[Fourlanders] FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic Eincontest

Wed Jul 16 17:49:06 EDT 2008

I think the idea of marking off grids on a grid map for 2 meters is
necessary. When working stations it's hard to visualize where the grids are
other than in general terms, and it's a pain to try and go back through your
last 20 or 30 QSOs to figure out where they lie. At that point they're
random contacts - at least for me with no visual. By marking them as we go
we can see where the openings are and how they move. Progressively moving
grids westward for example, would tell me where to point the array as
opposed to one that's opening up grids toward the northwest, and allow me to
try to stay with the "cloud." 

Seq, Freq, Bnd, Mode, Date, Time, Mode, CALL, GRID, MULS, OPERATOR 

649, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 13:38, USB, N0PB,   EM39, 37, N4NIA
721, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:31, USB, W0EEA,  DM79, 39, N4NIA
730, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:37, USB, N5EPA,  DM64, 40, N4NIA
733, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:39, USB, N5JEH,  DM65, 41, N4NIA
745, 144209, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:54, USB, WB2FKO, DM65,   , ki4us   *
771, 144196, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 15:16, USB, K5AM,   DM54, 42, ki4us   *
798, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 15:44, USB, W0LSD,  DM68, 43, N4NIA

* Should not have taken the golf cart to a latrine break in there - I could
have had them all for myself!

If I'm reading this correctly in time sequence, we worked North Central
Missouri, Central Colorado, Central New Mexico, Western New Mexico, and
West-Central Colorado; generally moving conditions from the center of the US
to about the eastern edge of the rockies, a west to slightly southwest
azimuth from the mountaintop.

I'd be nice to have some system that would look at the grids in the database
and plot them for us going back a couple hours - just enough to show
developing trends on each of the bands and give us a direction to work! Wish
I had kept up my programming skills!

Kos

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian McCarthy [mailto:rfacres at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:46 PM
To: S Kosmetatos; Fourlanders Contest Group
Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic
Eincontest

Well, I owe Kos an apology. I am sorry. I missed the fact that you had
worked out to those DM grids. looking closely, Bill worked two of them as
well. On 144 we worked DM54, DM64, DM65, DM68, DM79 in that opening. It
started with Kos at 14:31 UTC Sunday and DM79 and ended at
15:44 UTC with DM68!  We also worked EM39 about an hour earlier which should
have been the trigger to look out to the west-north-west. See the excerpted
entries below sorted by grid:

Seq, Freq, Bnd, Mode, Date, Time, Mode, CALL, GRID, MULS, OPERATOR 

649, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 13:38, USB, N0PB, EM39, 37, N4NIA
721, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:31, USB, W0EEA, DM79, 39, N4NIA
730,144210,144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:37, USB, N5EPA, DM64, 40,N4NIA
733, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:39, USB, N5JEH, DM65, 41, N4NIA
745,144209, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 14:54, USB, WB2FKO, DM65, , ki4us
771,144196, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 15:16, USB, K5AM, DM54, 42, ki4us 
798, 144210, 144, PH, 2008-06-15, 15:44, USB, W0LSD, DM68, 43, N4NIA

Kos, please start throwing things at us if we EVER treat DM-anything grids
as routine on 144MHz again. (Maybe start with wads of paper and move up to
larger items if still ignored...) This was not normal.
Looking at the log, it lasted more than an hour. It should have been easy to
move at least one of them to 222. ARGH!

That's what I get for not looking at the 144 grid map during the contest. On
222 and 432 we highlight each new grid on a paper map. We should probably do
the same on 144. It will be a lot more work on 144, but it highlights
openings like what we are talking about quite well.

Hopefully, we have all learned a few lessons from this.

Again, Kos, I am sorry.

Brian
NX9O

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Rogers, Ron <RR124640 at ncr.com> wrote:
> I believe Brian will be bringing along a new equipment addition to the 
> Sept. contest in the form of an official large Bell (or submarine 
> "whoop-whoop" Klaxon horn) for situations when we work a new grid late 
> in the contest, have some Sporadic E harvesting, etc.
>
> We improvised in June by banging on the dome of Brian's desk lamp !!
>
>
> Ron
> WW8RR
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of S Kosmetatos
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 11:17 PM
> To: 'Paul Yeager, ABR(R), REALTOR(R)'; 'Fourlanders Contest Group'
> Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic 
> Eincontest
>
> I mentioned it after I worked them, but I think everyone was busy 
> doing their own thing and maybe didn't hear me. I figured it wasn't 
> any big deal to the group, but I did get a kick out of working that 
> kind of distance on 2m. I think there were two contacts to two NM 
> grids in what was basically a
> 5 or 10 minute Es opening.
>
> Kos
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Paul Yeager, 
> ABR(R), REALTOR(R)
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:57 PM
> To: Fourlanders Contest Group
> Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic E 
> incontest
>
> No kidding, Kos, do let us know!  Not only do we want to congratulate 
> you, but what you're able to do might clue some of us in to where we 
> might be looking on other bands.
>
> I worked Portugal on 6M on Field Day.... you can bet everyone there 
> heard about it!  My first transatlantic 6m QSO!
>
>  73 de w4ski
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jim Worsham <wa4kxy at bellsouth.net>
> To: Bob Lear <w4zst at windstream.net>; Brian McCarthy <nx9o at arrl.net>; 
> Fourlanders Contest Group <fourlanders at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:25:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [Fourlanders] FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic E 
> in contest
>
> No shit!  Kos, you worked NM on 2 Meters during the contest!  Let us 
> know when you do stuff like that.  That doesn't happen every day.
>
> 73
> Jim, W4KXY
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Lear [mailto:w4zst at windstream.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 8:29 PM
> To: Brian McCarthy
> Subject: Re: FW: [VHFcontesting] 222 and 144 sporadic E in contest
>
> Look over the logs.  Kos worked NM and some other grids on 2m.  I 
> remember seeing them in the log and talking to him about it.  Kos, you 
> need to brag a bit and let the group know when you pull off a distant 
> grid like that on 2m.
>
> 73, Bob
>
>
>
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