[NLRS] W0JT - SOLP - June VHF Claimed Score

[John P. Toscano]

Propagation?  What propagation?

Conditions here were so horrible that I only managed 5 Q's in 2 
(count'em, TWO) grids on 902 and the sam on 1296.  Even more troubling, 
I managed only 4 grids each on 222 and 432.  Worked a fair number of 
rovers, but in a lot fewer grids on a lot fewer bands than I (and they) 
expected. I never caught W9FZ/r in EN55 but I know he made it there, as 
I heard a station in South Carolina work him on 6M during one of the 
openings.

Two meters was my most consistent band, and still netted me only a 
handful of grids.  Six meters was mostly noise most of the time, but I 
encountered two different sporadic E openings, one to the southeast 
(from about 1650 UTC to 2004 UTC) and one to the south (from 0139 UTC to 
0238 UTC).  For a short time I felt like I was running a 20M phone 
station at Field Day as I sat on 50.130 and let the players come to me! 
  So there were a few periods of excitement among the rest.

Something weird seems to be going on with my 432 amplifier. A couple of 
different stations claimed to hear nothing from me on 432 with the 
amplifier switched in (100 watts), but heard me ok with the amplifier 
switched out (50 watts).  The strange thing is that the wattmeter said I 
was putting out the expected power levels in both states, and my Icom 
R-10 handheld receiver heard me just fine on CW from down in the 
basement shack in either setting.  Hmmm, I need to give that one some 
more thought.

Preliminary score, subject to log scrutiny:

Band    QSO's   Grids  QSO Points
-----  -------  -----  ----------
    50     88      30          88
   144     33      12          33
   222     11       4          22
   432     17       4          34
   902      5       2          15
  1296      5       2          15
10368      0       0           0
-----  -------  ------   ----------
Total    159      54    x    207   = 11,178

If nothing else, at least I got to stay home from work for a few days!

Thanks to all of you for being out there!
73 de W0JT, EN34js