[NLRS] ARRL January VHF: W0ZQ & W0ZQ/R

[w0zq at aol.com]

Call: W0ZQ
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: EN34

Band  QSOs Mults
-------------------
6:      69 34
2:      54 23
222:    13  9
432:    26 11
902:     9  6
1.2:    11  6
2.3:     4  3
3.4:     2  1
5.7:     1  1
10G:     1  1
-------------------
Total: 189 95 Total Score = 30,926
 
Summary:  Saw some Es at the start of the contest, then finished it off with some aurora Sunday evening.  In between I did a little local roving (see score below).  On 6m I run a pair of loops and 100 watts, so I get pushed around a bit, but its amazing what can be worked with such a simple set-up.  Tropo conditions seemed slightly better than average for a January contest, especially on Saturday .... Sunday maybe a bit worse?  The freezing drizzle started to ice up the antennas, especially the high bands, on Sunday PM.  Around 5:00 pm on Sunday I worked a station on 222 and saw my "HIGH SWR" light come on.  While I had a lot of fun contacts, the best one was working W0GHZ on 5.7 and 10gig from my driveway with my portable dishes.  This is about a 18 mile obstructed path.  The contacts were made on the direct bearing, with considerable elevation, and with MUCH stronger signals on 5.7 than 10gig ... go figure.  Although there was considerable moisture in the air at the time, there was no snow/rain and signals were T9.  


 

Call: W0ZQ/R
Class: Rover
QTH: EN34, EN35

Band  QSOs Mults
-------------------
6:      16   3
2:      21   3
222:     5   3
432:    17   3
5.7:     2   1
10G:     9   3
-------------------
Total:  70  18 Total Score = 3,042


Summary:  I had a 10GHz schedule to try to work Bill, K0AWU, from the Burnsville Parkway, EN34is, on Sunday at 11;00 am.  I thought, what the heck, I'll bring 5.7 along as its just another dish to throw into the car.  After this, its like "Well, what else can I bring?".  I ended up running 6m (100w into a 2m 5/8 mag mount), 2m (50w & 4 ele yagi), 222 (10w & 3 ele yagi), and 432 (20w & omni), all from my FT897, for a fast six band rover.  At 11:00 am, on schdule, Bill was heard beaconing on 10GHz CW, about S2 on a direct path. After a bit of dish peaking we worked on CW over a 265km path, easy as pie.  The weather was 25 degrees, light wind from the SSE, fog with very light freezing drizzle.  From EN34is, Burnsville Parkway, and EN35ja, Ridgeway, you have an easy shot to downtown Mpls and thus the ability to bounce uW signals off of them to anyone else that can "see" them.  While the morning had started out foggy with some very light freezing drizzle, it changed over to more of a steady drizzle by later in the day.  I had thought about running out to EN24/25, but with the deteriorating weather I decided to cancel that plan.  Arriving at home I had to chip about 1/8" of ice off the antennas and coax connectors to get the W0ZQ-mobile back into the garage.  Thanks to everyone who got on and gave me a Q !  

73, Jon
W0ZQ