ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41 IL
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 675 190
2: 107 43
222: 38 24
432: 65 26
903: 8 7
1.2: 25 14
2.3: 2 2
3.4: 3 3
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 923 309 Total Score = 342,063
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
What a bumpy ride that was! Iâ??d finally got the 2M and the 3456 mast mount
preamps repaired and reinstalled the Sunday before the contest after FEDEX lost
the first 3456 preamp and DEMI had to make and ship me another overnight. Those
guys really come through when you really need them! It was so windy that the
10lb preamp relay box was blowing out about 45 degrees from the tower all the
way up the rope, but it was the only brief break in all the rain and high wind
weâ??d been having for weeks in Illinois. Of course the next day was calm and
sunny despite the forecast. It was pretty much the last we would see of the
sun until the following Monday after the contest. As you have heard on the
News the rivers are all flooded out here, and we live a mile from the
Mississippi. Luckily on a hill.
Everything checked out fine that week and we had some really nice tropo prop
down to TX when I worked W5LUA at 700 miles all the way up to 3456. The rain
was supposed to quit on Saturday and Sunday, just in time for the contest. On
Thursday night a rotating thunderstorm with a potential tornado passed right
over the house. A big lightning strike took out the power and my WSJT
computer. So Friday I reconfigured another computer. Saturday was nice but
very windy again. The insulators on the electric poles are glass ones from way
back, and they suffered greatly this past winter with three major ice storms.
Iâ??d tracked down the noise sources in March, and the Power Co was supposed to
fix them all the week before the contest per the schedule theyâ??d told me.
They lied. Of course it could have had something to do with the thousands who
lost power that week due to the thunderstorms that have hammered us over and
over again this spring. Obviously the Power Co has skewed priorities!
So my noise level was S9 plus in the wind and I could barely hear on 6M or 2M
to the east, my most populous direction. The first two hours of the contest
were painful. Iâ??d gotten up to get a bite to eat because I couldnâ??t hear
much anyway when the rain came again. When I got back to rig I was relied at
first that it wasnâ??t the usual 20 over static rain we get here all the time,
but to my horror realized that that wasnâ??t it. The rain static had blown my
2M preamp again! So I went to take the cavity bandpass filter out of the line
so I could hear better, but that somehow blew the 2M transverter too! I missed
the AU opening on 2M reconfiguring with a transverter that had no front end gain
since it was supposed to be an IF transverter for microwave transverters. I had
to use the less than optimum preamp in my brick. Not ideal, but serviceable.
As I finished 6 began to open to TX and stayed open for several hours. I was
really running way behind so I stayed on six and worked several great hours to
the southwest and west in between rain static and thunderstorms that had me
pull the coax for long periods several times, but got nothing to the east or FL
despite the insulators being quiet again. I had little 2M or above in the log
by the time I went to my WSJT skeds, but I couldnâ??t hear nearly as well on 2
as I normal do anyway.
WSJT was fine on 6M, but challenging on 2M. Skeds took longer than normal. I
totally missed the tropo opening down to TX and OK Sat night since I was tied
up on WSJT for longer than usual. Luckily the tropo was still there on Sunday
morning and I worked several stations down in AL and MS, some as high as 1296!
As it faded 6m came back up again, unfortunately to TX again that Iâ??d all but
saturated the night before, but also to FL and and the SE so I had some really
great 100 plus QSO hours. The band moved around to CO and out further west but
FL and TX stayed in until I saturated them. I kept praying for a solid NE
opening to really jack up the numbers but while it teased me several times in 5
and 10 minute bursts, nothing really came of it. Several times it opened long
to VE1/2 but there werenâ??t many to work there either. I did work Cuba and
Puerto Rico but no other DX, despite hearing someone say â??Iâ??m trying to get
North Americaâ??s attentionâ?? as two stations insisted on calling over and over
despite my asking them to please stand by for the DX. Oh and did I mention the
thunderstorms that had me off the air two more times again.
I went to 2M but hardly anyone was there. I did hear the Iowa stations out
about 200 miles west of me calling 7 stations on 2M Es that I couldnâ??t hear.
That really frustrated me! I started to get bad audio reports, but screaming
turn down your mic gain or some snotty 7 who claimed to have written the book
on compression 50 years ago werenâ??t at all helpful since I was running very
little of either. A local finally told me about the really bad hum and
feedback that had developed on 6M. I was able to fix it by swapping out 6M
transveters but wasted more precious time reconfiguring things yet again. The
noise to the east started up once more just in time for a good half hour
opening on 6M to the NE. I was barely able to hear anyone. But Qs were going
in the log despite the noise, the deaf 2M station and the highly stressed out
operator. 70 cm was quite excellent.
This contest ended with a whimper as 6 died completely for the last two hours,
but I did score some good mults on 2M and up. But I worked no rovers all
contest with 903 or anything above 1296, and darn few with that. It could
have been much better had several things been a little more cooperative but the
score wasnâ??t too bad, all things considered.
73 de Bob K2DRH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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