FM Only Category

Claimed Score 14,749 (not including SSB Q's and grids)

Multi's:  43

Points:  343

Frq    Q's  Pts  Grids

  50   30     30      7

144 135   135    20

220   22     44      8

432   67   134      8

I emailed every ham I worked in all previoius contests asking for  a QSO.  I also set up my rig at the Berryville VA Hamfest and handed out over 100 flyers requesting QSO's.  FM can be a real desert so you need to work hard at getting people up on the air.  I had great turn out from all the surrounding grids.  This effort doubled my number of 146.520 contacts from last September. 

I worked fromFM08JL at  Reddish Knob,  4,400 feet deep inside the National Radio Quiet Zone.  It took almost of month of emails and station specificatons being sent out to get permission but was Oh So Worth It.  I was able to run zero squelch and dig out the weak ones.  

The propagation was great, the weather kind of stank. I sat on top of a heavy cloud deck that was full of moisture.  The clouds formed a leaky surface based duct that enhanced range but did not prevent pentration to the ground in the nearby grids.  This gave great propagation but Saturday night it climbed up onto me so I was in thin clouds full of mist with the occassional shower. I was able to reach new grids to the south and southeast (FM05 and FM15) but was never able to get into the Philly area or SE Pennsylvania where the big contest stations are unless I used SSB.  I was able to work stations to the east and south east at 250 miles+.

For this contest I added and SSB mast mounted preamp to 432 (446) and it really paid off.  I knew that in the past people could hear me much further out than could hear them on 446.000MHz.  The SSB preamp more than doubled my 432 score from last September.  223.5 saw no increase and there were only two attempts made that I could not complete.  I think 146.520 is the place to go next year with a preamp.  There were quite  few almost had thems on that band and given my 250 mile + range some could have been new grids.

Big thanks to N3GOV/R, W7IY/R, KG4HOT/R,  KJ4ZYB/R, K1RZ and WB3CEH.  You guys went above an beyond the call with QSO's, grids and setup & station testing before the contest.  14,749 is a huge FM score and I owe that to your efforts and those of all the hams that turned out over the weekend.  Thank you FM08 residents for putting up with me all weekend.  I hope you found the short rag chews interesting and my failure to manage pile ups in a fully effective manner hillarious.

73

John

KM4KMU