[3830] ARRL Jan VHF WA2FGK(K2LNS) Single Op HP

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                    ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes

Call: WA2FGK
Operator(s): K2LNS
Station: WA2FGK

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: FN21
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  211    35
    2:  222    59
  222:   73    26
  432:  101    31
  903:   14     8
  1.2:   19    11
  2.3:    7     3
  3.4:    5     3
  5.7:    2     2
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  654   178  Total Score = 182,450

Club: 

Comments:

For three weeks I spend countless hours hunting for skeds for this contest.
Perhaps I should learn not to bother in January.. The Tuesday before the
contest, we had a storm come through with freezing rain. On Wed it warmed up,
but brought a full day of fog on this mountain with tempertures below freezing.
I could watch as my antennas grew in diameter. With no warmup in site, I
cancelled 45 schedules between EME and Scatter.. On Friday afternoon, I decided
to fire up the amps and run very low power. I ran beacons on three bands all day
long which started with half my power returning.. As the day progressed, even
though the antennas were still iced up, the DE's warmed up enough to operate
the lower four bands. 
I was able to work the normal stations, and by Saturday evening, I switched to
EME on 144 mhz. With the moon at 10 degrees I was hearing nothing. Actually I
thought I had some real problems. What I believed happened, the bands were so
noisy from the below zero temps, that until I elevated the antennas to about 20
degrees, the band quieted down. 
On Sunday morning with all of my skeds cancelled, I tried some CQ's on 50 mhz
using digital modes, but activity on 50.260 was very poor.
Sunday afternoon around 2pm, I thought I would check the swr on 903. I had
power coming back but it looked OK to try. Then I checked everything up to
5,760 and like majic, I was able to operate. I though I would really get busy,
but to my surprise, alot of the guys I knew had upper bands must have been
watching the football games..
We did have some nice conditions to Detroit on Sunday evening up through 432
mhz. I probably could have worked the guys on the microwave bands, but my
antennas still had tons of ice on them.
Well another SS down the drain. Last year my 144 mhz quad actually dropped in
the front, from ice. I quit last year at 1 pm Sunday. So at least this year I
was able to operate the entire contest
I will look for everyone in the sprints. Bear Creek, Pa should be melted off by
then
73's Herb at WA2FGK


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