01/22/2008 | K0AWU ....ARGH .... That is my first thought when I reflect back on this contest. Well below zero temps, low humidity and other unknown factors combined to produce terrible conditions. The cold temps, poor conditions and the football playoffs in turn created a real void of activity. The result, my total score was the lowest in SIX years and that was back when I had only 4 bands instead of 7.

Specifically, no Es on 6m. I heard brief bursts from Marshall K5QEs contest station down in TX, but the power differential and briefness of the bursts didn't even yield a QRZ. Otherwise, 6m was flat as could be.

2m was flat and only three stations were worked over 250miles on tropo, K2DRH, NT0V and KC0CF. W0PHD EN18 at 164miles west on a very difficult path, had one of the better signals heard Sunday morning with very nice CW copy. 2m meteor scatter was even very poor.

432Mhz was in the poorest condition I can recall. I kept thinking that there must be some kind of equipment issue, but none was found and others in the area were reporting similar observations.

With the low temps reaching -20deg F, power line noise increased and I ran 2m with the SDR1000, internal xverter, preamp and driver amp combination. At 400watts, this combo was used in the Sept contest and it worked well again. The SDR1000 allows far superior noise deduction to the 746Pro, allowing operations in the presence of higher levels of QRN.

This was the first contest since I added 10Ghz in spring 2004 that I was not able to work W0GHZ on 10Ghz, at 155miles, after repeated efforts.

End result was only 96 contacts and 53 grids.

Minnesota EN37ed -- K0AWU