Short version:
Band was down or flat to most areas from here in
EM78pp.
I'm almost embarrassed to post my measly numbers!
Maybe they'll help others appreciate the level of
activity in their areas, chuckle!
8 QSO's, 5 grids, for the barn burner score of 40.
Looking over past years, usually only have about 3-5
QSO's. Turned out to be my best 432 Sprint score yet
and that with only 45w to 18 elements.
Yeah you read that right, 8 Q's is an improvement! We
recently began resurrecting our little informal
VHF/UHF group (NKDXE) and mailing list from the late
1990's. This in an attempt to help promote/coordinate
more activity on VHF/UHF...seems to be helping some.
Best DX of the night? Probably a tie between K4QI
(about 346 miles) or K2DRH in EN41vr and was
surprisingly easy at 360 miles.
73
Jeff
WA4ZKO
LONGER VERSION:
Seemed to be some very light enhancement to the SW
around to just shy of WNW and I think K2DRH was on the
edge of that. Downside of that? I don't think there's
much activity out that way on 432.
W3SO in FN00 was heard weakly a couple times on
432.112, but never strong enough to work. They're
usually pretty easy to work once you get their
attention. Band to NE seemed to be WAY down.
Chicago area was surprisingly dead (or the band was
down that way). Did barely detect W9RM in EN52.
No sign of the usual EM85/EM86 mountain toppers or big
guns other than K4QI which is more around to the ESE
for me. South seemed completely dead/inactive.
Other than some locals, Ohio and Indiana seemed dead
or they were working other areas. As in the 2m sprint,
I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only one on the air
in KY? Really miss K4TO's big signals to help draw
attention down our way ;-)
None of the usual rovers heard either. N1LF came
through on I-71/I-75 for a business trip to Columbus
OH. He was very QRP into a 5/8 wave vertical, but gave
a few of us EM78/EM79 Q's. Hey it all helps and he
seems like a nice OM trying to stir up activity. I'm
guessing the $3.50/gal gas prices are keeping a lot of
them home this year.
For WZ1V... I hope I'm not the one misusing the prop
logger (dxworld.com)? I try to keep things to real
spots. Occasionally I might put stuff out there that
isn't a spot per se, but I'm just trying to help
promote/coordinate contacts.
WZ1V, I saw your posts for .120 and listened for you
several times, but considering how weak W3SO in FN00
was, not a chance! Since I've kind of adopted CT as my
2nd home, I always try to keep an ear out for you guys
(K1TEO, WZ1V, W1COT, W3EP). Always neat to work into
that area. May operate the Fall sprints from up there
if things work out schedule wise. Say Mowhawk Mtn or
West Rock??
I post spots into the internet/telnet DxClusters using
DX Monitor, but don't pay too much attention to them
anymore. Many of the wide open DxClusters are getting
too aggravating to use as they are often full of
rude/nasty behavior, fake spots, irrelevant spots, and
other silliness. W6RFU out in Santa Barbara seems
halfway tolerable. The dxworld.com webcluster gets
pretty silly at times too. Locally we're seriously
talking about our own heavily filtered private VHF/UHF
only DxCluster system.
I agree that on air manners/consideration seems to be
on the decline. But as one of my mentors (now SK) told
me, the hobby is just a reflection of our society. So
I guess it's not that surprising to see the same rude,
nasty, looking for a reason to be offended, and
generally inconsiderate behavior showing up on the
bands.
Even so, I typically find the VHF/UHF weak signal
bands to be very friendly, relaxed, and fun places to
operate, if not the best. The bug bit me in the 1990's
and never let go. Not that I'm any expert by any
means. Mentoring, or the lack thereof, seems be a
large part of the problems that do show up in my area.
I agree that the use of the calling freq for
contesting is a problem. I try to avoid it and often
will not work folks on, or just a kc or two, the 6m or
2m calling freq's during contests. IMHO, operating 1,
2, 3 KHz off the calling freq is pretty much the same
as operating on the calling freq ;-) Yeah such an
approach on my part costs me points, but hey I'm in it
for reasons other than solely winning an award.
Now on 432 it seems to be very tough to not use the
calling freq if you want to make any contacts around
here. I'd say 50-75% of my contacts last night were on
the calling freq. Before realizing W3SO was on .112 I
sat calling on .110 and .115 a lot keeping the rotor
very busy. Think I got one contact that way. Couple of
the locals were 5 up or down though and having a tough
time too. Yeah a loop stack might help a lot, grin.
I'd say the fact that most are using very sharp
patterned beams contributes to the perceived need to
camp out on 432.1 during a contest, especially during
flat band conditions. From there it sort of becomes a
self perpetuating snowball. Tough and hot topic for
sure. I remember chuckling at a spot for 432.101 (why
bother, you're as good as being the calling freq
anyways.
Personally, I think we should petition to have contest
contacts made on or +/- 5 KHz of the calling freq's as
not valid for contest contacts. Not everyone on the
bands are on them for the contest! Bad idea? Good
idea? Maybe I'm nuts?
Thanks to W4SHG and KJ9K for sponsoring the Sprints!
Kuddo's to all that took time to participate so that
we'd have the scores we did get.
73
Jeff
WA4ZKO
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