[3830] ARRL Sep VHF K2DRH Single Op LP

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                    ARRL September VHF QSO Party

Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41 IL
Operating Time (hrs): 28
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  127    46
    2:  166    56
  222:   61    38
  432:   89    38
  903:   31    22
  1.2:   44    28
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  518   228  Total Score = 186,504

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

This was a typical September contest in the Midwest; mostly flat conditions,
rainy and chilly.  None of the great tropo openings to the east and the south
that we’d had the previous weeks!  2M was slightly enhanced to the SW at the
start of the contest, but the rain on the 345KV lines about a mile away in that
direction sounded like S5 frying bacon, making it difficult to hear any but the
strongest stations.  Otherwise it was a typical fall endurance exercise,
slugging it out in the chair at about 20 Q’s an hour.  The higher bands seemed
pretty good for the most part and my success rate on 902 and 1296 was
exceptionally good, even as far away as K8TQK in EM89.  I was amazed how fast
the late night and early morning WSJT skeds went.  I completed with K0AWU in
EN37 on jt44 on 3 bands in a half hour!  I even tried 222 with W2FU for a few
minutes when our 6 and 2M skeds finished up quickly.  My 6M sked with K1TEO the
old fashioned way (ms sequenced ssb) completed all in one long burn, less than 2
minutes after we started.  All that and got 4 hours sleep too, even with an 8
week old lab puppy who has his sleeping crate parked right in my hamshack! 

Sunday was more like your typical January Sunday, with lots of new stations to
work in the morning, but hardly anybody except the rovers and the multis in the
afternoon.  I hooked up with N0DQS/R, K0PG/R & K9ILT/R in several grids which
helped my score tremendously.  Thanks Gene for taking the extra time (that you
didn’t really have) to wait for conditions to build on 903 and 1296 from EN23. 
Sure glad you guys are out there.  If it wasn’t for the rovers I might not work
my own or several of the adjacent grids on 903 and 1296 in most contests,
despite the home stations that have those bands.  Sunday afternoon around 4PM
was so slow I left the chair and kicked back on the porch with a cigar for an
hour, just visiting with N2KMA and the dogs for a while.  The sun finally came
out and with it came a much higher noise level as the power line insulators
dried out sputtering and the local electric fences burned off the water on the
leaves.  The evening after the football games saw another spike in activity and
we drove on doggedly to the end of the contest at a slow but steady pace picking
up several new multipliers on the way.

I don’t know what it is, but I never usually make a lot of QSO’s in the last
half hour, probably because I’ve worked just about everyone who can hear me
already, but I always seem to luck into something really good right at the end. 
This year was no exception.  After calling him on SBB a couple of times off the
back I finally had to turn south and work K9AKS 30 miles away on CW.  Curt had
bemoaned the lack of good CW ops on 2M at our last meeting and how you never
heard anybody just calling CQ on .200 anymore.  So true to his word, there he
was on 144.200 calling and working only CW for the last half hour of the
contest, pinning the S meter and modulating my noise blanker for 30 KHz each
side!  But by turning my antennas towards him I’d pointed in exactly the right
place and caught KG5MD with a good signal in EM36 for 3 quick multipliers on 2,
6 and 222.  Thanks for the help Curt!    

There’ve been no changes to the setup here at K2DRH since the June contest and
everything was still working well here for September.  This is probably the
first contest in as long as I can remember that I didn’t climb the tower to fix
or install something during the days before it.  I got my SSB 903 preamp back
from Jerry with the gain reduced to 20db from 35 db in time, but it was windy
and rained after work Friday and again all day Saturday so there was no hope of
getting it installed in time.  I’d worn out the T/R relay in my DEMI 6M
transverter in the CQ VHF in July (the aux contacts were fused!) but Steve and
Sandra made sure it got back to me in time, despite the Post Office tracking
system saying it’s still stuck in the office in Frenchtown (don’t know why I
bother paying for that “service”).  All in all it was a good solid September
contest effort and I posted my best September score yet, even with flat
conditions. 

73 de Bob


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