ARRL June VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 730 192
2: 108 41
222: 43 27
432: 76 28
903: 21 15
1.2: 25 17
2.3: 17 14
3.4: 15 13
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 1035 347 Total Score = 465,674
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
Got all the winter damage fixed a few weeks before the test this time since we
had an extended trip planned to NY for a wedding that wouldn’t get me back
until a few days before the test. The control cable for the 6M 8x7 array had
to be replaced, some antennas had to be fixed or realigned and the 902 cabling
need a lot of work. 902/3 still does not hear as well as it should. The rotor
motor on the main VHF tower had to be rebuilt because the gearbox shaft seals
started throwing oil into it again and I hoped it would hold up for the test.
It held up until the last few hours when I had to climb again to get it going
Sunday evening but then it quit for the last 45 minutes of the test. Need to
clean it out again and put up the other gearbox that has new seals in it before
the next test. Rotor on the 20’ 5EL also quit the day of the contest (it was
fine the day before) so I fixed the antenna on TX.
Saturday started out really slow and I concentrated on 2 at the start to get
some locals in the log but few seemed to listening on 2M except the rovers.
Bands seemed flat to minus. 6M kept teasing until about 2200Z when it finally
opened with average signals to the SW (TX, AZ, NM) and the SE (FL)
simultaneously making for a couple good hours before I worked it all out with
it still open. Made sure I called on 2M too but it was mostly a wasteland so I
tracked the rovers to keep things going. After a two hour lull it opened to W1
and W2 really strong for about an hour and a half (with still some EM and DM
thrown in) and I put about 200 in the log, but had to frequently abandon my CQ
freq to track a rover or three or do a band run. Things quieted down around
0300Z so went and did some Ms off the Ping Jockey page and lined up a few
longer distance QSOs on ON4KST. My numbers were OK on 6M but awful on 2M and
above so I stayed up way too late to finally push my score above 100K with new
mults on WSJT Ms just in case Sunday was as slow as it often has been of late.
Sunday dawned too soon after less than 3 hours sleep, and was pouring down rain
and thunder with precip QRN so loud there was no way to hear anything on my
morning 4 band sked with K0AWU in EN37. There was no way to do Ms on WSJT with
those noise levels either. It rained steadily from 6AM to almost 8AM killing
any morning tropo lift and the local activity on 2M. Luckily 6M opened early
and I was able to use the lower antennas to put Qs in the log. It stayed open
all morning and into the early afternoon killing any chance of getting a lot of
2M and above action except for the occasional band run from my 6M CQ frequency
or rover run. Luckily there was a lot of action to the SW EM and DM grids, a
decent opening to the SE EM grids and a smattering of DN grids with the
occasional double hop link to CA. Even worked W3FF in CN80 while he was QRP
tricycle mobile! Good thing I can quickly switch a lot of 6M antennas aimed in
different directions! There was even a short window to the PNW and I worked
VE7DAY in CO70.
The band was going crazy in the evening from the east coast to Eu and to JA
from the Midwest and South. In a lull I tuned up JA7QVI who was the strongest
and worked him CW with low power! I even saw some action to the Caribbean when
ZF1EJ and several CO and KP4s called me in my pileup. I also made a QSO with
EA8DBM on SSB when he was a true S9. Wish I could have taken more advantage of
that great opening but chasing weak CW DX with the band open domestically just
slows things way down. In reality during this contest they are just one more Q
and Mult; not worth waiting in line for!
The action died off as I saturated TX and the DM grids so I went back on 2M and
luckily a lot more stations were around to work in the evening but conditions
were flat at best. Just when things were going good the main tower rotor quit
and I had to climb up to kick start it again wasting about 40 minutes. That
quick fix lasted until about 15 minutes into the final hour, but that turned
out OK since 6M had ripped open to W1/W2 again and there was a lot of new
stations to work hoping to boost their scores too, so I had plenty to do
without going to 2M and above.
Thanks to AC0RA/R fielding 8 bands up to 3456 this contest my microwave totals
are about the best they have been in a very long time. Most of them were from
at least 100-200 miles away except for the few that I worked in my own and
adjacent grids. All in all it was a lot of fun and the best June contest I have
seen from this QTH since 2006!
73 de Bob2 K2DRH
Now for a bit of a rant … tune it out if you don’t want to read it.
Because of all the aluminum gain I’m really loud during strong Es even with
low power on 6M. And I’m getting sick of guys telling me I’m splattering or
10KC wide when I know I’m not. Before every ARRL test I reset the levels down
so I’m putting out the right power for SOLP and everything is totally padded
down so nothing is over driven. I keep my mic setting the same as when I
operate with a KW for DX and the CQWW VHF. The day before this test several
guys with top quality SDRs checked me out when they had me 20 over or better
and all gave me a clean bill of health. I’d even purposely pushed the mic
gain way up and they still could not see me wide or splattering.
So I really don’t much appreciate the one or two that inevitably find it
necessary to break my pile up rhythm with angry hoots or “helpful advice”
to turn down my mic gain insisting that my signal is all over the band. Some of
the locals have also commented that wherever I run I always seem to attract
other loud stations slammed up tight on either side of me. My 20 over neighbors
seem to have no problems with me, nor I with them thanks to the crunch proof
front end on my DEMI transverter; so I know for sure it isn’t me that’s
wide or splattering! Sometimes I really want to ask them “How good is YOUR
radio?” but I don’t really have the inclination or the time during a
contest to fight about it so I just thank them, say I’ll look into it and
move on.
I often get 30, 40 and even 50 over reports. Hey when I’m that loud your 20
year old or new jack-of-all-trades HF radio with 6M thrown in as an
afterthought probably can’t handle it! Not many can. Sometimes I get a little
testy when they come back 2 or three times or tell me I should QRT and fix “my
problem” but generally I just let it go. I know it’s just ignorance of how
radio works in the real world, however it still really bugs me!
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