CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 500 140
2: 171 61
-------------------
Total: 671 201 Total Score = 169,242
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
The station was in good shape for this contest for a change with no major things
to work on beforehand and not a single trip up the tower necessary. After about
a half an hour the inline wattmeter on 6M smoked for no apparent reason (its
rated for 2KW), but after taking it out of line and rechecking with another one
everything was fine. Both bands were working well.
Saturday propagation was another matter and except for an all too brief Es
flurry from FL, 6M stayed tropo all day and night. Tropo conditions were fair
to good however and the Qs went slowly into the log much like a January
contest. Only the first hour saw an hourly rate above 50 with most hours only
half of that. By nightfall the score was looking pretty bleak, but the grid
count was decent. The band was up for a short while to the SE well over 400
miles into the EM grids, but that was never reflected on the APRS maps. A few
rovers like W9FZ/R kept up the interest. There was some good local activity
after dinner, but it soon fell off and by midnight it was past time to go to
WSJT.
It was really different to be able to look at the prop loggers as a single OP.
While I donâ??t think I really saw much that helped me with the conditions on
Saturday, WSJT at night was a different story. Instead of everyone piled up on
the call channels it was nice to see the CQ announcements and to be able to find
stations to work on quiet frequencies. At first I refrained from CQing myself
and â??hunted and pecked,â?? then QSYed stations from 6 to 2 using the final
WSJT message like we do with random QSOs. After there were no more CQers
posted that werenâ??t in the log, I posted a CQ to the logger myself, but got
no takers. So I went to bed for a few hours sleep.
In the morning the Ping Jockey WSJT logger was really busy with CQ announcement
and following up on them as well as posting a few of my own put several good
mults into the log. Folks kept asking for interactive on-line skeds since they
all didnâ??t know about the new rules yet. I ignored them to be safe, but
luckily some other folks told them what was up. But it really made contest
meteor scatter more fun to do it this way and I probably spent more time
chasing CQers than I should have
The APRS maps indicated that the Sunday morning tropo was good to the northwest
(something you notice anyway from just listening). But it did not seem like
making the information available brought out more stations to work than usual.
The enhancement resulted in several QSOs on both bands well over 500 miles to
grids not normally heard. I was really pleased to work NT0V at 600 miles in
EN08 on both bands and VE4KQ/4 in EN09 at almost 700 miles on 2M.
By 1500Z the 6M Es finally started and pretty much turned 2M into a ghost town.
Es was in for the rest of the contest and rates were decent with 5 hours of 50
plus Qs, only one hour of which spiked up over 100 Qs when open solidly into
the NE for most of an hour. It moved up and down the coast and to the SE with
a handful of VE4, 5 and 6s off the back, but otherwise it never opened out west
at all.
Rates fell off during the last hour after a sustained FL opening, but there
were several Caribbean and a few SA stations in with new mults to work. Not
sure how much seeing the prop loggers influenced my operating since I found the
Es opening well before the prop loggers showed it, and I was working it into
areas that never showed up on the screen. Some TI stations came up on my run
frequency and alerted me to the Caribbean opening, much like what usually
happens, so it really didnâ??t make much difference there. While Saturday was
somewhat dull, it was all in all a solid contest with some really good moments.
While I doubt any high score records were challenged, it was still fun.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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