[3830] ARRL Sep VHF K2DRH Single Op LP

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ARRL September VHF Contest

Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41vr
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  119    58
    2:  136    54
  222:   45    30
  432:   84    38
  903:   17    12
  1.2:   21    13
  2.3:   11     8
  3.4:    5     4
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  438   217  Total Score = 149,947

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Been a long hot mosquito infested summer here in NW IL, worst we’ve seen in 20
years.  No incentive to do much outside work since the UHF test but luckily
everything seemed to be working OK for a change. 6M Es was pretty good for the
first two weeks in August (some of the best DX of all season) but after that
the band went dead completely. There had been some good tropo the week before
the contest due to cooler temps and pressure changes over the Midwest due to
the hurricane going up the coast, but it heated right back up and it all died
out.  A cold front then came through on Friday night before the contest
completely snuffing out any hope of enhancement for Saturday.

After the first hour Saturday was very slow and it seemed like there were few
stations to work.  Under 25 an hour all day long and into the night.  A
beautiful cool almost fall like day but most of the local rovers stayed home
for one reason or another. The ones that did go out carrying multiple microwave
bands like Jim W9SNR/R and the family rover of Mel KC0P and Carol N0HZO were
very busy and much appreciated since there was no Es on 6M all weekend. Another
bright spot was following the trail of Andrea K2EZ/R though IN and getting her
in 8 grids on her epic rove south. Otherwise conditions and activity could only
be described as depressed.
 
I don’t completely rely on the Internet to make WSJT skeds since my 1.2M DSL
(the best I can get out here) has a funky way of not working well when I want
it most. I make several “sure shots” now with stations that experience has
proven are reliable and easy to work.  Good thing since there was a bit of
chaos on the PJ page during the test. Joe K1JT introduced a new mode msk144 a
month or two ago that is more efficient and requires less operator skill than
the old fsk441 we have been using almost 15 years now. However it didn't really
have a provision for proper contest grid exchanges instead of reports yet so I
made all my pre skeds in fsk441. Additionally the new mode is not included in
the standard release on the WSJT X page, just in Alpha (not even beta) test
versions posted in places that are known by word of mouth on the PJ page and
Yahoo forums (one DL is on the N5TM chat page).

Initially there was no consensus as to how grids should be exchanged since the
only place a grid is normally inserted is in the TX1 message or in the CQ TX 6
message like the WSJTX JT65 message protocol.  Well ... two days before the
test Joe (or one of his coding helpers) kludged up a temporary (I hope) work
around that was "good enough" for the test, but I and many others who
missed it were left flat footed on contest day since everyone "in the
know" wanted to use the new mode.  

The patched together "contest mode" is a LOT faster too with 15
second seqs standard (10 and 5 available) and also since it auto skips two
signal report messages TX2 and TX3 entirely, but right now it works best if
both stations initially call CQ (even on an arranged sked) since TX6 is only
one of two messages that has a grid and the first station to hear it responds
sending TX1 (also with a grid). Then it skips to TX4 RRR and TX5 73.  All you
really need for a contest Q, but a bit messy hopscotch around that was hard for
some to understand so a lot of Qs got messed up, but worked out eventually …
however it literally was downloading a new program then learning and using a
new protocol "on the fly" on contest day. Like I said a bit of Chaos!
I made quite a few with the new mode and even had the privilege of working Joe
K1JT. It really is excellent and I hope it really takes off, but the sudden
shift away from fsk441 sure made things interesting on contest day!

Sunday morning conditions were not much improved from Saturday. Another slow
day with no 6M Es resorting to making hookups on the PJ page, the ON4KST page
and following the few rovers around. Very tedious and energy draining
especially with only a couple hours sleep knowing you had to make to most out
of the overnight Ms to post a respectable score. The afternoon doldrums droned
on like a January contest.  

But the evening after dark was another story entirely with stations like AA4ZZ
and W4NH from the mountains in the far EM grids 600 and 700 miles away suddenly
appearing on the scene in the Midwest. For the last 3 hours it was very busy
with a lot of new grid mults to be had on 2, 222 and 432 and sometimes 6M. 
About an hour and a half from the end of the contest I was also reaching down
500 miles SW into the EM grids and had just worked N0JK and W0KAN in EM28 and
KY0O in EM29 when my rotor suddenly quit turning.  

Same old problem that will never be fully resolved without extensive design
changes, so up the tower 80 feet in the dark to correct it. I was very
motivated by the enhancement, so I got back to contesting in record time ... 20
minutes! Apparently this 65 year old still doesn't know the meaning of quit. 

Came back to find and work N0JK and KY0O on 432 and a host of others that were
all multipliers on several bands. Apparently there was enhancement to the east
too since I worked VE3ZV in EM92 in the final minutes. Wish I had those 20
minutes back! I’m sure the band stayed enhanced but after 0300 there was not
a soul to be found on 144.200. N0URW and I rag chewed for almost an hour after
the test and nobody broke in.    

73 de Bob2 K2DRH


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