ARRL January VHF Contest
Call: N1RWY
Operator(s): N1RWY
Station: N1RWY
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: San Tan Valley
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 54 17
2: 89 38
222: 32 7
432: 52 12
903: 15 6
1.2: 20 7
2.3: 1 1
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 263 88 Total Score = 40,216
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
Soapbox.. where to start..
A lot of prep work, even more time spent with a soldering iron in hand - paid
off for this contest. I dare say I have put in hundreds of hours of station
improvements from last January.
On the bands I worked the full duration of contest only taking bathroom breaks
and refilling the coffee cup. Maybe a few sessions of jumping jacks to stay
awake as well, but I still had the headphones on, so.. technically I was still
operating. (That must have been a site to see). I added several new bands to
the mix over the past year and they paid off.
Chasing rovers helped a great deal with the QSO count, and I cannot discount the
influx of Q's from all the SOTA guys up on the surrounding peaks of the greater
Phoenix area. Most of them with only HTs were super excited to work me on 223
or 1296 with one watt on their end into a rubber duck. I on the other hand had
a wee bit more power and antenna aimed at them, so that helped. "Your super
loud dude" - made me laugh each time.
With the SOTA guys I found pileups on frequencies that I would not expect, such
as 223.5 FM. Call CQ expecting to work one, maybe two locals, and get hit with
a run of 10 stations. Same on 446.000 FM. THANKS guys for packing all that
gear up there and working us all!
I had the local rover schedules printed and time stamped so I had an idea of
where they were going and when. KK6MC/R, N7GP/R and AC7FF/R were great to hear
and work as they moved from grid to grid. It is amazing that a rover could just
be 10 miles north or south from their last grid position and signal could be 10-
30dB different. Simply amazing. Why I love the VHF bands. Thank you all for
the effort in hauling all that gear, logging and driving all those miles!
Propagation wasn't terrible on the bands above 2M, hearing W5UHF (DM75) in New
Mexico several times on voice on 2M as well as digital, even solid copy on them
every sequence on 222 MHz for our sked. The same with Las Vegs to the West,
there were several stations I worked on 432 MHz which I never heard in previous
contests. Not constant enhancement but in for 20 - 30 min, then gone until
several hours later. If you were there in the chair, you worked 'em. If not,
you lost out. Scatter contacts seemed poor this year, at least here in AZ. I
was told that I was generating all sorts of pings from my sked stations, but I
never saw any reflections here, a wee bit frustrating.
Some minor 6M E's to the North and South netted me a handful of grids, but
nothing of any duration. They were in for about 40 min, then gone. Which
forced me to work harder on the other bands.
EME on 2M was money for me. From rise until set I was on chasing multipliers
and watching the "K5QE beacon". I did get stuck on a VK for WAAAAAY
to long, I should have moved off and chased someone else, but my ego got in the
way as I really wanted him in the log.. which alas.. never happened. Working
EME on 2m and attempting scatter on 6m in the wee hours of the evening kept me
awake enough to keep pushing - aided by the support of the second pot of strong
coffee and several more rounds of jumping jacks.
Besides the SOTA crowd and rovers, the metro Phoenix crowd showed up for the
contest. I heard all of the usual suspects and even some of the prominent AOCC
HF contest members get on to work who they could on 6m and even some 2m FM.
Some had gear that "had not been used in years.." and pulled it out
late Sunday to give away more points on the bands. That was great to see. THANK
YOU!! There was even a pile of "new" stations that I had never seen
on the bands before playing FT8 for most of the contest. GREAT!! In my book,
any activity is good activity, so I was excited to see and work them. Several
members of the Tucson-south VHF+ contingent have been making station
improvements and it was evident. Nice to hear them and work them much easier.
I ended the contest with rapid fire attempts in the last 2 min of the contest to
work KK6MC/R up in DM45 on 1296, having working him on 432 easy. However, it
wasn't meant to be. after reading his report he might have been a bit distracted
with the eclipse party going on. Next year Duffy, for sure.
All in all, super excited with the participation level and results from this
Jan!
VHF+ in AZ is growing and I am excited about it!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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