50 MHz Spring Sprint - 2020
Call: K1WHS
Operator(s): K1WHS
Station: K1WHS
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: fn43mj
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 108 Mults = 45 Total Score = 4,860
Club:
Comments:
I have not been operating in the VHF ham shack for about 3 or 4 years and it
looks it. The place was a mess with mice debris everywhere. None of the bands
seem to work very well anymore. I tried the 50 MHz Sprint to see how the six
meter antennas were working, and I came to the conclusion that they are most
likely full of water like all the other bands. My hearing on six was severely
compromised. Most answers to my CQs were very weak, and I know I missed many
callers. The good news was that there was some E skip to the SW and the West,
and those signals were a bit stronger. It was surprising to not work any Florida
stations though. Skip was a bit shorter to AL, GA, LA, and MS. Out west there
was some good prop to Illinois, Indiana, and many EN grids for awhile. I worked
a bunch of the midwest rovers: AC0RA/R, K0PG/R, K0JK/R,K9ILP/R, and K9PW/R.
With the poor receiving I really missed out on the mid Atlantic grids. It was
obvious that something is broken on receive anyway. Of course, I helped things
along at the end of the sprint with about 30 minutes remaining, I was switching
antennas trying to get a sense of which antennas were good and which were bad. I
switched them while transmitting and burned up my six position coax relay! That
was heart breaking. I instantly had infinite VSWR, and now my receiver really
was dead! I can hear nothing thru the switching! Still, I had fun, and maybe
this is a good chance to rebuild a new switching system. The old one was awfully
tired and probably was the source of my troubles. Most action was on SSB. I
tried a little FT-8 at the end of the sprint, (when I burned out my relays!) and
made a few contacts. The weather was quite windy. Saturday morning, we had 65
mph winds and about 3" of snow. It was awful for mid May! It felt like
winter!
Hopefully, I can get the six meter antenna working properly again, although
the activity levels on SSB and CW make me want to go fishing instead.
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