[VHFcontesting] N1BUG FN55 contest comments, etc.

[Paul Kelley N1BUG]

Wow! What a fun contest!

This was the first time I had done any contesting on 6 with high 
power. I'm not much of a VHF contester really. More of an avid CW 
and weak signal operator who is more than happy to take advantage of 
contest activity to have some major fun.

I love "running" stations on CW. Since I'm not sought after DX, 
contests provide the primary opportunity to do that. I spent as much 
time as possible running 'em on CW during the single hop Es 
Saturday. I knew I was doomed when shortly after I started my run 
the cat vacated the territory! When the shack temperature reached 
110 degrees and I was gasping for air like a fish out of water it 
was time to reluctantly quit for a while. When this space had cooled 
sufficiently to re-enter it, my next move was to install the A/C in 
the shack window! It has been so cold this Spring there hadn't been 
any need.... until I started running CW with the 4CX1500B in a 
small, poorly ventilated space. Whew! Actually I'm very glad I had 
occasion to discover this *before* the first big Europe opening of 
the Es season! I would have been *seriously* bummed to have to take 
a break during one of those!

Sunday morning was typical, a lot of scatter and some marginal Es to 
the southeastern states. That was followed by a brief and very 
unstable mid-day double hop opening to the west. After that the 
bottom dropped out. Tuning the band for several hours the perfect 
tranquility of my noise floor would from time to time be ever so 
slightly, yet perceptibly disturbed by the faint murmur of northeast 
stations running SSB. I managed, albeit with some difficulty, to 
recover enough information from some of these noise floor 
disturbances to log a few more contacts.

Then it occurred to me I hadn't tried calling CQ on CW under these 
conditions. Since for the first time I had high power I figured it 
would be worth a try. I had no idea it was going to be so exciting! 
The stations who called on tropo (if you can call those stinko 
conditions tropo!) were mostly very weak but workable. That was fine 
with me since I thoroughly enjoy weak signal CW work. Then I started 
getting 3's 8's 9's and VE3's on what I presume to have been 
ionospheric forward scatter. Signals were weak to very weak, peaked 
on a direct bearing, and exhibited mild to moderate flutter effect. 
This usually required repeating calls and grids 3 or 4 times, but 
contacts came easily. That was something I hadn't been able to 
experience with low to moderate power in the past, and it was great 
fun! I hope this is a fairly typical occurrence and not an isolated 
event that won't soon repeat.

Two years ago after suffering a case of burnout from spending all my 
time repairing stuff rather than operating, and loss of interest due 
to shifts in VHF technology and modes, I gave up all bands above 6. 
Having sold all the EME stuff to purchase a new rig and do some 
antenna work, I've had a chance to decompress and rediscover the fun 
and excitement of VHF. As a result I am now working toward getting 
back on 2 meters.

My aluminum pile let me down (boom material but nothing to use for 
elements), so I found myself with no suitable 2 meter antenna for 
this contest. At the last minute I hooked the transverter to the 
only thing "in the air" that would at least provide a reasonable 
SWR: a 5 element vertically polarized yagi fixed toward the north. I 
had doubts about working anyone, but with that and 75 watts I did 
put two stations and two grids in the log. I will take that as basic 
proof of concept on my recently heavily modified bucket of bolts 
Swan transverter.

It isn't clear whether I will get some aluminum up for 2 this summer 
or not. At this point I would guess not. With resources low, 
building up the 2 meter station will come slowly but I count my 
blessings every day. All things considered I am so *VERY* fortunate 
to be on the air at all, let alone with the station I have at this 
point -- and I know it!

See you next contest! Meanwhile I will be making noise on 6 CW 
whenever possible.

73,
Paul N1BUG FN55mf
6m: 1500w, 7 element yagi at 100'
2m: work in progress, 75w, no antenna yet