[NLRS] Jan VHF SS Report KF0Q/0 - long

[kf0q@arrl.net]

I always enjoy hearing about everyone=92s attempts and successes for 
every contest effort.  I have missed the last couple of January 
contests due to conflicts with my son's youth hockey schedule =96 when 
I realized that the weekend this year was almost free I decided to 
attempt a low power portable effort for =9204.  After obtaining 
permission to set up and operate at the site in EN44 on Jan 2, I went 
up marked off the two mast locations, trailer location, and set the 
earth anchors in the partially frozen ground.  Everything was then 
marked with fluorescent orange paint. My first return trip on the 
17th was aborted due to the ice storm the night before.  My second 
return trip on Jan 21 to install antennas had to be aborted due to 
the dangerously high winds at the site.  (my 2 sided 12 ft fiberglass 
ladder blew over like a leaf!) The big stack (6MX5, 16LBX, 222-16) 
finally went up Friday afternoon and even though it was  -8F here 
the following morning, I pressed ahead and got the antennas for next 
four bands.  (I have been known to be fussy about how the stack looks 
...it really helped keeping my torpedo level in my back pocket this 
time out!)

In spite of the cold I was probably the most prepared for the contest 
start this year than any other time.  For the first time I didn't 
have too many new things to prepare - just build a jumper for the 
1296 preamp - and find all my junk!  Friday evening I actually had a 
meal at home and even watched a hockey game on TV! 

My generator was actually on-line at contest start as the trailer 
warmed up a bit I heard many of the locals mostly from EN44 
exchanging reports.  I took some extra time and made sure both keyers 
were operating, as I knew it would be nice to have a beacon available 
for the higher band qso's.   First contacts in the log were W9FZ/R.  
Bruce was really close to my west and really loud on all 7 bands!  
For the next few hours I was quite busy working Bruce and several of 
the locals including K0NY/R and WA9IGK/R on their four bands.  After 
that my encounter with other rovers was slim to none.  Did manage to 
work Tim and Pat (K0PG/R, K9ILT/R) once, KC0P/R a few times (1296!) 
and even KM0T/R on 144.  I never heard N0DQS/R and only heard W0AMT/R 
once for a few seconds :( 
 (It was pretty frustrating missing out on some new mults though as 
my 10W signal didn=92t seem to raise any attention.  Several times I 
was frantically sending CW to no avail on several bands.)  One bright 
spot however; was hooking up with N2BJ and WB9Z on CW, and eventually 
Rich, N0HJZ on 432 (tnx Rich!) as well.  Although things were pretty 
quiet to the east - I did happen to run into KC9BQA for a 3 band 
sweep.  Another bright spot was having all band sweeps with several 
other folks.... 902 and 1296 were the most impressive this time out.  
My frozen tower mounted xverter box for 2304 and 3456 seemed to work 
just fine too!  (Hard to imagine the difficulty I had in '99 with my 
first 1296 qso's in January...) 

My whole operation came to a dead stop just after 5:00 Sunday when 
the generator failed  - not sure if the snow just blew inside or what 
caused the sparks and flame - (ouch).  (maybe need to find a contest-
rated generator next time out.)  Only other casualty was my 222 rig.  
It was also giving me trouble on Saturday  - ending up using my 
xverter for back-up on Sunday. In all I still think the effort was a 
success - had plenty of room for more contacts - and learned a great 
deal about cold WX setup and logistics.  Tear down was of course an 
equal challenge with the snow on the way - I got all the gear back to 
the house in record time by 7:00 Monday morning just before the snow 
hit hard. (Whew).

Tnx to all the Rovers =96 hope we hook up in more grids next time =96 but 
I do understand and appreciate those challenges in winter!  Tnx to 
everyone else for the qso's (and bandwidth here -)
73,
Matt
KF0Q


ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes

Call used: KF0Q
Operator(s): KF0Q
Location: EN44
Category: Single-OP-Portable               
 
Exchanged Information: KF0Q EN44     Hours of Operation: 16:48
 
 
     band      QSOs      points    mults
                                        
      50         37          37      12
     144         67          67      15
     222         20          40       9
     432         35          70      10
     903         11          44       4
     1.2         19          76       5
     2.3          6          48       4
     3.4          1           8       1
     10G          0           0       0
                                        
     TOTAL      196         390      60      SCORE: 23,400
 
 
     Club or Team Name: Northern Lights Radio Society