[NLRS] January 2006 VHF SS from W0JT

[John P. Toscano]

Don't worry, this won't be one of my usual encyclopedia-length messages!

Prep for the contest went better than expected.  50 MHz through 1296 MHz 
operational, and I even managed to coax the IC-251a (my IF radio for 902 
and 1296) to operate in CW after a fashion when needed -- straight key 
only, which makes my bad CW into horrible CW, but better than nothing 
when the going's tough.  One of these days, . . .

I even managed to repair the 2304 transverter so that it would receive 
as well as transmit.  (I had found out the hard way in the August UHF 
multi-op that it would transmit all the time as soon as it was powered 
up!)  Of course, that was a moot point, as I don't have the antenna for 
2304 on the tower, that will wait for spring.  Much to my surprise, my 
new 3456 transverter arrived on Friday, but since I wasn't expecting it 
until after the contest, I had not done any work on the PA for it, nor 
did I have an antenna up for it.  But progress sometimes requires one 
step at a time . . .  And though 10 GHz is working fine business (check 
out the ARRL web site for the 2005 10 GHz and up contest!), there is no 
location within 500 meters of my home station that sees anything but 
houses, trees and hills.  So I never turned it on.

On to the contest itself:
I couldn't mount a full effort this time around, too many other things 
going on at home, plus I wasn't feeling the best.  So I worked a few 
hours, rested awhile, worked some more, rested some more, did some 
chores around the house, etc.  As several people agreed with me on the 
air, conditions were downright horrible.  Poor propagation and lots of 
noise.  If there were any 6M band openings, they didn't happen while I 
was in the station operating.  I never heard a lot of the big guns I 
expected to work, though I did bump into a number of folks I never 
expected to get on the air.

Results: (W0JT EN34js SOLP)
    50  37 QSOs  8 grids
   144  47 QSOs  9 grids
   222  13 QSOs  6 grids
   432  23 QSOs  6 grids
   902   6 QSOs  3 grids
  1296   6 QSOs  2 grids
-------------------------
Total 132 QSOs 34 grids  6936 points

This could be my last SOLP contest, since I will have well over 5 watts 
available on each of the high bands by June, which bumps me up to SOHP. 
  I doubt I'll be able to meet the competition in that category, but you 
never know.  If I was a rational person, instead of investing in more 
bands and more power, I would probably work harder on getting a "real" 
tower instead of my garage-roof quadpod.  I'm dreaming about a US Tower 
TX-472 tilt-over crank-up 72 footer.  I almost snagged a screaming deal 
on a used one last year, but almost doesn't count.  I'm still looking 
for another incredible deal!  :)

73 de W0JT