[NLRS] N9TTX June Score

[Dave Aho - N9TTX]

My Jaw is still dropping from the scores and
conditions during the contest.  I am still nursing a
sore throat also..*L*  Anyhow, As usual, setup lately
has been a bear.  Unfortunately since I have to set
everything up every time a contest rolls around,
things always seem to get problematical.  Friday
errands and such took me up until the rain came
pouring down, so I decided not to set up the antennas
until Saturday.  I worked on cleaning the house and
getting things organised inside.  Saturday morning
rolled in and after a few errands, I started putting
the tower/antennas up...hmmm...where did the spool of
LMR400 for the 1296 go?  A call to Charlie N0ACK, and
it revealed that I left it at his place from our club
antenna day in April.  A quick run out there, and I
had my roll of coax.  The antennas and lines went
together and up with nearly no problems, but forsight
helped out in checking SWR on the ground 1st.  The 222
line had a bad connector at the antenna end, so
although it is not soldered, it is replaced with a
good N connector instead of a spin on.  Everything got
tilted up, and all the aluminum stayed in line...so I
had everything pointing the same way this time.  (I
did find out however that the rotor controller heading
was about 30 degrees off what the antennas were
actually at.  Darrell, K9AIH, was up and running, I
had to run lines into the amps and relays...trip to
the store for power connectors...listening to the
wonderful noise on six in the car.  I spent way too
much time teching out the switching and coax
feed/jumper issues in the shack for the high bands. 
By the time I got on air I was drained (No sleep does
not help either).  
    I first went S & Ping on 6 and worked the band a
couple times up to almost 50.500 and back.  It
reminded me of an HF contest in the peak of a cycle. 
Charlie already had oodles of contacts and the same
with everyone else.  I finally took a deep breath, and
found a "somewhat clear" spot at 50.250, and put my
call out...that was all she wrote.  Lucky me I had
160W on 6-meters, as I probably could not have held
the freq otherwise.  I had to give it a rest a couple
hours later when my mic had was numb (never got around
to switching to the headset), and the breaker tripped
on the amp.  I could have cooked dinner on the heat
sink.  I scurried around to find a fan, and settled
for blowing air over the top of the amp rack with the
floor fan.  I got back at it, and by the time things
did quiet down, I had between 250 and 275 Q's, almost
all on 6.  I picked up some of the tail end of the 2
meter opening, and found a bunch of new grids.  I did
not hear much of anything Saturday night/Sunday
morning...I think everyone was drained.  Sunday opened
up also but not to the extent as Saturday, but at
least in a new area for new multipliers. 
Unfortunately, I had to shut the amp down and run
15-20 watts during the race, as I was killing the
neighbor's TV...doesn't help when the opening is
directly over the top of her entertainment center (the
end of the beam hangs about 10 feet tops from the TV. 
Oh well, I did pick up a California station and heard
Mexico but could not pick out everything.  After I
cleaned up on the other high bands on Saunday, I had
blown my top score of 28K to bits.  I had a blast.  I
am still recouperating form it all, but it was about
time things opened up.  Let's hope they do the same
for the next contests to come.  No real problems this
time other than a lost coax and still trying to get
the high-power class setup figured out in the
shack..with the relays and connections.  Anyway, here
is the score from the Eau Claire Black hole station
(Someone blast that hill out of the way).


             ARRL VHF QSO PARTY -- 2006

      Call:      N9TTX
      Category:  Single Operator
      Power:     High Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      Mixed Mode 
      State:     WI

      BAND     QSO    QSO PTS      GRIDS

       50      324      324         115
      144       32       32          17
      222       16       32           8
      432       18       36           7
      1.2        5       15           1  
     -----------------------------------
     Totals    395      439         148  =   64,972

Equipment Description:
Yaesu FT-736R for 144, 222, 432, 1296
Yaesu FT-726R for 50, (and secondary 144, 432)

Mirage a-1015 amp for 150 watts on 50 Mhz
TE systems 4412G amp for 100 Watts on 432
AM-6155 amp for 440 Watts on 222

35 el M2 on 1296
25 el K1FO on 432
10 el modified dopplar on 222
14 el homebrew on 144
4 el collapsible homebrew on 50

Club Affiliation: CHIPPEWA VALLEY VHF CONTESTERS


I modulate, therefore I am!
               ...73, and all that jazz,


                 Dave...N9TTX


Always remember:  "It could be worse.....it could be raining."
                             Marty Feldman from "Young Frankenstein"



Come to the Central States VHF Society 40th
Conference in Minneapolis on July 27-30, 2006!
Info at www.csvhfs.org

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