ARRL September VHF QSO Party
Call: N6NB
Operator(s): N6NB
Station: N6NB
Class: Single Op Port QRP
QTH: Near Tehachapi, CA
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6:
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 809 127 Total Score = 264,922
Club:
Comments:
The September VHF contest was about as good as it
gets. The Southern California Contest Club rovers
had a very successful weekend. The club itself has
enough points to contend once again for the top club
aggregate score in the country, something that was
unheard of for a west coast club until recently.
For me personally, this was my best contest as a single
operator in 31 years. Instead of operating with the
rover group, I operated in the single operator portable
category on an access road near my Tehachapi beacon site
in DM05. I was able to work the rovers everywhere they
went on all bands, even with only 10 watts, as required
in this category. That part was no surprise because we
have had rovers go on DXpeditions to rare grid squares
100-150 miles from the main rover group. Those
DXpedition stations often use 10-band toolbox stations,
which run 10 watts or less on all microwave bands. They
often also run under 10 watts on two meters even though
their rigs are capable of more because the same rig serves
as a microwave i.f. If an operator ran full power to
to work straight through on two and then quickly went to
the higher bands without remembering to turn the power
back down, the result would be disastrous. Most trans-
verters can handle no more than 5 or 10 watts of input
power.
Nevertheless, I found that running 10 watts was frustrating
at times, even at a 6,800-foot elevation. Many Northern
California stations that are ordinarily easy to work just
couldn't hear me. But about sunset Sunday evening we
got some tropo up the San Joaquin Valley and stations
beyond Sacramento finally started answering my calls
at long last.
In the end, I had a claimed score of about 265K. The
current record in the single operator portable category
is 171K, set 13 years ago by K9PW in Illinois. I really
want to thank the SCCC rovers for being the wind beneath
my wings. I especially want to thank Carrie Tai, W6TAI,
for going to several remote grid squares alone, including
one late at night. Her solo run (on a completely different
route than the one followed by the rover group) gave me
an extra 50,000 points--with 122 extra QSO points and
18 multipliers that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten.
She was the #1 classic rover nationally in June (based
on the claimed scores on the ARRL website), but this time
she sacrificed a chance to do that again to go to
places so isolated that rovers often skip them.
Not since the September, 1979 VHF contest have things
gone this well for me. In that one, I operated atop
Mt. Equinox, Vermont and had the highest single operator
score ever recorded under the old scoring system. (ARRL
sections were the multipliers then.) That 1979 contest
also ended with a good tropo opening: my high score
was made possible by tropo that extended from Vermont
to Texas.
We're not likely to see that kind of tropo in California,
but this contest was almost as memorable.
73,
Wayne
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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