[ILQSO] W9FGH Report

[John Schneider]

Hi Guys, 
 
The W9FGH team slightly beat our previous best year, operating from our
usual corner of Greene/Jersey/Macoupin counties. The operators were
myself on SSB, Jim K8IR on CW and Jim's 12 year old grandson Joey on
SSB.   We went overboard on antennas this year - three dipoles, a sloper
and a trapped vertical, and we brought a new antenna tuner this year.
Otherwise our working conditions were about the same as in past years.  
 
Like everyone else, we found the propogation to be a LOT different than
in other years.  40 M was only good for out of state contacts, as was 20
M.   About mid afternoon we discovered that 80 M was wide open for
in-state contacts, although only a few other stations had discovered it.
Eventually everyone else showed up and 80/75 ended up being our best
band.  We were able to hold and run frequencies most of the day and we
generated some nice pile-ups.   At one point, Joey had the rate meter up
to 100 contacts per hour, which I believe was the highest for the day.
Jim has trained him well - it's hard to believe he's only twelve! 
 
I don't have our exact statistics yet - Jim is on his way home to
Michigan today with our log and will finish it later in the week.  But I
know that we made about 240,000 points from 450+ contacts.  We had QSO's
with about 50 counties plus 51 states/provinces and 6-7 DX contacts.  I
attribute our score to the fact that we discovered 80 meters early, and
had set up dipoles for both 75 and 80.  Most importantly, we had a lot
of FUN.
 
73 and thanks to all,
 
-- 
John Schneider
W9FGH