[VHFcontesting] UHF Contest Summary

[Phil Theis]

I entered this contest only with the expectation to have fun. Leading up 
to the weekend I had lost my 10g transverter, so I knew I was behind, 
but I had 5g working for the first time in over a year. Couldn't wait to 
try the new 1 meter dish on 5g as well.
The lineup was 222 through 24192 minus 10368 and everything worked 
throughout the contest, for which I am always happy.
Although some would say the activity was low, I was usually able to find 
stations to talk to; the software reports max rates of 66 per hour for a 
10 minute period and 36 per hour for a 60 minute period. Comparing to HF 
rates that's really slow, but by UHF standards, I'll take it.
Saturday was a pleasant time all the way till bedtime.  Sunday was also 
nice inside, but the weather was hot, muggy and stormy including a line 
of storms that had high winds.  Consequently the lower bands were noisy 
most of the time, but never really interfered with contacts, or so I 
assume.
The contest gifted me with my personal best in ARRL UHF scores: 167,778 
claimed.  My previous best score was in 2006 when we had outstanding 
activity and many rovers going out.  This time we had several rovers for 
whom I am grateful: N3IQ, NN3Q, WA2IID, W1AUV, W3HMS, WA3PTV, K1DS & 
W1RT, thanks to you all.
Thanks also go to my packrat and NEWS friends who got on to compete and 
just to "give out points", whichever, activity is what we want.
Here is the band summary of my activity:
Band  Qso's  Grids
222      64        31
432      73        28
902      31        15
1296    42        20
2304    19        9
3456    15        6
5760    15        8
Total      167,778
An interesting observation is that I had more grids on 222 than on 432 
and more on 5760 than 3456.
Lets all get on next year for even more activity.
73,
Phil K3TUF