[NLRS] CQ contest weekend

[Bill K0AWU]

 Hi Guys..

  I have enjoyed "playing" with the  CQ contest the last few years. For me I 
usually try to fill out the Central States 6m list during this contest more 
than anything else. I don't enjoy the 24/7 6mEs operations. Find me some 
weak signals here and there! 

  I continue to be uncomfortable running too much 6m power for the 
weekend, but the IC746Pro driver board went belly up, again, moments 
before the contest started and I used the pre-746 station on 6 and 2m. 
About 150 watts on 6m and 400watts on 2m.

  I was pleased with the state/prov count progress and I did run a few 
strings on 6m, but operated pretty casually for the entire contest 
weekend. Worked VERY little 2m since 6m was open the entire contest.

  367- 6m contacts (151 grids) and 58- 2m contacts 25 grids. 

The 2 meter SDReceiver came to life with K8GP FM08 Saturday at 
23:52z up at 144.210 and I posted the 2m Es ... They were very strong. I 
also worked K4RTS FM08, my pal Jerry KN4SM FM16, K3IB FM19, 
WF4R FM16 and KO4YC FM17 via the 2m Es. The 2m Es were in and 
out for about 40min, mostly out. I left the shack two times during this 
period thinking it was over to eat a bite.

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 Last night, the better tropo was south of us, but highlights include AA9MY 
EN50 (500+ miles)  2m (50watts),  1296 SSB Q with  K2DRH 411miles S-
7, VE3TMG 2m (50watts), K8TQK 761miles 2m (50watts) and 432 
(200watts), nil 1296. The tropo "left" about 03:20z ... gone ... A few 
worked in closer, but the tropo was not as good as it looked on the APRS 
here.

 Worked Dennis NT0V on 50,144,222,432 (mostly Sunday am) but 
signals were not strong.

  Saturday night 5:09z Gary W0GHZ and I had a very nice 10ghz tropo 
SSB Q , S8 to S9 on this end... best we have had via tropo since Aug 03. 
Each of our pure tropo Qs over the weekend have had considerable 
multipath distortion. 

Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed