ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: W9SZ
Operator(s): W9SZ
Station: W9SZ
Class: Single Op Port QRP
QTH: Illinois
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 75 47
2: 20 11
222: 8 7
432: 11 7
903: 3 3
1.2: 3 3
2.3: 1 1
3.4: 1 1
-------------------
Total: 122 80 Total Score = 12,720
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This was about half my 2006 June VHF score. Six meters was definitely the
high point of this contest for me, with the first DX I've worked outside
USA/Canada in a contest. I worked J39BS, P43A and XE2WWW. The latter was
pinning my s-meter for over an hour on Sunday afternoon on 50.120.
The contest had various good and bad points for me. I have a cold - I don't
know if there is a good time to have a cold but in the summer it's a pain. I
got a late start getting to the hilltop and it took me longer than usual to
get set up - 2 1/2 hours - because of the cold. I got started at about 1930Z
on Saturday.
I stayed on 6 meters most of the afternoon because of the opening to the
east, northeast and southeast. Heard several other Caribbean stations I
couldn't get through to. When the opening started to die in the evening, I
started working people on 144 MHz and trying to go up the bands. My only two
microwave QSO's were with K2DRH on 2304 and 3456. I tried to get the
attention of several other stations who had microwave capability but was
unable to (one of the drawbacks of running QRP). The higher bands seemed
more difficult to work in this contest than in past years. 903 and 1296 were
particularly tough for me.
My 432 antenna developed a broken feed wire which I was able to haywire into
working for the duration of the contest. Also, the T-R relay for that band
became intermittent and sometimes wouldn't switch on transmit. I had to keep
an eye on it and hold it shut by hand if it didn't close.
At about 10:30 pm local time on Saturday I decided I'd drive 10 miles into
Gibson City to get some water and ice. I'd brought a half gallon of ice
water but it was gone by that time and I knew I was going to need more. When
I got to the store, I found out I'd left my wallet back at the station! So I
drove back to get it and then back to Gibson City. Lost 45 minutes or so
doing that, and when I got back to the station I decided to get a few hours
of sleep in my car.
I had a sked with K8GP at 6 am on Sunday. Didn't hear a peep out of them. I
listened around on 6m and it was fairly dead. So I started working a few
people on 144 MHz. Worked a few on other bands. I had a sked with W9GKA to
attempt a 10 GHz QSO at 10:30 am. We tried unsuccessfully. A couple other
Rovers down in his direction were attempting 10 GHz QSO's. I couldn't work
any of them on 10 GHz. We tried for a couple hours.
Back to 6m, it was open to the west. Worked quite a few western and
southwestern grids. I kept bouncing back and forth between 6m and 2m, hoping
to cross paths with a station who had 2304 or above. I never did. K9CT
and WB9Z gave me a couple more QSO's on 903 and 1296. A few other attempts
on those bands failed. I think I blew the new preamp I built for 903. I
haven't checked it out yet.
I was severely sunburned (forgot the sunscreen) and starting to feel heat
exhaustion by 3:30 pm on Sunday and my battery was running down so I wrapped
it up. It only took me 1 1/2 hours to tear everything down and pack it in
the car. At least there was no rain this weekend except for a few little
raindrops as I was tearing down. Mostly the weather was great.
Looking back at my 2006 June VHF contest log, 2 meters was far better in
that contest and I made many more microwave QSO's, on all bands including
5760 and 10368 that I didn't get this time.
Now I have to do some equipment and antenna repairs for the next one.
73, Zack W9SZ
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