[NLRS] EN37ed Contest report

[Bill Davis Jr]

  Sad, what could have been? .... enough said. 

  Outside my door is 6" of fresh snow, so something to look forward to today, digging out. The HF dipoles were really sagging this morning, as their diameter has increased to about 3".  The trees are whipping in the screaming wind. -10 to -15 tonight with the 30Mph winds, Fun Fun!

  Talking of FUN! With the rebuild of the station back in October, I felt like a kid waiting on Christmas, waiting on the Sweepstakes. The WX throughout the region however had something else in mind. Given the WX, IF the activity WAS destined to be "normal", in the end it sure wasn't.

  Bottom line is that I had a chance to play some, unlike some who were iced over the entire time.  I was only totally down for about an hour or so with the wet snow and slush on the antennas. It was sure interesting to see how the antennas that worked so well a few min earlier, became very bad dummy loads! I tried to be avoid being too much of a dummy and waited for signals to return before I persisted  in applying too much power and perhaps burning up something. After the crap dripped off the antennas, most signals never returned to the levels seen earlier in the day.

  All and all, this was the poorest Jan contest result here since 2002. The total score was 1/3 of my 2006 contest which was my best Jan contest. The station worked very well, but the activity was such that it was hard to appreciate any configuration changes. So I will see after June where I am. 

  I think perhaps the conditions were a bit better on Saturday than yesterday, but not sure. Only 12 contacts were made after 7am Sunday morning! Chris N0JCF was 4 of those worked 30min before the contest end. Chris had very good signal peaks on 2, 222 and 432 with QSB, on 902, we had to wait for an aircraft to assist, we worked then :-) Gary and I see a LOT of aircraft scatter on 902. The "Freeze your Finger to the Dish" event yielded one QSO, that was Jon W0ZQ. His signal peaks were about 10db above the noise on peaks, but sounded much weaker. The signal was VERY VERY narrow. I am pretty sure I saw Glen when the guys first started beaconing, I was seeing two signals, but he never heard me. Thanks Jon for the QSO, thanks to all the others that showed up for the try. I called Gary W0GHZ right before 10am and signals on 10Ghz were over 10db weaker than at 9am.

  VE3KRP was worked on 2m only. W0ANH was worked on 6 and 2m only. N0UY was worked on 6, 2, 432, 432 on Sunday morning after a failed attempt on Saturday. K2DRH was worked on 6 and 2m only. Bob was hearing me on 222 but thinks he may have issues on TX. We never had a coordinated attempt on 432. KB0LBS was worked on  6, 2, 222 and 432 from home. This was our first QSO on 222, welcome to the band Cletus! KI0LE was worked on 6,2,432, no luck on 1296...I'm guessing antenna ice. Mel KC0P was worked at the start of the contest on 2m (EN33) and never heard again. W0PHD was worked only on 2m CW with weak signals, both of us running < 100watts at the time, 432 with Wally was a bust.

  6m -- 28 QSOs  16 Grids
  2m -- 32 QSOs  13 Grids
 222 -- 8 QSOs     5 Grids
 432 --12 QSOs    6 Grids
1296 -- 2 QSOs    2 Grids
10Ghz - 2 QSOs    1 Grid

86 QSOs  -- 45 Grids  -- Total Score 5,940 points

  Thanks to all that looked up this way. 

  73 and good DX  Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed