[NLRS] W0UC/9 Sept VHF: improvements vs results

[Paul Husby]

I think my log is a pretty interesting illustration of major station 
improvements vs results, and what activity was like this year.  First, 
the improvements from 2009 to 2010:

6m:  100W to 1300W
2m:  100W to 1000W
222: 100W to 400W on Sunday
1296: bare IC-1271 to mast-mount GaAsFET
Operating time:  shut down 3 hours early, to operated full period
Propagation: nothing special to moderate tropo at times

Results:  43k down to 32k (!)

Regarding propagation, the only path from '09 that was missed in '10 was 
K0AWU on 902.  On the other hand, this Sunday morning I had solid S7 
signals from K2DRH (215 mi) on 902/1296 at 8am, and strong radar signals 
on 1296 from both MSP and Chicago past 10am.  Later Sunday afternoon and 
evening I worked a couple stations down in EM29 (400 mi) but that was 
probably a bit of tropo coupled with the W9FZ effect.

The Twin Cities were a black hole.  Never found a station to try 
902/1296;  did manage to get EN35 on 1296 thanks to K0MHC.

I spent more time than I should have on 144.2, but nothing was coming 
back where I prefer to call about 20kHz off.  Very surprising 
considering I was running decent power.

My score breakdown:

Band	QSOs	Grids
50	57	29
144	71	30
222	27	15
432	36	19
902	6	5
1296	11	7
10g	1	1
	209	106    Total 32,330

Thanks to all who got on!  I spent a lot of time calling on Bruce's 
frequency with no luck until late Sunday, despite occasionally hearing 
the MO guys working Bruce.  I noticed that Sunday Night Football has 
wiped out the nice bump in activity we used to get for the final hours.

Mark your calendars now for Jan 22-23!  With no 10G contests nearby, all 
we need is for the NFL championship games to come down to some matchups 
like Houston-Oakland and Carolina-SF!

73,
Paul W0UC