[NLRS] EN37ed contest report

[Bill Davis Jr]

  Yea Rovers!!  Would it ever had been a tough weekend without the "wheels turning". 61 of my 192 QSOs were with rovers, 31.8% of my QSOs.  Thank You! I worked W6GMT in 6 grids on 3 bands (6,2,432), WA0VPJ/R in 8 grids on 4 bands (6,2,222,432), KC0P/R 6 QSOs and Carol N0HZO for 5 QSOs.

  Primarily due to the rover activity, especially Brock W6GMT/R (aided by the Steve "the human rotator" N0KKT) I had an all time high for grids worked on 432, 21 individual grids. This exceeded my previous high 432 grid count of 18 which had only been achieved twice in the 48 contests that I have submitted logs for. Brock "lit up" some nice grids: EN37, EN27, EN28, EN38, EN36 and EN26. He really had a better 432 signal in almost every grid than what I remember from his past roves. John WA0VPJ/R was booming in here over S9 from several grids, really nice signals. Mel, Carol and I had prearranged skeds on 2m for Saturday and worked 2 of the 3 skeds. the 3rd sked I was late for, being tied up working north and "just" missed  Mel on 144.190 CW ..saw his signal as I was winding up but when I finished only trace was a helpful voice "Mel was just calling you." Our Sunday QSOs were random.

  I took my portable 10Ghz system over to Jim KB0CIM and we worked again on "leaf scatted" over our horrid 8 mile path. This path is totally obstructed with terrain and trees. I use 7 deg elevation to see the tree tops or whatever other tropo medium it is and we work with 5-6 or better signals. Jim's heading was MUCH broader this time than previous QSOs, but Jim was operating the portable from the concrete pad at his shack door instead of the elevated deck at the house. Later he said he was looking into a tree, but I don't know at what range or the size of the tree. Regardless  I could swing the dish by over 10deg with little change in signals. Jim and Gary W0GHZ were the only 10Ghz QSOs. A real bummer to have no more 10Ghz opportunities.

  Conditions were variable to say the least. Given the WX I expected better, really. It was a spectacular two days of WX for anywhere, much less EN37. 222 seemed the strangest band with some signals surprisingly strong and others almost non existant. Several others comments upon the same or similar observations. I worked almost no one beyond Charlie N0AKC and W9RPM both with outstanding signals, except for "The Bobs" K2DRH and K2YAZ. DRH and I worked Saturday afternoon on SSB and CW 6-432 without resorting to the digital backup sked. I heard little of Bob after that. Sunday morning after YAZ finished with DRH, Bob K2YAZ and I swept 6m-902 with some nice signals. No go on 1296 (or 10Ghz). There was no evidence here of any of the good tropo that developed to our SE toward the middle of the contest.

  Final Results::

  6m  52 QSOs  25 Grids
  2m  64 QSOs  27 Grids
222   23 QSOs  14 Grids
432   38 QSOs  21 Grids
902     6 QSOs   4 Grids
1296   7 QSOs   5 Grids 
10Ghz  2 QSOs  2 Grids

192 QSOs  98 Grids   Total  27,930 Points

Third best Sept contest in the last 12 years, would have been 2nd best with another 600pts ... Rats
Thanks All .... and 73

73  Bill   K0AWU  EN37ed