01/31/2005 | N0URW This year I ran hi power on 2,,,6,,,222,,,432 & 1296 in the single operator section...()...
The worst blizzard and hi winds we have encountered so far this year hit my qth en41 Iowa ,, Friday night Saturday morning ..We had total white out conditions.. With 50 mph gusts.. So here I was at 2am. out in the backyard with my million candle power spot light ,, looking up at my antenna arrays doing the wet noodle dance.. Or is it the tossed around like a rag doll dance.. The last thing I needed was to have a twisted rotor or broken antennas the night before the contest...So I prayed to the contest gods to get this mess outta here.. It worked ! By contest start time the wind had died down to under 20 mph & the sun had come out... Nice ...I guess I should of also prayed to the propagations gods as there was none...

Saturday::: I started out hammering away on 2 , 6 , 222 & 432 like usual... Suprise... Suprise... No rovers... Well not really a suprise... Its a little hard to be a rover when most of the roads are snowed shut... I call it the Yes Blizzard No Rover Syndrome...
Rovers make up around 50% of my contacts , when we have no big band enhancement on 2 or 6...When there are rovers out & about I spend alot of time calling and listening for them...
Looks like its time to go to plan B..
Spend alot more time calling cq ... I like to run hi power in January and this time I was glad I did...I was able to punch through the high noise levels to reach out 400+ miles on 2 ,6, 222 & 432 in all directions... This lasted a little over 3 hours into the contest , when out of nowhere I hit a wall on 222 & 432 out 100 miles... Ouch... First the rovers & now this wall.... Ok ,, I told myself..
Time to go to plan C...
Looks like its going to be a 2 & 6 meter contest now...
But it was very hard to get a clear signal on voice...There were times it was almost impossible to understand what the other station was saying on 2 meters ... This took up a lot of time asking for their call & grid sq. over & over & over...We would struggle through it on 2 meters , only to find that when we moved to 6 meters it was clear as a bell... So I ended up spending more time on 6 finding stations ,, then moving them onto other bands... Even with the hi power flowing in an attempt to reach out farther through the noise ,, I found participation was well below average... No doubt others being affected by the storm were pointing their antennas else where...
My score at the end of saturday was not good at all... I still find it hard to believe that someone could work that hard for so little...

Sunday:.... I didn't want to get out of my warm bed Sunday morning...I knew it was cold in my radio room... Brrrr... I was thinking of how in past January contests,, we would get one day of good band conditions & one day of bad... Saturday was the worst I have ever seen so Sunday has to be better...I turned everything back on around 12:00 utc.. When I tuned to 6 meters I heard K1TOL in fn44 ... A quick contact made then I was off to see if this was the beginning of a band opening or just scatter... Turned out to be scatter .. I found a few others to work out east ,, But as luck would have it the scatter went away & I was back to hammering away on 2 & 6 again.. 222 & 432 were spotty at best... By late morning things began to pick up... A steady stream of new stations kept the rotors thawed out.. And the big Amps were warming up the radio room nicely... As the afternoon progressed into early evening 2 & 6 really started to spread out to the east.. Even 222 & 432 contacts were working out as far as en61,71,72,73... Total chaos on 2 meters the last hour... As the band stretched out east ,, a breath of fresh stations appeared... Even 6 meters came to life the final hour...What a way to end it...

The Wrap up...
This is one for the record books as the worst band conditions ever from my qth... I was thinking after the contest was over about how many were planning on contesting only to have their dreams crushed by the blizzard & hi winds.... I know I was glad all my antennas & rotors survived mother natures wintery blast... Now I'll be gearing up for the June vhf contest... Oh yea,, June ... Tornadoes,,, Thunder storms,,, Lightning & 70 mph winds... Can't wait... I already have plans in the works for more station inprovements.... Listen for me then with another hi power signal coming out of en41 Iowa...Thanks again for all of those who made it into the log this time... And thanks for taking the time to read my soapbox... 73's for now ... Dan.. -()- -- N0URW