[NLRS] sept VHF results

[Ken Boston]

Hello all;

I got my antenna mast replaced with a heavier version, and all 7 bands
re-stacked with just moments to go.
I found that with the 7 bands squeezed onto the 10 feet sticking out of
the 8 foot Glen Martin, that I had some interaction that caused 222, 903
and 50 meg to apparently work to a lesser degree than I had seen in the
past.  I also hope that new feedline on the 903 was the only problem
stemming from lightning back in june.  Nope, I was still somewhat deaf;
I guess a new FET in the transverter is in order.  

I seem to be getting more and more noise, particularily on 50 and 144
MHz, as the neighborhoods around me get built up, as this plagued me
most of the weekend.  I put in a (for me) a nearly full time effort this
year, but, as happened in June, I was able to essentially miss the big
aurora.  I went off the air at midnite (0500Z) and got back on the
following morning at about 7 am (1200Z), when I discovered the AU that
had been boiling most of the night.  I did make a few CW contacts before
the AU died here in EN53.  Later in the day, it made a weak comeback,
and I managed some more, although Pat and Tim (K0PG, K9ILT) made a nice
visit then, and we tested the 2304 stations.  Both our stations had been
hearing other stations, but had yet to be heard by anyone.  Since my
power meter was showing 1 watt out, I was worried that I was not sending
a coherent signal out, but rather some garbage that was not discernable.
Tests with Tim showed a (relatively) clean signal on both ends.  Go
figure??

I did have a nice run on 6 meter E skip and managed to find a few people
out there over the weekend.  I did not do a lot of CQing on 144, but
more searching the bands.  144, 432, and 1296 worked well, 50 and 222
were weaker that normal, 903 was marginally alligator-ish and 2304 was
hearing OK, but not being heard.  Since Tim and Pat were not rovering,
our driveway QSO on 2304 cannot count for the test.

All that being said, my overall score was 'decent' or average for a
September test.

50 meg	95 Q		95 pts	37 grids
144 		127		127		38
222		54		108		21
432		80		160		26
903		15		45		10
1.2 gig	29		87		15
2.3		0		0		0

Tot		400 Q		622 pts	147 grids

Claimed score		91,434 overall

If my 903 and 2.3 had performed OK, possible score would have been
110-115 K
And had I tied into the AU, who knows??

Log will be submitted under Badger Contesters

More later

Ken  W9GA