Dave's Excellent Adventure
I have been dragging gear up to my remote hamshack and use the Sprints as a
goal to get things hooked up. I managed to get the 144 station connected on
Sunday afternoon, but needed a few missing cables. I finished on Monday at 5 PM
and noted that the band was in good shape with the WA1ZMS beacon rolling in at
about S5, (Normally it is in and out of the noise) I figured things might be
interesting, but by 7 PM the enhancement had faded and things seemed normal for
the most part. I had my Elecraft K3 and home brew KW amplifier running off the
big diesel genset.
Activity seemed good, and I was very happy to work FN44 and FN54 nearby.
Usually those grids are not available. I was disappointed in the lack of
stations way out to the west. I heard no VE stations and I knew some were on. I
gues they never got their beams lined up with mine. I was having trouble
peaking up stations and after two hours discovered that my beam indicator had
jumped 17 degrees from the start of the contest. No wonder I was having
trouble!! I had nothing in the shack to fix it, so I just lived with it, but I
am sure I missed a lot due to misalignment. I never heard anyone out in the
FN02 row of grids, though I tried hard in that direction. I know VA3ST was on
as I heard K1RZ in FM19 working him. I called a few stations but could not
raise them. They must have had some severe QRM. At least I know my receiver was
working OK. I did not work any big DX. Nothing past FM18 and 19 to the south.
I ended up with 75 QSOs in 19 grids. Only three stations did not know their
six digit grid. For those, I copied down their town to check later! All in all
it was a fun evening, and it sure felt good to be back on VHF again. Thanks to
all who sponsor and massage the logs for the Sprints! Now to start hooking up
the 222 MHz stuff.
73
Dave K1WHS
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