CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EN41vr
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 242 77
2: 180 48
-------------------
Total: 422 125 Total Score = 75,250
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
The first hour on 6M was terrific with a widespread opening to the northeast.
Then the band died and never really came back except in short spurts. Nothing
to do but pound out contacts as best as I could and keep moving everyone from 6
to 2 or two to six as much as I could. Basically your typical VHF contest when,
all too often, the band decides to be uncooperative. Nothing like the wonderful
prop we had last year. Spent all Saturday slugging it out until well into the
night.
I got lucky and made 2 WSJT skeds, on with K7BV on 6M before the contest and one
with K1TEO on 2M right over the air on 6M. Both went very fast since we were
all running high power. I?d made a plan that I would try calling CQ for random
WSJT QSO?s for a while in the morning. That was apparently a mistake. I called
first on 144.140 for a half hour to no avail. From what I was told later, I was
called out on Ping Jockey ? but still nobody replied, not even the spotter! I
had better luck on 50.260 with two QSO?s that also went very quickly, but
unfortunately one was a dupe! An hour later I had only one 6M QSO in the log to
show for my efforts. Not sure why my CQ?s went mostly unanswered, I know I?m
definitely easy to work on WSJT, especially on 6M.
I found out later there were plenty of people on the PJ Internet page making and
working contest skeds during the contest. I know that?s not allowed in the ARRL
contests for single ops and didn?t think that was allowed for this one either.
Is it?
What I should have done for that hour was concentrate on 2M SSB with occasional
forays to 6M to QSY stations and look for short Es bursts. The 2M band was up a
bit and there were lots of stations in quite a few grids distant on in the
morning. By 10AM both the enhancement and most of the stations were pretty much
gone and I settled back into my Saturday routine of seemingly endless unanswered
CQ?s. I?d like to say there was a flurry at the end but it was hardly that. 6M
opened to the extreme NE FN grids, and I soon worked all dozen or so stations
that were on from there. I did have a moment of pure joy that maybe we would
get an opening to the south when I heard Neal K4EA calling me off the side, but
it was just scatter and Neal?s skill as an operator that let us make the QSO.
The contest ended with a whimper and a much lower score than last year.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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