2003 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
01/23/2003 |
K2AXX
Well, another VHF SS in the books! I was quite thrilled to even be on the air this time around. First, thanks to all the Rovers who braved the worst the Northeast could dish out!
I lost the first 4 hours of the contest (which usually equals death to any score!) thanks to broken gear. My 1296MHz transverter was smoked, 3456MHz wouldn't key, 903 wouldn't key and 432 had a bad input relay for the PA. Well, after fixing 3GHz, 903 and 432, the 1.2GHz stuff still was broken! Tail between legs, I called W2FU to ask if he had a spare. Well, he did. SO I left my house at 1:30pm, and drove the hour to his place. Picked it up with the contest already underway, and drove an hour home. Once I got it set up and working, I was back on 50MHz - 10GHz. Uncomfortably, of course.
What's the cost of this? I guesstimate about 180K. Yep. I missed 3 rovers in 2 grids each, and by the end of the contest each 10-band new mult rover was worth about 30K each.
Activity seemed down. I didn't work a bunch of usuals, but did make some UNusual QSOs. WA8RJF and I tried on 903/1296 without success. For giggles, we tried 2304, and Tony's reply was "sheesh - you are LOUD". So we did 2304 then 3456, and walked down to 903/1296. And working WA2FGK randomly on 2304 was kinda fun as well.
The Es opening was quite the thrill. About 2 hours of Es here, mostly 9/0 at the beginning, then swinging down into 4/5 - about 100 QSOs and 30 grids or so.
Once the gear was on the air, it played well. I'm pleased with my outcome, and hope that I can avoid these same problems for next time!
Thanks for the QSOs!
Mark, K2AXX -- K2AXX
I lost the first 4 hours of the contest (which usually equals death to any score!) thanks to broken gear. My 1296MHz transverter was smoked, 3456MHz wouldn't key, 903 wouldn't key and 432 had a bad input relay for the PA. Well, after fixing 3GHz, 903 and 432, the 1.2GHz stuff still was broken! Tail between legs, I called W2FU to ask if he had a spare. Well, he did. SO I left my house at 1:30pm, and drove the hour to his place. Picked it up with the contest already underway, and drove an hour home. Once I got it set up and working, I was back on 50MHz - 10GHz. Uncomfortably, of course.
What's the cost of this? I guesstimate about 180K. Yep. I missed 3 rovers in 2 grids each, and by the end of the contest each 10-band new mult rover was worth about 30K each.
Activity seemed down. I didn't work a bunch of usuals, but did make some UNusual QSOs. WA8RJF and I tried on 903/1296 without success. For giggles, we tried 2304, and Tony's reply was "sheesh - you are LOUD". So we did 2304 then 3456, and walked down to 903/1296. And working WA2FGK randomly on 2304 was kinda fun as well.
The Es opening was quite the thrill. About 2 hours of Es here, mostly 9/0 at the beginning, then swinging down into 4/5 - about 100 QSOs and 30 grids or so.
Once the gear was on the air, it played well. I'm pleased with my outcome, and hope that I can avoid these same problems for next time!
Thanks for the QSOs!
Mark, K2AXX -- K2AXX
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