2010 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
01/25/2010 |
KC2QZF/R
Where to start? Steve KC2QZF and Gary N2WLS worked limited rover in grids FN02,FN03,FN12,FN13,FN14,FN22,FN23,FN24. 707 road miles. Ouch!
What a great time! We got off to a slow start in Northern NY, but things picked up rapidly as we drove back south along I-81, stopping several times to work stations. This contest was the first for both stacked loops for mobile work and stacked yagis for stationary activity.
We spent the rest of Saturday and early Sunday in the FN23,22,12 area and worked quite a few, including our section manager Scott W2LC.
A special thanks goes to Bill WA2LEY for an EXCELLENT rover spot in FN12. Great views, great contacts. Thanks Bill.
Thanks to Kevin K9KVN for the loan of the loops for mobile SSB. Worked great, kept us on the air SSB while mobile.
Our usual rover mentors Mark K2QO and Paul W2TAU stayed home this contest, but were far from inactive. They worked several bands from Mark's home station and worked us from several grids with big signals. Thanks guys.
My home club, W2SO in Lancaster NY also fielded a 3 band station on saturday and worked us from several grids. Thanks guys. You get out fine!
What else. Rochester NY was again a hotbed of activity on both FM and SSB, leading to many many contacts. Thanks all! Our short stop in FN13 near the city was worth it!
We had some decent DX on 6M, 2M, and even 430. nothing fantastic but decent. we're happy.
Most everything worked, except our 2M FM rig caused the router to crash every time we keyed up. made logging challenging.
Speaking of challenging, we thought the 50 MPH sustained winds were bad until they were joined by hard rain at 35 degrees.
It gives new meaning to the term "driven element".
We finished up sunday in Gary's home grid FN02, with gary madly working Q's as I drove him home, finally shutting down when we crossed into the valley where he lives.
Overall, we had a ball and logged a reasonable score.
See you all in June, and thanks to all who worked us, and apologies to those we could not hear. I suspect my TS-2000 is a touch deaf on 2M and plan on looking into it.
Steve kc2qzf/r -- KC2QZF
What a great time! We got off to a slow start in Northern NY, but things picked up rapidly as we drove back south along I-81, stopping several times to work stations. This contest was the first for both stacked loops for mobile work and stacked yagis for stationary activity.
We spent the rest of Saturday and early Sunday in the FN23,22,12 area and worked quite a few, including our section manager Scott W2LC.
A special thanks goes to Bill WA2LEY for an EXCELLENT rover spot in FN12. Great views, great contacts. Thanks Bill.
Thanks to Kevin K9KVN for the loan of the loops for mobile SSB. Worked great, kept us on the air SSB while mobile.
Our usual rover mentors Mark K2QO and Paul W2TAU stayed home this contest, but were far from inactive. They worked several bands from Mark's home station and worked us from several grids with big signals. Thanks guys.
My home club, W2SO in Lancaster NY also fielded a 3 band station on saturday and worked us from several grids. Thanks guys. You get out fine!
What else. Rochester NY was again a hotbed of activity on both FM and SSB, leading to many many contacts. Thanks all! Our short stop in FN13 near the city was worth it!
We had some decent DX on 6M, 2M, and even 430. nothing fantastic but decent. we're happy.
Most everything worked, except our 2M FM rig caused the router to crash every time we keyed up. made logging challenging.
Speaking of challenging, we thought the 50 MPH sustained winds were bad until they were joined by hard rain at 35 degrees.
It gives new meaning to the term "driven element".
We finished up sunday in Gary's home grid FN02, with gary madly working Q's as I drove him home, finally shutting down when we crossed into the valley where he lives.
Overall, we had a ball and logged a reasonable score.
See you all in June, and thanks to all who worked us, and apologies to those we could not hear. I suspect my TS-2000 is a touch deaf on 2M and plan on looking into it.
Steve kc2qzf/r -- KC2QZF
Photo Gallery
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Nice spot in FN23
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Our spot in FN22
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view of front sea...
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