[VHFcontesting] [Packrats] 432 Sprint

[David Olean]

Hello Phil and the gang,
    The 432 Sprint was fun. I hardly noticed that things were not so good. 
Being in Northern New England I have gotten used to rotten conditions all 
while listening to the NYC area working Georgia or the midwest. I'll take 
anything I can get as a result! I thought things were way below normal to 
the West and northwest, while the band seemed good down the coast. There 
were some awfully loud signals down the coast heard here, like WB2RVX in 
FM29. I swear he built up to 59+ around 10 PM. A nice addition was working 
VE1SKY in FN74 at about 7:30 PM. He was S7 to S8, but had trouble working 
other stations. later on, he did connect with K1TR, W1ZC, and WA1T. Ron, 
WZ1V heard bits and pieces of VE1SKY from Connecticut. VE1SKY peaked at 59 
later on when he was heard in CT. I suspect there was some lift going on 
between us. He was 300 miles away and running 50 watts to an LP antenna.
    I tried and tried to work stuff to the NW and West, but had no luck with 
much DX there. K2ERG, N2LID and KA2LIM were it for me. I had the beam on 
FN25 a number of times and heard nil.  Ditto for other grids out there like 
FN02, FN03 etc. I tried and tried, but heard zilch.
    To the southwest, things were different. While there did not seem like a 
great amount of activity present, there was a steady stream of contacts from 
that direction. Early on, I heard WZ1V work W3ZZ, but could not detect Gene 
here. A bit later, I worked K8GP in FM19, along with KA3EJJ in FM19, both 
with great S7 signals on SSB!  KN4SM peaked at S5 on SSB, but was more like 
S3 most of the time, but still 100% Q5. KE2N was heard a few times on SSB 
and CW with pretty good signals as well.  I was also somewhat surprised to 
have K4QI call me on CW at about 549 from FM06 about 650 miles away!  N3RA 
in FN21 peaked at S9 when I got the beam on him. At the same time, I was 
monitoring the Packrat 222 beacon, and it seemed to be anywhere from normal 
to slightly above normal by about 6 dB. When I quit at 10:30 PM, the 222 
beacon was very weak.I could not hold my eyelids open at that point. WZ1V 
and K3TUF were still banging away around 432.100 then. I quit and went home.
    I believe that the weather front approaching from the NW was the reason 
for my situation. Going along it (NE or SW) was possible, but going across 
it was way down from normal. I cannot recall worse conditions to the West 
and NW. There was rain in Western NH and Vermont  by the time I quit.
    I ended up with 43 QSOs in 18 grids. Of the grids that can show up, I 
missed FN02, FN03, FN14, FN15, FN34, FN23, FN22, FN11, FM08, FM28, FM17, 
plus every grid to my East, North, and Northeast! The exception was VE1SKY, 
FN74. TNX Roger!  I looked long and hard for K1LPS, W1AIM and N1JEZ in FN34 
and 44, but no luck.  There was no activity in FN53, FN54, FN55, FN56, or 
FN57. Nothing in FN44, 45, or FN46. Zilch in FN63, FN64, FN65, FN66, and 
FN67. Nada in FN73, FN75, and FN76. FN84, FN85, and FN95 were empty too.   I 
could go on and on. There are over 20 grids with no real activity up there. 
I worked only three grids that border my own! That is pretty bad out of a 
total of eight possible grids. We should have an award for working the least 
grids bordering your own grid! We could call it "The Skunk Challenge".  I 
could be a contender! (VE1SKY worked no grids bordering his own! He even 
missed his own grid for a perfect score of 9!!) He should be commended for 
staying on 432 for a number of hours all the while calling CQ with his voice 
keyer. That's dedication.
    Rig here was running about 600 watts output. I was surprised that some 
stations had trouble hearing me. Then again, I have a preamp mounted up on 
the tower top, which helps my receive.  I routed the hot air from the amp 
back into the room, so it was nice and comfortable at about 70 degrees. 
Normally I run an exhaust hose outside the shack. I ran my OMNI V exciter, 
but was toying with trying the new K3. I used the K3 on 144 where it does a 
nice job on removing some of my power line noise. I even have power line 
noise on 432, but it is only in one direction. Some day I will learn how to 
get the power company to actually fix that!
    The AC power source worked great. The 20 KW diesel purred along nicely. 
Running just one band was hardly any work for it. At light loads it drinks 
about 1/2 gallon per hour. It ran for almost 5 hours total. In the September 
Contest, it handled all 11 bands plus a few air conditioners without 
complaint, so I think I have the power problem solved now.
    Thanks to the sponsors and all you guys who got on and made noise. It 
sure was nice to hear splatter and keyclicks on the band. I am starting to 
miss it.

73

Dave K1WHS
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Theis" <phil at k3tuf.com>
To: <newsvhf at mailman.qth.net>; "Packrats" <packrats at mailman.qth.net>; 
<vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 10:59 AM
Subject: [Packrats] 432 Sprint


> It's becoming boring to say that conditions were flat, but they were. 
> Having said that it was good to work FN25 to the north and EM94 and EM86 
> to the south thanks to the East Coast 70CM net.
> I ended up with just a few more counts than the 222 spring last week: 43 
> q's in 23 grids.
> The 50MHz sprint is next weekend during MUD, hope to see you then.
> Thanks to SVHFS for sponsoring this event.
> 73,
> Phil K3TUF FN10we02
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