[VHFcontesting] 144 MHz Sprint

[DAVID C. OLEAN]

God morning!
     Here are my comments and results of
the 144 MHz Sprint. At one point in the
144 Sprint last night, I remarked to
someone that making contacts was like
getting a root canal operation. The
signals were mainly very weak. The wind
was howling. It was 20 degr. F. The
humidity was near 0% and the power lines
were cackling and crackling. It was just
so hard to work the guys in some
directions.  My wide azimuth fixed
antenna was almost worthless as a
listening device as it was picking up a
huge power line leak making reception
under S5 impossible. It is eight X  5
element yagis fixed Southwest.  The
other antenna is a sharp quad yagi array
that is great for nulling noise, but
takes forever to find a station, as the
rotor is big and slow! It made for alot
of antenna spinning for a few contacts!
     I was surprised at how many
stations I worked from here in Maine
that evening, considering how bad the
band sounded at any given time. I ended
up with 66 QSOs and 21 grids. I worked
only one station North or Northeast of
me, so I missed plenty of grids there.
There were many times that I would get a
call from a weak station on a tropo
peak, then lose him entirely as the band
would fade. It got quite frustrating at
times. I think I missed FM18 that way! I
was looking for the fellows (W4SHG) who
were planning to get on Skyline Drive in
FM08 with 400 watts and a long yagi. I
never heard them. Honest, I was looking
your way guys!  I worked the past
weekend to get all the 144 gear
installed back in the shack after a long
cold winter, and move all the plywood
around so I could get at the 144
operating position. I am repairing the
shack. It had severe rotting in the
frame, and the floor was falling out, so
I had to do something! All the racks and
gear falling through the floor would not
have looked pretty!! I may miss the 222
Sprint, as the plywood is now blocking
that operating position!  Hopefully, I
can get more work done this weekend.
   The line noise was simply atrocious!
I was surprised that my fixed yagi array
was suffering from tremendous noise
levels. One turn of the rotatable quad
array showed the problem. I had an S8
hissing sound at 184 degrees. It was
getting into the fixed SW array with
about an S5 level.  Needless to say, I
did not work many stations in Rhode
Island. I had reports that many were
calling, but I could not hear them
through the din. Sounds like more
complaining to the two power companies
in this area is in order.
    Some notable grids worked included:
W2EV in FN03,  K3DNE & W3EME in FM19,
K2AN in FN02, K8GUN in FM09, W3SO in
FN00.  My big DX to the Northeast was
KA1C in FN54. He was the only contact in
that direction!!  I started at 7 PM and
quit about 10:45 PM.  It was a long walk
home in the dark without a flashlight.
It was very cold with the wind still
howling. All told, I was happy with the
results. Everything seemed to work. The
prop Gods were not in evidence, but
there was some activity, and that is
good. Hopefully, the next sprints will
have a few more signals above the S1 1/2
level and the power line noise will have
abated somewhat!!  Thanks to the non
local stations who were loud here and
saved my ears from all the noise. K1TEO,
N3NGE, W3SO, and others. My ears are
thankful!

73
Dave K1WHS