02/02/2004 | N0URW NRW en41go (ؿ

Greetings everyone.........
I was ready,,,,my equipment was ready,,,,but mother nature had other plans....A Huge Ice & Snow storm projected to hit over the weekend curtailed some rovers from my area...Not to worry, I had already planned on running hi-power on 6 & 2 ....In past years ,running low power in January just didn't give me the punch to make it over the higher noise levels..So this year I was ready... I just finished installing a new 2 meter beam & wanted a good test...( the beam worked great)Once again the noise played a factor & high winds slowed antenna positioning.
Saturday: A nice opening on 6 meters into the Florida area prior to the contest all but vanished by start time.. I managed to log a few east coast stations on 6, but very spotty. 2 meters was the place to be , with good conditions to the north & south out 400+ miles.... 222 mhz. & 432 mhz. were also good...
Sunday: I awoke Sunday morning to bitter cold winds howling through the trees... Brrrrr... East winds so strong my antennas had to be pointed east or west... This was ok for a while as I found several stations on 6 meters out east to work off scatter...2,222 & 432 were average.... Late Sunday afternoon the winds died down enough to turn the antennas...Again 2 meters worked out to 400+ miles north & south... & 350+ miles east & west ...
With no major tropo over the weekend from my qth, my score shows an average January VHF contest... Thanks again to the rovers who did make it into my log & I promise come June ,you won't have to worry about ice or snow,however there is the occasional tornado...Hope you all had fun! I Did!
Listen for me in June,,,hope to have my new 2 meter array up !73's () -- N0URW