[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
Operating Time (hrs): 31

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  136    46
    2:  162    47
  222:   83    33
  432:  108    36
  903:   52    27
  1.2:   70    28
  2.3:    2     2
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  613   219  Total Score = 230,826

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

This was the contest that almost never was at K2DRH.  Just before the contest,
combined forces from light air vibration cyclic fatigue and the weight of a pair
of red tailed hawks conspired to sever the boom on my top 2M antenna.  Of course
this is the hardest one to get to and even bringing down the broken end in
reasonable shape for rebuilding was difficult.  Long boom antennas make great
flails in the Midwest wind when they hang from the overhead truss, bending up
anything they encounter.  Luckily the nearest thing was the other 2M beam and
that had to be taken down and rebuilt anyway (if one boom breaks, can you trust
the other?).  

There was no way to drop the antennas straight down between all the other
antennas and the stacked 222 beams on the H frame were in the way unless
catenary and messenger lines were carefully rigged to avoid them.  Of course the
top 6M beam was right there in the way too.  Threading the needle with 36’ boom
antennas around other 30-50’ boom antennas in the most often windy Midwest is a
difficult and painstaking endeavor that somehow my intrepid ground crew and life
partner N2KMA and I managed to do ourselves without inflicting too much
collateral damage.  But there’s still one bent 222 element that I just can’t
reach without detaching the whole antenna.  (And it’s driving me crazy!)

Lowering and jacking up the 24’ 2” mast at 130’ to remove and then reinstall the
2M antennas is an adventure all in itself.  Of course nothing worked right when
I tested it so I had to replace connectors on the hardline and the mast mounted
preamp, as well as do some maintenance on the 903 antennas and the chain drive
rotor.  The short story is it took over 18 hours of hanging from the safety belt
over four days to complete the job not to mention the time necessary to rebuild
stuff on the ground.  As always, m2 did a great job redesigning replacement
reinforced booms and other pieces I needed as well as getting them to me in
time.  There was a lot of stuff to do on the station itself too.  That stuff
included replacing my logging computer which graciously fried itself that same
week.  Somehow it all got done and I managed to get on the air on time and bag
K0PG/R and K9ILT/R in their first grid at the starting gun.

With all the promise from Hepburn’s predictor I was hoping for a good strong
Midwest tropo opening during a September contest for a change.  It was not to
be.  I heard the stations in Chicago 125 miles to my east working all the way
into the east coast, but I never worked anything beyond my “normal” 400 mile or
so range.  Luckily the tropo brought out lots of stations looking my that I
could work, so I was not left out entirely.    The high bands seemed pretty good
too, but 2304 continues to be my nemesis.  This time both TX and RX died,
apparently after only 2 QSO’s.  I still have no idea why.  Conditions seemed
good on the higher bands too and I did well on 903 and 1296 so I’m really
disappointed that it wasn’t there to vastly inflate my score like the pundits
predict.  I proceeded to do my usual thing, scratch out one QSO at a time the
hard way and make sure I worked all the bands everyone had right down to the 222
FM HT’s in the shack.  

Once again my hat’s off to the rovers, especially K0PG/R and K9ILT/R who seem to
consistently find just the right spot that I can work them on all bands (at
least the ones that work anyway) an lots of different grids.  I was privileged
to take part in a Rover Dance between K9JK/R and WB8BZK at a nearby grid corner
and work each of them in all four grids on 6 bands, as well as on the fly when
they passed only about 8 miles north of me.  N0DQS/R also was there (hopefully
his luck has changed!) and I worked him on six bands in several different grids
as well as for one of my two 2304 QSOs.  W9FZ/R and K0WOW/R also contributed
several grid multipliers on several bands.  Most contests I look more to the
east and south.  Seems like this contest there was lots more action from the
north and west than I usually hear, and I was definitely going for worked all
EN34 and 44!  It was wonderful to hear all the activity! 

Congratulations on the outstanding efforts in SOLP by Ed K1TR and SOHP by Jeff
K1TEO.  They both worked new category records for the Sept VHF, making it seem
to me like there must have been a tad better than just “average conditions” for
those folks anyway!     

73 de Bob


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