2005 ARRL June VHF Contest
06/29/2005 |
N
Greetings ( ) from ...N0URW ...en41go ... Iowa
I participated in the single operator high power section...
At contest start Saturday::: I started out pointing north... Signals on the lower 4 bands were average... But there didn't seem to be very many Q's to be had ... As I turned northwest ,, I was greeted by enough noise from various sources to know it wasn't going to work that way...So I turned to the east... East was terrible, with below average band conditions... As I turned to the south, all I could hear were static crashes from a thunder storm...So I just kept turning towards the west... It wasn't very hard while pointing southwest to find K0HA out in en10 on 6 meters...He always puts a great signal in here...I also logged a DM 52 & 54 station moments later... They just popped in & popped out...Well after that it was hard to get out over 200 miles on 6 ... There was the occasional 400+ mile contact on 2 ,, but few & far between.. For the most part,,,2,,,222 & 432 were good out 250-300 miles... Saturday evening,,, 6 would reopen to the southwest,south & southeast...It wasn't what I would call wide spread...But it sure helped the log... (ֿ As luck would have it ,,, It all faded away around 03:00 utc with K7RC in DM09 being my last long distance contact... The rest of Saturday night turned out to be a little above average band conditions on the lower 4... The Michigan,,Indiana Stations were easy copy this year...Stations to the north and south also sounded great... Only 4 different rovers were heard on Saturday... I figured the low number was due to all the noise I had to the west,northwest... However!!! One thing was missing Saturday Night ... Where the heck is Bob,, K2DRH.. It's not hard for us to run into each other several times during a contest as we share the same grid square,,,but not the same state... It wasn't until Sunday morning that I would learn of his problems of no electricity...
Sunday///Sunday///Sunday:::The morning started out slow ...I wasn't hearing much on 6 meters... So it must be time to run up my score on the other bands...2 , 222 & 432 signals were great... But still not a lot of Q's to be had... It all dried up around noon... So I sacked out a couple hours... Was it ever worth it...
Feeling all rested up,,, I started out on 2 ,222 & 432 again,, 6 was dead... A nice steady stream of q's were flowing when the aurora hit... I switched to 6 meters...Now this is more like it... Nothing like an aurora to raise the old grid count...And did it ever...As the afternoon progressed the aurora faded away and it was back to contesting the old fashion way.. Hammering away on 6 and 2 then moving up to the higher bands...2 & 222 signals came way up towards the end to make contact with K0AWU en37 & KF0Q/R en35 very easy...There was a big push the last 2 hours of stations coming in from all directions...The noise to the northwest was gone...It was about time the lower 4 came to life...
The Ending:::
Six meters turned out to be the main band for high q's and grids both days from my qth...When six wasn't open ,, 2 , 222 & 432 ... were very effective... All the station improvments I made this spring to the lower 4 really made a difference...I even logged a few 1296 contacts...My 1296 setup has a few bugs yet to be worked out...Once thats done I'll be adding 903...Look for me next in the July CQ Vhf contest..Then in the August ARRL Uhf contest... Finishing out the year in the September ARRL Vhf contest... 73's All Dan -- N
I participated in the single operator high power section...
At contest start Saturday::: I started out pointing north... Signals on the lower 4 bands were average... But there didn't seem to be very many Q's to be had ... As I turned northwest ,, I was greeted by enough noise from various sources to know it wasn't going to work that way...So I turned to the east... East was terrible, with below average band conditions... As I turned to the south, all I could hear were static crashes from a thunder storm...So I just kept turning towards the west... It wasn't very hard while pointing southwest to find K0HA out in en10 on 6 meters...He always puts a great signal in here...I also logged a DM 52 & 54 station moments later... They just popped in & popped out...Well after that it was hard to get out over 200 miles on 6 ... There was the occasional 400+ mile contact on 2 ,, but few & far between.. For the most part,,,2,,,222 & 432 were good out 250-300 miles... Saturday evening,,, 6 would reopen to the southwest,south & southeast...It wasn't what I would call wide spread...But it sure helped the log... (ֿ As luck would have it ,,, It all faded away around 03:00 utc with K7RC in DM09 being my last long distance contact... The rest of Saturday night turned out to be a little above average band conditions on the lower 4... The Michigan,,Indiana Stations were easy copy this year...Stations to the north and south also sounded great... Only 4 different rovers were heard on Saturday... I figured the low number was due to all the noise I had to the west,northwest... However!!! One thing was missing Saturday Night ... Where the heck is Bob,, K2DRH.. It's not hard for us to run into each other several times during a contest as we share the same grid square,,,but not the same state... It wasn't until Sunday morning that I would learn of his problems of no electricity...
Sunday///Sunday///Sunday:::The morning started out slow ...I wasn't hearing much on 6 meters... So it must be time to run up my score on the other bands...2 , 222 & 432 signals were great... But still not a lot of Q's to be had... It all dried up around noon... So I sacked out a couple hours... Was it ever worth it...
Feeling all rested up,,, I started out on 2 ,222 & 432 again,, 6 was dead... A nice steady stream of q's were flowing when the aurora hit... I switched to 6 meters...Now this is more like it... Nothing like an aurora to raise the old grid count...And did it ever...As the afternoon progressed the aurora faded away and it was back to contesting the old fashion way.. Hammering away on 6 and 2 then moving up to the higher bands...2 & 222 signals came way up towards the end to make contact with K0AWU en37 & KF0Q/R en35 very easy...There was a big push the last 2 hours of stations coming in from all directions...The noise to the northwest was gone...It was about time the lower 4 came to life...
The Ending:::
Six meters turned out to be the main band for high q's and grids both days from my qth...When six wasn't open ,, 2 , 222 & 432 ... were very effective... All the station improvments I made this spring to the lower 4 really made a difference...I even logged a few 1296 contacts...My 1296 setup has a few bugs yet to be worked out...Once thats done I'll be adding 903...Look for me next in the July CQ Vhf contest..Then in the August ARRL Uhf contest... Finishing out the year in the September ARRL Vhf contest... 73's All Dan -- N
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