[MAMS] [NLRS] [NIMRODS] ARRL Sep VHF W9SZ Single Op Port QRP

[Zack Widup]

Hi Mike,

It was great to work N9UHF. Whatever you folks did seemed to help quite a
bit this time.

Conditions were up and down. 144 MHz saw some Au on Saturday afternoon.
Generally, 222 and 432 were better this weekend than they were in the August
UHF contest when those bands were very poor. 903 and 1296 were mostly pretty
good. Jim W9SNR and I had good conditions on Saturday afternoon for
microwave QSO's through 10 GHz. Then on Sunday morning those bands weren't
so good. Jim was in EN62cc (Willow Hill Golf Course parking lot) and we had
to fight for a while to get exchanges across on 10 GHz. Things picked up
again later in the day when he was at Tower Hill EN52sa.

I kept tuning in to the K3SIW 1296 MHz beacon when I wasn't working someone
(I seemed to spend quite a bit of time doing that!) The beacon sounded
pretty good all day Saturday but was weak after about 11 am or so on Sunday.
It seems the heat of the day took away any enhancement that was there
earlier. It picked up again around sunset.  I also noticed the beacon is
lower in frequency early in the morning when it's cooler (~1296.053) and
gradually drifts up to around 1296.065 as it warms up.

I hope conditions are decent for this coming weekend's 10 GHz contest. Looks
like there won't be any rain scatter around Wisconsin but sometimes the lake
has surprises.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 2:43 PM, <aa9il at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>
>
> Hi all
> It was great to make quite a few contacts on 902 and 1296 including Zack
> and W9SNR/R
> One thing that was an improvement (IMHO) was the use of some new (surplus)
> 3/8
> Andrews Heliax runs for 903 and 1296 - these were contiunous runs from the
> feed to the rig with no jumpers, N bullets, etc.  Im going to pick up a
> couple more
> of these runs for spares.
> We (N9UHF) were located just north of McHenry, IL in EN52.  Band conditions
> seemed good and 1296 seemed to perk up in the evening based on the K3SIW
> beacon signal
> strength.  Plans for the winter build season is to get some extra watts at
> 903
> with a 150 watt cellular amp and a 2C39 amp for 1296.
> The big question was where was everyone on the lower bands?  It was pretty
> quite on 6 and 2 but there did appear to be enhancements.
> One time on 1296 I even faintly heard some CW in the evening to the SE-
> didnt find who
> it was but randoms (or potential randoms) on that band indicate some kind
> of band opening was going on.
> Anyway, it was fun and that was the main thing.
> 73 de AA9IL
> MIke
>
>
> --- On Mon, 9/12/11, Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NIMRODS] ARRL Sep VHF W9SZ Single Op Port QRP
> To: "Mid-America Microwave Society" <mams at mailman.qth.net>, "nimrods" <
> nimrods at yahoogroups.com>, "NLRS List" <nlrs at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Monday, September 12, 2011, 10:03 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                    ARRL September VHF QSO Party
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Call: W9SZ
> Operator(s): W9SZ
> Station: W9SZ
>
> Class: Single Op Port QRP
> QTH: Illinois
> Operating Time (hrs): 19
>
> Summary:
>  Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>
>    2:   37    19
>  222:   23    16
>  432:   24    14
>  903:   10     8
>  1.2:   12     8
>  2.3:    6     6
>  3.4:    6     5
>  5.7:    4     4
>  10G:    4     3
>
> -------------------
> Total:  126    83  Total Score = 22,991
>
> Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
>
> Comments:
>
> Fun contest! Murphy only visited once; just after I got my last antenna set
> up
> it started raining. Had a downpour for about 15 minutes but nothing
> critical
> got wet. Weather was great for rest of contest. My favorite hill in EN50rl
> did
> well for me this weekend.
>
> We had a little bit of aurora on 144 MHz on Saturday afternoon. I made a
> couple
> Au QSO's and heard many other people via aurora, including VE3EZ, who
> couldn't
> hear me. 10 watts has its limitations.
>
> There was a fair amount of microwave activity compared to previous years.
> My
> high point in the contest was probably working K2YAZ on all bands through
> 3456
> (a 330 mile path). Thanks to W9SNR/R for all the QSO's mostly through 10
> GHz from four
>
> grids, and to K9JK/R for all the grids as he traveled up I-57.
>
> Also thanks to K2DRH for the sweep through 3456 MHz.
>
> And thanks to the farmer for letting me set up my antennas in his bean
> field! I tried to minimize the number of plants I stomped down.
>
> There were two stations I would have also liked to work. One was only
> active for a short time and the other never seemed to point his beams my
> way. Neither heard me. Both would've been multiple band QSO's, probably into
> the microwave bands. Oh well ... maybe next time.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
>