[NLRS] W0JT SOLP SEPTEMBER 20111 VHF

[John P. Toscano]

Well, here is the preliminary breakdown:

Band    QSO's    Points/Q    Points    Grids
   50      28        1          28        10
  144      33        1          33        10
  222      13        2          26         7
  432      22        2          44         9
------  -------- ---------- --------- ---------
Totals    96                  131        36   score = 131 x 36 = 4,716

I wanted to get on for one last VHF contest before the year was over, so 
I put in a fair bit of time on this one. Unfortunately, I never heard 
any band enhancement at all, and I was limited to the lower 4 bands, but 
I kept reasonably busy. Not a very big score to show for the effort, but 
at least I got a few of the bugs worked out of my station.  (But I still 
haven't figured out why the Icom IC-706 MkII suddenly refused to make 
any measurable power on 144 MHz - thankfully I could press the FT-847 
into service on 3 of the 4 lower bands instead of troubleshooting the 
Icom radio right away, and restrict it to transverter service on 222 for 
this contest.) Maybe before the snow flies I will manage to get up to my 
tower and replace the shorted (kinked) 1296 MHz feedline. If I had been 
sufficiently ambitious, I guess I could have dug the 902 equipment out 
of the storage bin, carried it up to the attic of the garage (underneath 
the rooftop tower) and pressed it into service, and it could have helped 
the score quite a bit.

Now, I will attempt to upload my log to the robot. The logging software 
I have used for many years, VHF-DX, refuses to run under Windows Vista, 
and instead of learning a new program or upgrading the PC to Windows 7 
(which has a Windows XP emulation that might run VHF-DX), I elected to 
use an Excel spreadsheet to record my log.  We'll see how successful I 
will be in converting from Excel to Cabrillo format. If it fails, I 
guess I will have to print out some log sheets and fill them in manually...

My thanks to the rovers I managed to work, including a few that never 
made it to the Google Docs spreadsheet on the web. And, of course, my 
thanks to the fixed stations too, particularly a very patient guy up in 
EN37ed who let me torture him with my poor CW skills to get one more Q 
and one more grid into the log on 432 MHz.  Dang it, I wish I wasn't 
pointing into the side of a hill when I aim in his direction!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend for the second half 
of the 10 GHz and Up Cumulative Contest. I guess we'll have to see what 
happens in January (in San Antonio) after that. I swear I will never go 
roving in a January VHF contest again, at least not up here in the 
Frozen North, but it could be pleasant enough in Texas in January to 
lure me out onto the road.  :)

73 for now,
W0JT, EN34js