[3830] ARRL June VHF K1TEO Single Op HP

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                    ARRL June VHF Contest - 2019

Call: K1TEO
Operator(s): K1TEO
Station: K1TEO

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: FN31/CT
Operating Time (hrs): 26.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  495   143
    2:  242    45
  222:   78    29
  432:  130    37
  903:   38    22
  1.2:   44    20
  2.3:   14    11
  3.4:    5     5
  5.7:    4     4
  10G:    6     5
  24G:           
-------------------
Total: 1056   321  Total Score = 486,315

Club: North East Weak Signal Group

Comments:

This was my first full effort contest since January 2018. I was on with very
limited capabilities last June and Sept rebuilding the towers and antennas after
tornado damage. In January I was limited to a few hours when ice shut me down.
So first off it was great to be back on the air! Overall activity seemed fairly
good, condx on 2M and above were ok with the only enhancement noted being very
local Sunday (N2NT reported I was loud there in his report - and they were the
same here!)with louder than normal signals but only out to say 150 miles. 6M had
two openings that I got into on Saturday with the first being in the afternoon
being ok and the second being fairly strong for about 2 hours Saturday night.
Sunday had some scattered Es in the morning for a brief time and was much more
limited than the Saturday openings, while in the evening there was weak but
workable (mostly FT8) double hop. I know the band was open to EU Sunday early
evening but I was busy running on other bands so never got on to try. 


A few observations:


- My 6,2,432, 902 and 10 G stuff seems to be working as well as before I lost
everything last year. 222 and 1296 seem a bit down. 2304 is way down. 3G and 5G
probably are ok but rig problems (the PTT line stopped working on 3G and my new
5G xvtr is deaf) didn't allow a good assessment. So it was a lot of work to get
things back on 10 bands - and some more to do. 


-There were a good group of rovers out but what is missing for me is the 8 - 10
band well equipped rovers I used to work (in many grids). That really limits the
microwave grid totals in particular and misses some rare grids on 144 - 432 too.
Still great to work K2EZ, K2LDT, VE3OIL, KJ1K, KG6CIH, and KJ2G a bunch of
times. Tnx guys!


- I did not use FT8 at all until Sunday on 6M. When the band opened I just went
to SSB. During the 2 openings I found I was working 60 - 100 per hour on SSB so
did not see a reason to move over. I caught about 3 hours of Es on Saturday -
the band was open longer but the challenge for a 10 band single op is to balance
6M with the other 9 bands and I spent at least 1.5 hours off of 6 during the
openings. Hindsight says I might have been better off staying on 6 but at the
time I had no idea if the band would be open all day on Sunday so I went for 2
and up at times, especially when trying to get rovers.


-I did make a few FT8 contacts on 144 and 432. I worked 2 new grids on each band
there that were easily worked and never heard on ssb/cw. So it does work well
for some dx on those bands. I never called cq on 432.174 and only spent perhaps
10 minutes calling CQ on 144.174. Just not enough time to stay put and do that.
But if I was single band or a multi op I can see where it would be beneficial to
do so. 


-I did work 6M FT 8 on Sunday. It was most beneficial Sunday night for double
hop where I added perhaps 10 grids. Some were easily loud enough for SSB but
calling there and on cw only yielded 2 double hop QSO's while the band was
open.
As with 2 and 432 I only spent a very short time on 6M FT8 when the band wasn't
open even though quick checks showed lots of locals not worked on ssb. I was
just running around too much to spend more time. The shame is there were at
least a dozen contest regulars on 6M FT 8 that I never worked who have multiple
bands. But it is just too hard to get them to QSY to the others from FT8 (I
tried a few times with guys after the RR message but none moved...sigh). So the
challenge moving forward with this fascinating mode is to figure out a way to
work guys with other bands who are now mostly or fully FT8. One last observation
on the mode - I never felt sleepy or tired when I was on ssb/cw this weekend. I
had two 15 minute or so stints on 6M FT Sunday. Both times I was nodding off.
You need to pay attention of course but not speaking/sending/tuning made me nod
off, hi! 

- Tnx to NN1N I did get one new grid (DN51) this weekend. I did hear the KG6 in
DM18 Sunday night quite a bit but he was busy and I didn't have time to DX. That
would have been a good (new) one. 

Tnx for all the Q's and especially to the rovers that make it more fun for
everyone. Cu in the next one. 

Jeff K1TEO


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