North American QSO Party, SSB - January
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 25 16
80: 105 35
40: 44 15
20: 51 21
15: 4 3
10:
-------------------
Total: 229 90 Total Score = 20,610
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Team:
Comments:
This was the strangest January WX ever. It iced up the week before with freezing
rain then thawed and did it again earlier in the week and was barely thawed out
by Friday. Great, good to go for the Jan VHF Test (but wait this is NAQP SSB
– more on that later)! Friday night saw temps in the 20s and 3” of snow but
around 3AM it warmed up suddenly to just below freezing and a “wintery mix”.
That stuff really likes to stick to trees and especially cold metal towers,
antennas and guys.
By 9AM it warmed to just above freezing, but the rain had stopped so the ice did
not wash off. It never got above 33 degrees and by 10AM I could shake enough ice
off the guys and booms to hopefully save the towers and antennas when the
inevitable high winds came and the temps dropped again before I was finished.
Temps dropped so fast I barely made it in time to shake the last set of guys on
the two towers before it refroze again. By 11AM it was 20 deg again well on its
way to -3 at night. I took advantage of parking the yagi antennas into the wind
before the towers froze up again. Good thing since the winds peaked at an ice
loaded antenna killing 45MPH. Sundays high was 12 degrees so there they stay
for the duration, next thaw unknown.
So since the January VHF Test was a blowout, might as well rock out on NAQP,
much as I detest that NAQP SSB is the same weekend. However every yagi antenna
is encased in at least a 1/4 inch of radial ice and approximately 5:1 SWR, even
if could turn the tower. I was able to get the ant tuner to work on the HF
wires despite the drop in resonance due to the thick ice and give my Club SMC
some points in the Club Cup Challenge with PVRC, but even that was a struggle
since the SWR kept varying as the winds blew and the TX kept cutting back.
With working antennas I can do MUCH better.
73 de Bob
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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