[3830] ARRL June VHF W4PK Single Op HP

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                    ARRL June VHF QSO Party

Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  201   109
    2:   14    12
  222:           
  432:    6     6
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  221   127  Total Score = 28,829

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

This was a fun but leasurely contest.  I used packet spotting but it turned out
to be nearly useless as I seldom could hear any of the stations that were
spotted.  There were however great openings at times to various localized parts
of the country  with S9+ signals on the 6M band.  

The only run I could muster was on Saturday afternoon on CW, and even that was
only 14 Q's for a leasurely 42/hour rate.  I never could get a run going on SSB
and I was really impressed by those of you that seemed to effortly enjoy runs
for long periods of time!  It often took me 6-8 times to finally be heard by
you, and I was running a KW (Icom PW1/7800) on 6M to a 6M5 beam at 70 feet!

I looked for PJ4E during the contest as that would be a new country for me but
not a peep here.  But he was not lacking in the number spots that he had!  I
also missed the YS station in El Salvadore but according to N2QT he was at
least workable here.

Last year I used an Icom 910 for 2M and 70CM.  This year I have a new Elecraft
K3/P3 with the built-in 2M module and the external XV432 transverter.  I have
an external Mirage 2M amplifier (160W) mounted at the base of my tower (with a
12-el. M2 beam at 75') since it is nearly 400' away from my house.  I have
saved about 3 dB of cable loss by going this route.  I only ran the XV432
barefoot to a different tower and I have over 4 dB loss to that antenna (an
18-element M2 beam) and I struggled making contacts on that band.  

I like the spectrum analyzer of rhe P3 and that was my justification for
replacing the IC910.  Otherwise I think that the IC910 is a better-performing
radio.  I still have it and am debating on whether to place it on eBay or keep
it since it does put out 75W on 432 and it does cover the whole band rather
than just 432 to 434.

We had severe thunderstorms both afternoons during the contest but other than
taking the phone line out (again) we had no serious damage.

Thanks to all for the contacts!

73, Sam W4PK


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