[MAMS] More January VHF SS

Thu Jan 27 14:53:55 EST 2011

Ah the January contest - you gotta love it!
:-)

I'm glad others had similar observations about 3456 and up. I thought
it odd that signals would be so good on 2304 and nada from the same
station on 3456 and 5760.

There were a couple stations near to St. Louis on. W9GKA was on thru
432 and maybe 1296 (I worked him thru 432). I heard K0PFX on 432 but
was unable to work him.

I worked N4QWZ on 144 and 222 but we didn't make in on 432. In the
August UHF contest we worked easily through 902.

I'm thinking of operating from Bald Knob in southern Illinois for the
Spring microwave sprint if I can find out if the new owners are
amenable to ham radio operations like the old owners were.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Steve Clark <SL_Clark at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Zack,
>
> I left in the 8 band rover headed for EM47/57/46/56 corner Sat out
> of Memphis/EM55.  I got distracted thru EM45 with several of the guys
> which happens a lot, running the bands with K4XR, W5ZN and others.
> By 2100Z I began to rethink my plan (which was a mistake).
> A 6 band rover had shown at EM55/45/54/44 and several of us were trying
> to get those grids while he was there.
> I ended up turning around and operated at that 4 corners the rest of the
> day after KD4NOQ/R retired at dark working me from EM44/45.
> The weather predicted snow at EM47/57/46/56 for Sat nite & Sun so lost
> my window diverting to EM53/43/54/44 Sunday where I was able to run the
> bands with K5QE, K4XR, W4ZRZ, & others.  They were all very active and
> kept me busy thru 2304.  The sigs on 3456 were nearly ESP compared
> to 2304, not to mention K5QE's 3456 was down so no Qs logged there.
>
> For the wkend I briefly heard an EM37 but could not get his attn,
> otherwise only EM31, no EM40s above EM45, no EM50s above 55, no EM60s
> above EM66, & briefly heard an EM75 but no Q.
> Heard a number of good bursts on 6m but no Qs other than running the
> bands with the close in stations.
> We were surprised by the m/w sigs.  We were working on 2304 when unable
> to work on 6m.  Typically sigs were fairly weak on 2m so we coordinated
> on 432 or 222.  902/3 thru 2304 sigs seemed good up to 300 mi.
> W4ZRZ was working some paths thru 10GHz when he was having trouble at
> the lower freqs.  I generally do not take the 5 or 10GHz bands as nearly
> no ops in the areas I go.
>
> We all had a lot of fun.  Think I ended up with 188 Qs which is okay for
> Jan VHF, but I could have done much better if I'd pressed on to op in
> the grids south of St Louis as has been the norm for last couple of yrs.
> Hope to catch many of you guys in June.
>
> 73 de AG4V/R
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mams-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mams-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf
> Of Zack Widup
> Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 8:52 AM
> To: Mid-America Microwave Society
> Subject: [MAMS] January VHF SS
>
> Hi,
>
> Did anyone besides Bob K8TQK (Thanks for the QSO Bob!) participate in
> the January VHF Sweepstakes?
>
> I was Single-Op (QRP) Portable once again from the hill in EN50rl. I
> get set up and started around 2000Z on Saturday and operated till
> about 0400 on Sunday, then went QRT to go to the nearest motel 10
> miles away to sleep. I returned at about 1400Z on Sunday and operated
> till about 1930Z. I knew the impending Bears-Packers game was going to
> make the bands awfully quiet and I was freezing, so I took everything
> down and packed it up then.
>
> These were my results:
>
>  BAND     QSO    QSO PTS      GRIDS
>
>      144       22       22          14
>      222       13       26          11
>      432       13       26          11
>      903        3        12           3
>      1.2         5       20           5
>      2.3         2       16           2
>      3.4         1        8            1
>      5.7         0        0            0
>      10G       1         8            1
>
> Final score: 6624
>
> Microwave QSO's were scarce in this one. I worked W9OBG and K2DRH on
> 2304,  K2DRH on 3456, and W9ZIH on 10G. I could not work W9OBG or
> W9ZIH on 3456. We tried. Band conditions were very poor on microwave
> frequencies with "negative propagation" as Ron put it. Signals were
> very weak both ways on 10 GHz CW for us. Compare that to 20-over-9
> signals and a half-hour ragchew on SSB I had with W9ZIH one evening
> last summer from the same hilltop.
>
> I pointed my beams to the southwest fairly often in hopes of catching
> K4TO, K4XR or W4ZRZ. I did hear W4ZRZ briefly on 222 MHz but he
> dropped into the noise very rapidly. Long-distance (more than three
> grid squares away) signals on any band were very short-lived and
> sporadic. I did manage to work W0UC in EN44 and N4QWZ in EM66. Not a
> good weekend for propagation on any band. I could not hear any of the
> K3SIW beacons at all on Saturday and on Sunday I could only hear the
> 1296 beacon and it kept riding the noise level.
>
> So I don't know about this one for next year. Maybe I'll try to find a
> multi-op station where it's warm that will have me.
> :-)
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
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