ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
Call: KB1DFB
Operator(s): KB1DFB, N1GKI, W1MKM, KB1H
Station: KB1H
Class: Limited Multi-Op HP
QTH: FN41
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 259 24
2: 165 18
222: 25 10
432: 56 10
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 505 62 Total Score = 36,332
Club: Eastern Connecticut ARA
Comments:
Our story starts at the KW1AM Annual Meeting before Christmas. We
were challenged by them to compete on the lower four bands (6M - 432)
with a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey at stake. KW1AM operates
all the way up to th emocrowave bands but we stay in the Multi/Limited
class operating the bottom four.
For this contest we planned a little differently with a separate amplifier
on 2M. Usually we have one rack with four RF decks that must share the
power supply. This limits our power though we have capability to run a
KW on all four bands.With a stand alone 2M amp we could run a KW on 2M
and run almost a KW on the other bands. We planned on only a KW on 6M
as 220 and 432 need preamps. We could get out better than we could hear
if we ran a KW on those bands. One problem we had was number of operators
for the complete contest. As you can see, we only had four with W1MKM
here 3 hours on Sunday and N1GKI leaving at 5 AM on Sunday.
We started the contest going great! With three operators and three stations
we were passing contacts like the Waltons passing mashed potatoes and gravy
at a Thanksgiving Day dinner. 100 QSO the first hour and after three hours
200. 2 Meters was almost equal to 6 meters with all the passing going on.
This continued for almost 8 hours. The bands were not that great but we
were making contacts. At 10 PM local time Murphy made his stop! The
rotor for the 2M, 220, and 432 arrays stuck and finally ended up pointing
at about 210 degrees. From here that means we could work allot of
fishing boats!
For the next 22 hours (we gave up about 8 PM local time Sunday) it was
terrible. Our three upper bands could hear very little. Nothing up
north and even grids like FN20 or FN21 were almost impossible. We
apologize to all the stations that asked for a QSY but we couldn't hear
other than 6M.
Yes, we had fun but was disappointed in the final results. Yes, we owe
KW1AM that bottle of whiskey. If only the rotor had continued to turn....
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and looking forward to June and the
installation of mast mounted preamps.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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