[3830] ARRL Sep VHF K3CCR(N3UM) SO 3Band LP

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                    ARRL September VHF Contest

Call: K3CCR
Operator(s): N3UM
Station: K3CCR

Class: SO 3Band LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 2.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   9      4
    2:  14      9
  222:           
  432:   1      1
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  24     14  Total Score = 350

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

K3CCR is the club station at the Collington continuing-care retirement 
community in FM18OW. For a year we've planned to get on SSB and CW at  
VHF using gear brought by N3UM including an AB577 crankup mast, but 
this was deferred to build up the HF station, and for things like 
hip replacements. In the past month we had a huge juniper bush and 
several trees removed or cut back to squeeze in the AB577 and its guy 
cables on limited flat ground near the shack. We got the base up in 
scorching heat Thurs., the 144 and 432 antennas and rotor put on Fri, 
and cables run to the shack in rain and mud on contest day Sat. 9/12. 
Sun. AM 9/13 the radios, transverters, and brick amps were cabled 
together and checked, and the 40 m. inverted V checked for a 7th-
harmonic resonance on 6 m. Bingo: 2:1 SWR w/o tuner, 1:1 with! On 432, 
TX was fine but rcvr noise was well below S1 and W3APL beacon 18 mi. 
away not heard. So we concluded 432 RX was dead. Finally made 6 Qs on 
2 and 6 m. before lunch Sun. Activity was low, tropo poor, only one 
mast section in, so it did little good to be fresh meat. After lunch 
a few more Qs and then W3GB helped crank in 3 more mast sections to 
get the antennas just above the close-in hilltop to the NW. Got 3 more 
Qs before supper plus 10 between 20 and 22 EDT. On 2 m. worked W2SZ 
in FN32 320 mi. away on Mt. Greylock, cross-mode: encouraging! At 2130 
EDT rate was zero so listened again for W3APL/B at 432.312.  There it 
was, not loud but clear, at 432.310 on our dial.  Haste, low antenna, 
and/or freq. offset may have made us miss it earlier.  Asked W3IP on 
2 m.to QSY; we worked easily on 432 SSB at ~55 mi. range.  Transverter 
gain is clearly 'way too low, but in sad hindsight we might still have 
worked several other big guns on 432. After 22 EDT even the loud 
multis went QRT, so we did too.  The AB577 is now at full height, 
ready for the START of the next VHF test.


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