[NLRS] January VHF Contest Results, W0AMT/R

[Jon W0AMT]

John and I had another fun and entertaining VHF contest.

We originally planned to activate 11 grids.  It didn't work out that way.
During the week the weather forecast was deteriorating and we cut it back to 10.

I finished fabricating the bracket for the new 6 meter dipole the Thursday
before the contest.  The antenna tuned up great on the analyzer in free space,
Installed on the antenna mast was a different story,  SWR about 2.4.  It was
interacting with the 432 beam.  By Friday it was too late and too cold to move
the antennas so we went with it.  We still don't hear well at all on 6 so I may
go with the PAR Moxon for the June  contest.

Starting the contest in EN33 worked out great, good signals and qso's right from
the start.  We worked stations almost continuously the first 2 1/2 hours of the
contest, stopped for lunch in Mankato then headed up to Winsted.  Long dry spell
while driving to Winsted, that is the nature of the beast.  We could of spent
more time cq'ing on 6 while mobile if that antenna had worked better.

More great signals from the Winsted/Howard Lake grids,  with many 902/1296/2304
qso's.  Worked many station's enroute from Howard Lake to Ridgedale,  we setup
on the ridge above Ridgedale, easy ssb qso's on all bands.

The Weather forecast on Sunday morning was bad with heavy snow expected that
afternoon / evening.  We kicked EN44 and drove straight to EN45 to try beating
the snow.  We stopped in Cameron, WI for EN45, it is a good compromise between
the Eau Claire stations and the Twin Cities stations with easy shots towards
Eastern Wisconsin.  We worked many contacts from EN45 but missed any stations
outside 44/34.

We stopped in Minong, WI. The usual EN46 location.  The signals are much harder
to hear and work up in the NorthWoods on a good day and Sunday was not a good
day.  We worked Bill, K0AWU on all bands in September with great signals,  on
Sunday we had to use CW for 432 and 1296 was at the ESP level on CW so we only
worked 3 bands.  We had somewhat better luck towards the city with SSB qso's on
432 but no luck on 1296.  We did complete 2 902 qso's with our 40 watt 902
system so that was good.

The road to Hinckley was an adventure, snow covered etc, at least it was
daylight.  We worked contacts for about 1 1/2 hours from 2 locations in EN36
with good signals through 2304 but still missed Bill on 1296,  Conditions
towards EN37 were way off on Sunday afternoon.

We worked stations pretty consistently while southbound on I-35 through EN35,
That helps the miles go by pretty fast.  We stopped in the parking lot of the
White Bear Lake Township Softball Field and worked stations for about 2 hours
but had a very high noise level on 6 and 902, need to find a better location in
EN35 possibly in Wisconsin.

We finished the contest down the street from my home.  We worked W9FZ/R, W0IS/R
and KC0OIA/R while at our last stop.  The most rovers we worked the whole
contest.

We worked lots of QSO's but had very few multipliers.  A pretty low score for
such a high count.

The 6 meter antenna needs more research and possibly another design in the
spring.

Thanks to all the stations that were on for the contest,  you are the ones that
make all the planning and work worth it.

Special thanks to W0ZQ for his advice and encouragement and W0GHZ for more
advice and encouragement and the loan for his 2304 system.

Our results:

QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid     QSOs
EN36     31
EN45     45
EN23     31
EN46     24
EN24     35
EN33     30
EN25     37
EN34     90
EN35     86

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rover rules:
Band     QSOs     Value     QSOPts     Mults
50         44             1             44         3
144     124              1           124        7
222       70              2           140        5
432       85              2           170        5
903       34              4           136        2
1.2        33             4            132        3
2.3        19             8            152        1


Grids activated:                                  9

Totals: 409                            898       35

Claimed Score: 31430

73,
John, KC0LBT
Jon, W0AMT