[VHFcontesting] ARRL Jan VHF W9SZ Single Op Port QRP

[Zack Widup]

                    ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes

Call: W9SZ
Operator(s): W9SZ
Station: W9SZ

Class: Single Op Port QRP
QTH: EN50rl hilltop ~980 ft. asl
Operating Time (hrs): 9

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   0      0
    2:  25     13
  222:   7      6
  432:   6      5
  903:   3      3
  1.2:   5      5
  2.3:   2      2
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  48     34  Total Score = 3,366

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Everything seemed to be going for me at the start.  The weather was about 
the best I could expect for January, there was no snow or ice on the 
ground, the wind was dead calm and it even warmed up above freezing on 
Saturday! I got everything set up well before the contest started; I even 
had an hour to spare.

I can usually hear the 903 and 1296 beacons of K3SIW from this QTH and 
sometimes the 2304 beacon.  On Saturday the 903 and 1296 beacons were just 
in and out of the noise and I heard nothing on the 2304 frequency. That 
wasn't a good sign.

Conditions on 144, 222 and 432 seemed marginal to me; I did hear many 
people on 144 that didn't hear me.  I always liken VHF contesting to two 
ships passing in the night; if you don't have your beams pointed at each 
other you probably won't make a QSO, especially if one of you is QRP.

Two stations I have counted on in the past for microwave QSO's weren't 
around or didn't point their beams my way so I missed out on those this 
year. Thanks to N2BJ and K2DRH for QSO's on all bands through 2304.

Best DX for me was K4EQH in EM54 followed by K8MD in EN82.

The farmer who owns the hill I was on came up to chat in the afternoon on 
Saturday and said we were supposed to get 3 to 5 inches of snow that 
night.  I decided to tear down at about 10 pm.  It was still fairly warm 
and there was still no wind or precipitation and I didn't even get 
frostbite this year!  I got home shortly after midnight and we got about 2 
to 3 inches of snow overnight. I saw there was some sporadic-E on Saturday 
on 6 meters and I was tempted to drive back to the hill with just 6 meters 
but didn't.  Hopefully I didn't miss too much!

A company called Mortenson (?) is building windmill generators near my 
site.  They have about 120 of them to the southwest a few miles and will 
have a total of over 300 of the monsters in the area when they get done.  
I wonder if you can bounce microwave signals off the propellers? That 
could make life interesting in future contests!

73, Zack W9SZ