[NLRS] 2011 Microwave Fall Sprint report - K9JK/R

[Zack Widup]

Thanks for the QSO's, John! I didn't realize you were only on for the
last hour or so and was looking for you earlier from Tower Hill
EN52sa. I got started in that grid about 8 am. There was a lot of
activity on 144.260 and people were moving to frequencies spaced 5 kHz
apart between 144.250 and .270. I had trouble keeping track of who was
on what liaison frequency and missed working some people I wanted to
work.

I did work W9NU on 10 GHz from there for a 130 mile path, and K8MD on
902, 1296 and 2304 for a 239 mile path. I worked WB8BZK/R in three of
his grids. Also worked W9SNR/R, who was on Willow Hill (EN62cc), on
902 through 24 GHz. That was my first QSO ever on 24 GHz!

I had planned on leaving EN52sa at about 10 am and getting to EN62cc
at about 11 am while W9SNR moved elsewhere. As it was, I got off Tower
Hill at 11:30 and got to Willow Hill at 12:30. I got 1296 set up in
time to make 4 QSO's, all close by. At least I justified using the /R
on my call by making a few QSO's from a new grid.

Yesterday was a rough day, with getting to bed at about 2 AM, getting
up at 4 AM to drive to Tower Hill, leaving Willow Hill about 1:20 pm
to drive back to Champaign. I drove about 370 miles yesterday. Then, I
had volunteered to work at our local blues society's International
Blues Challenge entrant competition, which ran from 3 pm to 9 pm
yesterday, so I drove directly there. I got home at 10 pm and passed
out.
:-)

73, Zack W9SZ


On 10/22/11, John (JK) Kalenowsky, K9JK <hamk9jk at ameritech.net> wrote:
>
>
> For a fourth Fall Sprint attempt in the CoROVERolla, it ended up
> as another positive, though low scoring, experience.
>
> I wasn't able to get on until the last hour due to some other
> work I really needed to complete (or the 2011 August UHF Contest
> Results article might not appear in QST until February, 2012,
> instead of January) and that only allowed time to visit two
> Grids, EN52 (though two sub-grids, xc and xd) and EN62ad.
>
> I was 1.2 GHz only and used my old faithful FT-736R with it's
> whopping 10 Watts to a 25 element (6' boom) Directive Systems
> Looper set at about 10 feet using the roof rack and platform
> that I've assembled and used for multiple omnidirectional
> antennas when "limited" roving in September. Liaison radio for
> 2m was my FT-100D, also barefoot, to a KB6KQ 2m Loop about two
> feet below the Looper.
>
> My first 1.2G contact was reported as very distorted, possibly
> FMing, by Jim, KO9A, but he indicated that it seemed to improve
> as we talked AND once I made sure the voltage to the 736 was
> "up".
>
> I tried with N9LB from EN62ad but neither of us heard a peep
> from the other.
>
> My greatest DX ended up being from EN52xd (along the side of the
> road and in the LAST minute before 1pm) to W9SZ/R who had only
> recently arrived and gotten set up at Willow Hill, EN62cc...21
> km woohoo!
>
> Total DX from 8 QSOs, 92km but the one zero kilometer QSO gets
> ONE point so I'm claiming 93 points for my score.
>
> Thanks to ALL who were on but especially to the THREE Rovers
> (W9SNR, W9SZ and WB8BZK) and Fixed station KO9A who were 'local'
> and able to hear my puny signal. Thanks also to N9LB who tried
> to hear me from 88 km away and to the Southeast VHF Society for
> their continued sponsorship of the Fall Sprints.
>
> Next Saturday evening for the 50 MHz Fall Sprint...I'll be out
> there "slash-R-ing" and looking for others!
>
> 73, JK
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> NLRS mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nlrs
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:NLRS at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>