[NLRS] June VHF contest at N9DG

[Duane - N9DG]

Well this one was a mixed bag with the negatives far
outweighing the positives.

The Pluses:

1. Nice albeit brief 6M opening into TX and little bit
Mexico.

2. Nice AU opening on Sunday, wow. The AU session added 20
plus grids to my 2M grid totals. It was nice working K8GP on
50, 144, and 222 AU. Worked a number of other eastern big
guns and Multiop efforts. W4IY Called ME on 222 after I was
working W9FZ/R in EN54 wow. It was amazing how far south the
AU extended. Since I had plenty of power line noise to my NE
on 6M I focused on 2M and up for the AU.

3. ???


The negatives:

1. Rather persistent power line noise in my NE though SW
directions with S7-9 noise for about 50% of the times that I
was pointed in those directions.

2. Laid low Saturday from ~6PM till Sunday morning, had some
T showers in the area that really didn't do anything but I
didn't want to risk a lightening hit either. And to add
insult to injury the piddley amount of rain from them did
next to nothing to squelch the power line noise.

3. Where was everyone? Only worked 2 stations that were
within 50 miles of my QTH. This was the poorest June
participation (at least locally) that I can remember.

4. "Normal distance" conditions were just plain poor from
what I can tell, if it wasn't for the brief 6M opening and
the AU my score would have been a total disaster for a June
contest. It seemed like I could only hear folks that were 100
Miles or so out if I was pointed at them. Usually I can tell
when the bigger stations are operating even if I'm not
directly pointing at them, not this time. KF0Q/R was tougher
to work that he should have been when he was in EN43, missed
him everywhere else. W9FZ/R in EN54 was tougher than he
should have been too. Most of the MSP area NRLS regulars
weren't heard at all. Ditto for many of the CVVHF'ers. What
happened to IA? Didn't work anyone in some grids I usually
work every contest like EN31 or EN22/23. Chicago area
stations were unusually scarce too.

5. General lack of rovers, at least ones who came decently
close by. No slam-dunk "shoot the fish in the barrel" rover
Q's for me this contest.

6. I tried running with sub RX's on the bottom 4 bands this
time. Didn't work all that well. Need to revisit the design
approach. Had a hard time telling exactly what audio as
coming form where. I did it the quick and dirty way so had
some pretty bad impedance miss matches on the RX IF lines,
also had some in the shack EMI problems with it.


The numbers:
           Q     M
 50 MHz   62    39
144 MHz   80    49
222 MHz   26    18
432 MHz   29    19
         197   125

Clamined Score 31,500

N9DG


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