[NLRS] September 2005 VHF Contest at W0JT

[John P. Toscano]

Well, that was fun, but it's time to get some rest now!

Short story for now:

1) Got first QSO in the log almost 8.5 hours after the start of the 
contest, due to equipment that "was working the last time I tried it" 
but wasn't working at the start of the contest on Saturday.

2) Managed to get 50, 144, and 432 playing normally, 222 almost normally 
(a little low on power, which is better than trying to make so much 
power that the amplifier would blow up, which is where it was heading 
prior to repairs.  On 902 and 1296, the transverters both refused to put 
out more than 5 watts this time, so more work to do there.  The IF rig 
for those bands initially turned on with a BLANK freq readout, so I had 
no way to tune.  After a bit of fussing with it, the display came back 
to life MOST of the time.  And the CW function, which was working during 
the June contest, stopped working again -- all I can get out of it is an 
unmodulated continuous carrier, even though the radio's speaker plays 
dits and dahs according to what is sent to it by the straight key or the 
external keyer.  So getting the keyer fixed did me no good, since the 
radio still misbehaved.  Oh well, now we have a longer delay until the 
next ARRL VHF contest (in January), and by then I should have a 
different IF rig interfaced (famous last words)!  The 2304 transverter 
still transmits continuously as soon as it is hooked up, so that problem 
still needs attention, and there is no 2304 antenna on the tower now 
anyway, although I have had plans "forever" to re-do the whole antenna 
stack...  And 10 GHz is working better than ever (1.5 watts out instead 
of 20 mW), but I basically can't use it from home due to being down in a 
hole surrounded by tall trees.  (But it will get a workout next weekend!)

3) In spite of the late start and the incomplete equipment operational 
status,it looks like my score will be my biggest September VHF score 
unless I am mistaken, although it's certainly no record in the big 
scheme of things.

4) I really enjoyed working the aurora, and the 6M E-skip too.  I was 
very pleased to work several stations that I usually miss, KC9BQA and 
K2DRH, on 3 and 4 bands respectively.  As happened in the June contest, 
I bit the bullet and made a couple of QSO's on CW that would otherwise 
not have been made.  (I'm sure that's no big deal for many of you who 
are comfortable with CW, but I usually panic when it comes down to 
sending or receiving CW.  But at least my panic didn't completely freeze 
me up for a change.  SOMEDAY, I'll have time to practice, which is what 
I sorely lack.)

5) Preliminary results for my station:

W0JT, EN34js, SOLP, Northern Lights Radio Society

 Band  QSOs  Grids  Pts/Q  Pts
   50   87     55      1    87
  144   49     14      1    49
  222   17      8      2    34
  432   27     10      2    54
  902    5      2      3    15
 1296    6      2      3    18
 2304    0      0      4     0
10368    0      0      4     0
-----------------------------------
Totals  191    91    n/a   257  = 23,387 points

I'll try to keep the claimed scores updated on the NLRS web site as the 
reports come in here.
(http://www.nlrs.org/ContestScores/Admin/DisplayScores_VHF.php?Contest_ID=9&Year=2005 
is the URL)

73 de W0JT, NLRS Webmaster