ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
Station: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31 CT
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 231 38
2: 100 23
222:
432: 20 8
-------------------
Total: 351 69 Total Score = 25,599
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
My terrain slopes uphill to the northeast which makes it difficult to get a
good signal in that direction on VHF and UHF. I already had 2M and 432
antennas on the highest tower because of that, but the 6M antenna was much
lower. One change this summer was to reposition a 6M antenna as the highest
antenna here. But that change put that antenna only a few feet away from the
2M and 432 ones, and I was concerned that coupled RF from one band could
damage the front end of another radio. I chose to solve that issue with a
pair of Comet CF-350 "duplexers" used as band separation filters with a
small dummy load on the unused ports. The one in the 6M feedline kept 2M and
432 out of the 6M radio, and the other in the shared 2M/432 feedline kept 6M
out of that setup. Their passband loss seemed negligible by my tests. Unable
to operate in the Sept VHF contest or the 6M Sprint, I was anxious to try
this all out. My qualitative impression is that it was a worthwhile change.
The contest got off to a slow start; propagation seemed to be poor and
activity seemed to be down,
When I quit for the night Saturday, the 6M totals seemed good but the 2M Q
and mult numbers were down and they never did catch up to previous year's
totals.
Saturday had two brief blips of E's netting 2 contacts out to the SW and 3
to VO1. Sunday had a better showing of E's however even then they seemed
very focused and faded in and out rapidly. But their contribution to the
multiplier total produced a bottom line score higher than the previous two
years. Activity really slowed down Sunday evening and I was quite tired, so
I quit early, hope the bands did not explode into action after I quit.
73
Chet, N8RA
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