N9RLA After Action Report
The 2003 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
This contest has been a bit slow. So slow in fact, I'm writing this at
3:30pm Sunday afternoon. The rig is still on, but contacts have been few
and far between. I was expecting this contest to be a bit slow since my
Rover vehicle is still getting the transmission rebuilt, leaving me to work
this one from home. My home station is pretty small. On 6 meters I have
100watts and 2 elements at 25', and on 2 I have 100 watts and 10 elements at
35'. I don't have any antennas up for 432, so I left the transverter in the
box for this contest.
Even after most of the contest is over, and calling cq until my voice keyer
is horse, I've only managed a couple of dozen QSO's. Activity seems low,
and the bands just won't cooperate. Best DX so far is from my home in EM78
to EM64 on 2 meters. Honorable mention is EM57, and EN80 on both bands. 6
meters did show some signs of life early Sunday morning. I heard several
long "pings". I copied K1TEO for a couple of seconds, and another station
in FN31, but never enough to make a contact. I also battled some nasty line
noise all weekend.
I didn't expect much with my small station, but I had hoped to do better.
Particularly since, after 10 years and thousands of QSO's, this is the last
contest for N9RLA. Yep, I finally talked myself into applying for a vanity
call sign:-) It should come through any day now. The lure of a shorter
call with easier phonetics finally overcame my attachment to my original
call.
Here's hoping that we all do better in June!
73
Dan
N9RLA for now.
Dan Evans N9RLA
Scottsburg, IN 47170
{EM78}
N9RLA /R no budget Rover
Check out the Rover Resource Page at:
http://www.qsl.net/n9rla
QRP-l #1269
IN-Ham list administrator
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