ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 820 201
2: 167 50
222: 63 31
432: 94 33
903: 22 19
1.2: 42 23
2.3: 2 2
3.4: 2 2
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 1212 361 Total Score = 544,749
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
The pre-contest maintenance list seemed simple this time, everything had made it
through the winter intact. After blowing it the old one a couple times Iâ??d
finally upgraded the 2M preamp so I could run full power on 2M and play with 2M
WSJT EME. All I had on the agenda was to run a new shielded control line for
the 2M preamp, replace the arcing brushes on the rotor motor and a connector on
the 2304 coax that had gotten wet. Or so I thought. This lack of serious
problems was good thing because my work schedule prevented me from doing much
of anything serious with the station before Memorial Day weekend.
The top of the tower stopped rotating entirely mid-May and on inspection the
brushes were fine. Apparently a leaking seal in the gearbox had filled the
motor with oil and the whole thing had to be taken down and rebuilt. I brought
up a small power meter to assess the coax loss after the connector replacement
and it was still horrible. Taking Ohmmeter measurements between center and
shield then opening up all the connectors confirmed my worst fears; both the
half inch Superflex and the 1-5/8 hardline were full of water and the copper
was green with corrosion. Apparently the connector at the preamp JB had been
leaking for months all through the system right down to the ground. All the
connectors had to be reworked and I poured about a quart of water out of the
1-5/8. Iâ??d taken Memorial Day week off to work on stuff and luckily there
were several hot dry days in a row for it to bake out. When it went back
together it wasnâ??t perfect and all needs to be replaced before the UHF
contest, but at least now I was able to hear the preamp again and push 10W out
of the tower mounted junction box.
On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend N2KMA said she smelled something
burning from the air conditioning ducts. I asked her to look at the amps in
the basement and she confirmed the lights were out on the 2M amp and the smell
was actually coming from it. Turned out the 2M amp control transformer had
given up the ghost! A quick call to Henry and a new one was on the way. The
new preamp control line installation went well, but an awesome 6M opening to JA
using 1.5 KW on CW the Tuesday before the contest apparently blew up the new 2M
preamp on sheer RF overload! Thursday night I replaced it (again!) and
reconfigured the sequencer so it switched off 6M as well as 2M transmit. A
quick climb on Friday to make sure the 2304 connectors were still dry (one
wasnâ??t, it apparently takes a very long time for water to completely drain
out of Superflex) and the station was finally ready!
Saturday dawned rainy and cold, often with bouts of intense precipitation
static on the high 6M stack. I have two low 5El CC antennas at 20â??
specifically for such occasions, one fixed on FL and the other rotatable. The
low antennas keep you on the air when the rain comes through and are also useful
when the band is open in more than one direction. The contest started with a
bang! The band was open in three directions, NE, W and SE so I established a
run frequency and put all three antennas to work at once. The highest volume
of callers was to the NE but there was a fair amount of callers on the other
antennas that had to track the shifting openings from the West and SW and some
FM grids off the FL antenna too. It was difficult to leave 6M and run the
bands with closer in stations that wouldnâ??t or couldnâ??t be there later
knowing that Iâ??d likely not get my run frequency back, but it was necessary
to do it. I lost it several times and ran up the band searching and pouncing
until I found another clear spot, often well over 200. The band was so full I
worked stations over 300! Several times I checked 2M when 6M was short, but
never lucked into any 2M Es like some others did. 2M was a veritable ghost
land! After 7 hours and almost 700 Qs in the log I finally had to get out of
the chair since my eyeballs were floating! But what an amazing ride (Mommy can
I go again)! The 6M Es continued for another couple of hours but rates fell way
off and I started to comb 2M for more â??normalâ?? QSOs that were finally around
before everyone sane went to bed.
The WSJT skeds were cooperative too, but rocks seemed fewer and further between
on 2M than they usually are. I was amazed that here were practically NO randoms
being done on 6M but the skeds with stations I didnâ??t happen to work already
during the Es usually went quickly. I did catch K8GP in FM07 on 2M and he
QSYâ??d me to 6M. We then tried 222 but I never heard them. Iâ??d called him
earlier on 432 when he was fairly loud there, but they never heard me. Other
stations have told me they were up over S9 on 432 earlier but by the time I got
there they were just barely copiable. I finally crashed around 0800Z with well
over 250K points in the log only to start all over again at 1100Z.
The morning put a lot more 2M and above contacts into the log. The high bands
were good up to 1.2GHz where things fell off sharply. I caught W9SZ early on
432 after my morning 4 band sked with K0AWU in EN37 on JT65b and we worked the
only 8 band sweep I enjoyed during the contest. I was glad that all that work
on 2304 finally paid off! Ron W9ZIH gave me my only other 3456 contact, but
does not have 2304. The morning went slow but steady with occasional
excursions to call CQ or sweep the band on 6M and pick up some new multipliers.
There were short but intense Es openings to various places to the west just
about all day with only a couple to the NE and FL that I mostly passed over in
favor of putting more grids in the log on the other bands. The afternoon wore
on more like a â??normalâ?? contest with similar rates going into the log.
K9ILT/R backed up their trek 10 miles to give me EN64 on 6 bands and Fran N2KMA
helped me reward their efforts by working them family station style in that and
the next two grids they hit. Last I read the rules itâ??s still legal for a
home station husband and wife to work the same transmitters family style even
though family rovers have now been ruled illegal in the mania to punish rovers
for all manner of sins. WB8BZK/R and K9JK/R also helped put several new mults
in the log. I finally ran into KF0Q/R in EN44 who then filled out 7 bands of
new mults in EN43 and gave me my only other 2304 contact. Out here the rovers
work hard for their contacts! After a brief flurry of new multipliers on 6
from CA, AZ and NM, and couple of multiband stations for new multiplers, I ran
into KB8U right at the end again and we managed to get 6 bands worked before the
final bell. As he said, we really have to stop meeting like this!
Justin K9MU called me right after the end to compare notes. He has an amazing
score and really kicked butt on 6M, but in the end it was the Qâ??s and mults
on the other bands that edged me over a half million points. After the contest
I combed my log to be sure all my 903 and 1296 QSOs were properly logged by call
and grid. The last several contests I have been loosing 903 and 1296 Qâ??s in
the final tally and really have no idea why. Iâ??m sure that I work each and
every one of them that I log since they are so precious and difficult to do
with low power and would really like to know why this has been occurring. I
can understand loosing some Qâ??s on 6 and 2 to busted calls or grids in the
heat of the battle and even a couple on 222 or 432 that the other station may
have accidentally neglected to log, but itâ??s lot more difficult to comprehend
how 903 and 1296 contacts get deleted by the judges when you run the bands with
the same station and are absolutely sure you have the right call and grid in
your log! If we are doing something wrong or making some other unknown
mistakes in our logs like not nailing down the EXACT log minute simultaneously
here because the QSOs take a longer time to accomplish and often require
repeats of some missed info, then we all need to know this. It would be nice
to get some feedback or a report out like they do on HF to let us know what the
story is. We spend a lot of time coordinating and working these QSOs and can
also take the extra time to synchronize our log times if thatâ??s whatâ??s
being required!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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