[NLRS] UHF contest at N9DG

[Duane Grotophorst]

Well another ARRL UHF contest in the log. This was
only the second time I put any significant effort into
this contest. Local conditions were pretty flat and I
hardly worked or even heard many of the NLRS gang. I
didn't really think that I would hear many of the
rovers, but I was however quite disappointed that I
didn't work many of the fixed station regulars up that
way. I spent a quite a bit of time with the antennas
to the NW and sweeping the band with the spectrum
sweep, hardly saw any activity spikes at all on any of
the announced frequencies. Only heard bits and pieces
of KM0T a couple of times, and K0AWU was a lot harder
to work than he should have been on 222, didn't even
try on 432. KF0Q/R was good for several Q's, but then
he was relatively close. The K0PG/K9ILT rover team
provided a big boost to the Q and multiplier total's
once again.

>From the southwest K2DRH was in there loud as ever,
and it was nice to work both K9AKS/R, and KB0PE in
that direction as well. The big surprise and treat was
working into EM25 and EM13 (~800 miles) on Saturday
evening, too bad there weren't more ops on down that
way. That opening seemed to last about an hour or so
from what I could tell, just no activity to speak of. 

To the south I picked up a few Q's but the activity
level wasn't anything like a typical VHF contest
weekend. The southeast wasn't much better either.

KC9BQA was putting in a booming signal here from the
Milwaukee area, I could generally hear him no matter
which way I was pointed, not many stations can do that
here on 432. Heard bits and pieces of K2YAZ from the
NE but no Q's there either, bummer.

On the balance I'm quite satisfied with the score, my
Q and grid totals for 222 and 432 were about 1/2 to
2/3 of a major VHF contest effort for those two bands.
Not bad considering that fewer people get on for the
UHF contest to begin with, and it's only about 2/3 as
long as the major VHF contests are. Additionally sleep
time represents a larger percentage of the overall
contesting time so in theory it should be harder to
hit the 2/3 Q/M totals.

The numbers:

222 - 30 Q's 16 M's
432 - 31 Q's 16 M's

Claimed score 5856.

Once again both 222 and 432 were neck and neck for
results, - so don't let anyone tell you that 222 isn't
worth the effort.

Duane
N9DG


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com