his antenna farm and contesting station, answering all of our questions, treating us like old friends, and even letting us operate the station for the North American QSO party.  We've never heard signals quite like that before (and wouldn't you know it, stations came back to our calls right away!)

THANK YOU, DAVE!


The first thing you see when arriving at Dave K8CC's QTH is the antenna farm.  And what a farm it is!  K8CC features full-size monoband Yagi-Udas on all bands from 40m to 10m, with 3 elements on 40m, 5 on 20m, and stacked arrays on 15m and 10m, atop towers as high as 140 feet (most of the Yagis are homemade).  The 140 foot tower is shunt-fed on 160m with a ground radial system.  Phased verticals work DX on 75/80m and dipoles for 80m and 40m do stateside duty.  VHF and higher antennas sit atop the HF arrays.  Simply amazing...what all radio amateurs dream of!

             

               


Here is a group shot in front of the K8CC antenna range.  From left to right:  Amy, Zach KD8AAG, Dave K8CC, Bruce KD8APB, Richard KD8APA, Chris KA8WFC, Bill AA8RW, Jon KG6URI, and Paul (Dennis KT8X is behind the lens)


The K8CC station consists of two FT-1000D stations on each band for multi-operator contest operation.  Each station has a dedicated PC running NA, and the entire station is engineered for instant band-switching of antennas and amplifiers.  One wall is dedicated to HF linear amplifiers, with several commercial and homebrew amps working from 160m to 10m.  Behind the amplifier wall, antenna feedlines enter the building amid an array of switching and grounding equipment.  The station is also geared up for VHF/UHF contesting with several rigs and amplifiers covering 50 MHz through 440 MHz.  Absolutely top notch!

                          


Thanks to Bill AA8RW and Paul for the great photos!

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