[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: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs): 35

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  125    56
    2:   57    63
  222:   51    36
  432:   83    41
  903:   14    13
  1.2:   23    18
  2.3:    8     7
  3.4:    3     3
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  464   237  Total Score = 167,085

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Not much of a write-up this time.   Not really much to write about!  I should
have realized that this contest would be a real struggle when everything was
working with minimal hassle a week before the contest.  A friend found the
compound metric gear needed to repair the spare gearbox , but it didn’t get
here in time.   So after cleaning the oil out of the 1/3 HP DC motor again (the
lower gearbox shaft seal needs replacement), filling the gearbox with thicker
oil and sealing the motor shaft so the oil can’t get into it so easily, I was
ready to go.  With the sudden 30 degree drop in temperature the week before, I
was hoping for some good temperature inversions.   They were there, but the
endless rain put a serious wet blanket on them.

It rained all day Saturday, a constant soaking rain that lasted well until mid
morning on Sunday.  It dumped many inches of water on the MidWest courtesy of
hurricane Ike in the Gulf.  At least this kept my singing insulators quiet
(they are still not all fixed) but it sure caused a lot of down time due to
rain static.  Luckily it wasn’t constant so I could hear pretty good most of
the time.  Conditions were mostly flat with a few brief flashes out past 400
miles.  Considering the rain, conditions were not all that horrible on the
bottom 4 and I was amazed that I could put several EM grids in the log as well
as some long distance grids to the north.  The rovers were definitely scarce,
and the ones who did brave the element were mostly harder to work attenuated by
the soggy cornfields.  N0DQS was only out in EN22 and we swept 8 bands.  W0ZQ
worked me at home to 2304 but most runs even with the fixed stations had to go
CW by 432 and couldn’t get above 1296, if that.   

I was hoping more home stations would be on, but the majority of them in
Chicagoland  were experiencing driving rain and windy conditions that were much
worse than those in EN41vr.  Participation was definitely way down.   I went to
my WSJT skeds with barely 200 Q’s in the log. WSJT was difficult through the
rain static and took longer than normal for Sept, but I managed to log most of
my skeds and a few randoms too.   

Sunday morning was quiet on the bands, and also pretty lonely.  Sunday was slow
and steady all morning with not much enhancement.  By noon the rain had finally
stopped  and I was hoping activity would pick up, but the rain would continue
for several hours yet to the east and south.  The band would slowly rise and
fall all day so that one minute you could hear somebody then the next they
would be completely gone.  I was able to catch the attention of W9FZ/R in EN66
over 350 miles away and we worked the bottom 4, all on CW.  I caught Bruce
again a couple hours later in EN76 almost 375 miles away, and we worked through
1296 for the highlight of my contest.  We failed on all but 2m in EN75.

It was really slow, working 10 or 15 Qs an hour Sunday afternoon, but the score
finally crept up so that it felt respectable.  The evening was but pretty flat
and not a lot of folks on.   Once again some good distance openings past 500
miles to the south (EM17!), but they were all short lived and difficult to work
on higher bands.  There was no 6M Es or enhanced prop of any note at all
contest, and many QSOs had to resort to CW.   The last two hours were really
slow, but there was a brief flurry of good mults at the end like always.  For
the second time in recent memory I caught N9NJY in EM58 during the last two
minutes of the contest and worked 4 bands just before the closing gun.  This
could get to be a habit!

73 de Bob K2DRH


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