[NLRS] UHF "contest" from EN37ed

[Bill Davis Jr]

  Looking at Jon's (W0ZQ) log line score, one would think that I was on a different planet or at least another country. It is hard for me to imagine working much harder in this contest. My grandson ended up at a cousins much of yesterday and as a result I "operated" (was present, calling and scanning) the bands for entire daylight periods and until about 11:30pm Sat night.

  The contest result was the 5th ranking score out of the 10years of scores I have recorded. Late QSOs with KM0T, W9FZ/R (EN54,55,45), W0GHZ,W0ZQ/R(EN35) and 
KC0IYT/R were all that prevented it from being MUCH worse.

  At 2010 Aurora, Bruce asked about scheduling during the contest since we have been missing connections for many contests. Since Bruce operates up around "150" he is "off the end" of the panadapter as well as being off the side of the antennas. So we had some schedules for today and I am very pleased with the result. At 6am this morning from EN54ax, Bruce had a great SSB signal on 432 allowing coordination for attempts on 902, 1296 and 10Ghz. Not quite as good conditions 2 hrs later from EN55 or another 2hrs later from EN45, but again we could coordinate on 432 SSB (230miles). We worked easily on 222 and 432 from all 3 grids and then once on 902. All unique grids. THANKS Bruce!!

  I had beaconed on various cells from 3pm until 4:40pm with nary a response. Some great cells to work with. I caught Gary W0GHZ with his portable on a casio run and worked him from EN35 and EN36 5-9+20db on FM starting about 5min after I quit beaconing... A 20over 9 siginal is VERY LARGE on the panadapter. We had worked for those locations before and Gary remembered a rough heading. It was a BIG surprise to see that signal pop up. I assumed Gary was at home, no idea of his trip. Thanks Gary.
 

  Mike KM0T once again shows up in the logbook after a long absence. I 
worked Mike off of his random CQ on 10Ghz RS as some cells drifted south of us last night. That was about 9pm. Early this afternoon Mike again looked up this way on 222 and we ended up with Qs over the hills on 222 and 432. Conditions did not support QSOs on 902 or 1296. Thanks Mike.

  Barry VE4MA was then worked backscatter off of a cell less than 20miles south of me. His CW signal was over 5Khz wide. We also worked on 222,432,902 with good signals (at this end) not strong enough on 1296 at his end. Thanks Barry.

  Missing stations --- W0PHD, NT0V, KB0CIM, W0ANH, KI0LE, W6GMT/R, WB0TDV and I'm sure others. Activity "up north" was never located. They were HUGE during the previous 2 contests and very missed for this one. I did work KB0LBZ on 222 and 432 as well as VE3KRP on 432 and that was it. MANY MANY long calls toward the missing stations.

  Very discouraging results, but I don't know what I could have done different, it just the way it was. I am beginning to understand better why one might want to rove. At least you can drive in the direction of activity...........

  222 -- 14Qs  9 Grids
  432 -- 17Qs 10 Grids
  902 --   4Qs   3 Grids
1296 --   3Qs   2 Grids
10Ghz-    5Qs   5 Grids

43 QSOs  29 Multipliers  195 "QSO points"     5,655 total points 

73  Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed