CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EN41 IL
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 570 155
2: 207 68
-------------------
Total: 777 223 Total Score = 219,432
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
While I knew that a repeat of last yearâ??s phenomenal conditions was not very
likely, I was hopeful that the 2007 VHF contest conditions would at least be
good. They werenâ??t just good, they were actually quite excellent. While the
2M tropo conditions still didnâ??t quite measure up to 2003, it more than made
up for it with several hours of excellent 6M Es on Saturday and more stations
on both bands to work. The contest started with a 6M opening to the Caribbean
and Florida that didnâ??t seem really strong, but was fairly steady. Over the
next few hours the band shifted to other areas and eventually to the NE as QSOs
went into the log easily. One hour saw over 160 QSOs with FN, EM, EL and DM/DN
grids all interlaced and the three 6M antennas pointed in different directions
sure came in handy again. I had a lot of line noise to the NE and was having
trouble with the weak ones there but still managed to keep up decent rates.
But unlike last year the Es quit long before sunset.
Two meter was definitely up to the north and south, but I didnâ??t hear a lot
of stations to the east like I usually do. K8GP came in on Es from FM07 on 6M
and the tropo was good enough to work them again on CW on 2M. There were a lot
of stations out 500-600 miles that had quite excellent signals on 2M. The
contest seemed to wind down fairly early despite the good conditions, and after
0500Z there were not a lot of stations left to work. I listened on 50260 for
random WSJT CQs and heard none. After my 6M and 2M WSJT sked with K3EAR at
0530 (the ONLY one I made) I listened again and called CQ for about a half hour
to no avail. Too bad, K3EAR was in SOLID every sequence on 6M and I had several
decodable pings every sequence on 2M. I pulled the plug at 1AM and went to bed,
but left the WSJT on 50260 to monitor. When I got up gain around 6M, the only
print I saw was from K3EAR, mostly calling CQ with only a couple of takers!
This was very disappointing!
Sunday was slow all day, and Iâ??m not sure why. Tropo to the south was so
good that I compared notes with K5QE in EM31 over 750 miles away several times
throughout the day. I worked WD0T in DN94 and VE3AX in FN02 on 2M. 6M
wasnâ??t going crazy, but there were enough short openings in all different
directions to make things interesting. It opened double hop out to CN87 and I
worked a half dozen stations in a row in that gird before I got CN97 and then it
quit again. During one of the openings out to the west I got a complaint about
my signal being wide. I dismissed this at first, but got the chance to
apologize to the same station later when he called again to say I sounded
better now. It was true. In the interim my TS-850S IF rig died and I had to
yank it out and put in another one. I hope it wasnâ??t being nasty for anyone
else! Lost about a half hour doing this but it definitely could have been
worse since things were pretty slow by then. Towards the end of the contest 6M
began to get squirrelly and I found I had intermittent high SWR to the antennas.
I later learned the rotor loop had kinked and was in self-destruct mode, along
with 2M and all the rest of the 8 band rotor loop coax bundle! Looks like I
have my work cut out for me if Iâ??m going to compete in the UHF contest!
73 de Bob
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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