2006 ARRL September VHF Contest
09/19/2006 |
K2DRH
September is a time for changes, however one really unwelcome change was the sudden cold front that turned off tropo propagation on Saturday and most of Sunday here in the Midwest. The contest started with lots of stations to work hoping for the good conditions wed enjoyed in recent weeks, but it soon slowed way down since very little out of the ordinary was happening. All in all it was pretty flat and 903 and above were just about impossible to work out past 250 miles. Reminded me of a January contest, only with more rovers who braved the unseasonably chilly, windy and rainy weather. There was so little going on that by Saturday night I was beginning to wonder if the final score would even break 100K!
Things picked up a bit after dark and a few of the northern stations like K0AWU in EN37 that are normally just out of my flat conditions range with low power went into the log easily, but only on 6M and 2M. Activity seemed down, especially from Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul, while some of the more sparsely populated grids to the West were a lot better represented than usual. WSJT went pretty well on 6M as always, but the rocks seemed far fewer and weaker on 2M. It was during the first WSJT sked that my 2M receive went dead and I thought Id lost my 2M preamp (again!). Great! The icing on the cake! A quick check confirmed that the receive was further down than it should be even with the preamp switched out of line, but the SWR was still fine. Frantic troubleshooting determined it was trying to receive through the amp (and not doing all that bad a job of it). The auxiliary T/R output relay in the transverter was sticking closed. I didnt work that first 2M sked, but finished out all my other WSJT skeds successfully by applying percussive maintenance with the handle of a screwdriver. Afterwards a work-around relay was rigged at the expense of an hour of precious sleep.
Sunday morning conditions were a little better to the east but the enhancement to the north had gone away and while I completed on 222 with K0AWU on JT65b and heard (actually saw is a better word) his high power signals on 432, he obviously couldnt decode my 100W. Should have done it the night before! Qs went into the log slowly but steadily and the higher bands were working out a whole lot better. My normal flat conditions range on 903 and 1296 seems to be around 300-350 miles with the well equipped fixed stations (as opposed to 400-450 on the lower 4), even with the overly restrictive 10W SOLP power limit right at the pairs of max element loopers on each band. Many times I hear them but they wont hear me even though they all have really good receivers! I can usually work K8TQK EM89 and K4TO EM77 right at 400 miles, but only because of their excellent stations since they are just barely above the noise here. Im not sure about 2304 and 3456 yet since I havent had them long enough, but so far the 1296 workable stations at 300 miles are mostly unworkable on those bands so I suspect it may be a lot less. Hard to tell for sure since there are so darn few stations to work within 200 miles of me, except the rovers. Then it depends on if they find a good spot or not. Rarely even work my own grid on 903 or 1296 unless W9UD makes time to get on (and he did!), and have never worked it on 2304 or 3456!
Sunday was slow and steady and the rovers like WA9SNR/R, KF0Q/R, K0JK/R, and WB8BZK/R really helped the QSO and grid total especially on 1296 and above. Sunday evening saw some enhancement along the cold front line to the south into Memphis, Kansas and even Oklahoma, but there were few stations pointing up this way to work. Tried with Steve AG4V in EM55 several times before we finally worked on 903 and 1296, but then we spent about 45 minutes trying 2304 (he did hear me briefly!). Of course this was right about the time of the brief 6M Es opening to Florida that Dan, N0URW told me I missed during our post contest round table. This is the second time that we spent way too much time trying to work a band during prime time, so I should know better already! I was rewarded with QSOs with K5OMC and W5RCI in EM44 on our 2M coordination frequency so it wasnt a total loss!
Often the end of a contest brings in a flurry of good mults and this one was no exception. In the last 10 minutes I worked KB9BQA in EN63 on 7 bands for four new band mults and finally pushed the score over 200K! More new mults on 2M and 6M also went into the log just as the final bell was sounding. Not a great contest considering how insane the June ARRL and July CQWW were, but certainly a solid one with fairly decent conditions overall.
73 de Bob2 -- K2DRH
Things picked up a bit after dark and a few of the northern stations like K0AWU in EN37 that are normally just out of my flat conditions range with low power went into the log easily, but only on 6M and 2M. Activity seemed down, especially from Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul, while some of the more sparsely populated grids to the West were a lot better represented than usual. WSJT went pretty well on 6M as always, but the rocks seemed far fewer and weaker on 2M. It was during the first WSJT sked that my 2M receive went dead and I thought Id lost my 2M preamp (again!). Great! The icing on the cake! A quick check confirmed that the receive was further down than it should be even with the preamp switched out of line, but the SWR was still fine. Frantic troubleshooting determined it was trying to receive through the amp (and not doing all that bad a job of it). The auxiliary T/R output relay in the transverter was sticking closed. I didnt work that first 2M sked, but finished out all my other WSJT skeds successfully by applying percussive maintenance with the handle of a screwdriver. Afterwards a work-around relay was rigged at the expense of an hour of precious sleep.
Sunday morning conditions were a little better to the east but the enhancement to the north had gone away and while I completed on 222 with K0AWU on JT65b and heard (actually saw is a better word) his high power signals on 432, he obviously couldnt decode my 100W. Should have done it the night before! Qs went into the log slowly but steadily and the higher bands were working out a whole lot better. My normal flat conditions range on 903 and 1296 seems to be around 300-350 miles with the well equipped fixed stations (as opposed to 400-450 on the lower 4), even with the overly restrictive 10W SOLP power limit right at the pairs of max element loopers on each band. Many times I hear them but they wont hear me even though they all have really good receivers! I can usually work K8TQK EM89 and K4TO EM77 right at 400 miles, but only because of their excellent stations since they are just barely above the noise here. Im not sure about 2304 and 3456 yet since I havent had them long enough, but so far the 1296 workable stations at 300 miles are mostly unworkable on those bands so I suspect it may be a lot less. Hard to tell for sure since there are so darn few stations to work within 200 miles of me, except the rovers. Then it depends on if they find a good spot or not. Rarely even work my own grid on 903 or 1296 unless W9UD makes time to get on (and he did!), and have never worked it on 2304 or 3456!
Sunday was slow and steady and the rovers like WA9SNR/R, KF0Q/R, K0JK/R, and WB8BZK/R really helped the QSO and grid total especially on 1296 and above. Sunday evening saw some enhancement along the cold front line to the south into Memphis, Kansas and even Oklahoma, but there were few stations pointing up this way to work. Tried with Steve AG4V in EM55 several times before we finally worked on 903 and 1296, but then we spent about 45 minutes trying 2304 (he did hear me briefly!). Of course this was right about the time of the brief 6M Es opening to Florida that Dan, N0URW told me I missed during our post contest round table. This is the second time that we spent way too much time trying to work a band during prime time, so I should know better already! I was rewarded with QSOs with K5OMC and W5RCI in EM44 on our 2M coordination frequency so it wasnt a total loss!
Often the end of a contest brings in a flurry of good mults and this one was no exception. In the last 10 minutes I worked KB9BQA in EN63 on 7 bands for four new band mults and finally pushed the score over 200K! More new mults on 2M and 6M also went into the log just as the final bell was sounding. Not a great contest considering how insane the June ARRL and July CQWW were, but certainly a solid one with fairly decent conditions overall.
73 de Bob2 -- K2DRH
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