[NLRS] Jan ARRL VHF -- K0AWU EN37ed report

[cqbilld at q.com]

Opportunity --- That is the byword of this years contest. The opportunity was there for me to have my highest score of all my Jan contests. Unfortunately the opportunity was lost. 

The "guys" up north are my heroes again. It is so rewarding to see activity emanating from where the mileage to our next station exceeds our age in almost every case and in some cases, far exceeds. Stations of note include: NT0V, W0PHD, N0UY, ND0B, VE3KRP, W0ANH, K0MVJ, K0KP KB0LBS, WB0TDV, KB0CIM, W6GMT, N0KKT and others. The promise of AU had several "new" stations, or new to me trolling the bands as well. KB0RQW (EN37) and N0UJJ, K0FZG, WB0PVM (EN36) are not regulars in my log. 

At the "gun" 6m suddenly opened up to the SE with Es... The Es was present for about an hour with signals up and down. Only a dozen Es stations were worked, but 11 grids. Good start. 

Interesting contest in many respects. Tropo kinda came and went. When I worked Wally W0PHD, shortly before 7pm Saturday, he was as loud on 2m as I have heard him in years. His signal over this challenging path was at times almost S9 on 2m. We worked on 6,2,432 and tried 1296. 1296 was not workable. We visited maybe 10min and when we signed signals on 2m were from the noise a peak of S3. Unreal. Early on the 2m signal was so stable one was lead to believe that it might be that way for hours. Worked Carol and Mel on 2 and 432 when they were in EN44. They were the only rover heard or worked. 

K2DRH was worked on 6, 2 and 222 with little difficulty about 8:45pm Saturday. SSB on 2m and CW on the other 2 bands. Bob is 411 miles away and it was fun to work him easily without resorting to schedules or WSJT. We did work Sunday morning on 432, but that required WSJT and an aircraft. I ran close to 10min with nothing, until an aircraft provided proof that he was there. A beam tweak and another aircraft finished the QSO with multiple tropo and aircraft traces on the waterfall. 

Activity on Saturday was looking quite good. My score was building to and beyond the last 4 or 5 yr totals pretty quickly. I had four meteor scatter skeds for the wrap up of Saturday. Screwed up the first two skeds by running the wrong sequence. Good grief... never done that before. I did then pick up the second of those via random MS later. The 3rd guy was a no show.. sick. The 4th fellow a BIG GUN went incomplete with poor meteors. Ouch. At least I got a good night of sleep. 

Sunday's activity was pretty poor except for most of the "northern stations". THANKS GUYS!! Everyone looking for the AU .... at 11am the 10GHz panadapter perked up with a 10-15db signal from W0ZQ beaconing. Thanks Jon, nice snow scatter enhanced 10GHz QSO. No liaison so I waited and watched for a bit, no one else was observed .. bummer bummer. 

Around 4:45pm Sunday the AU started to be detectable on 6m. In the end I worked 20 stations on AU, 12 on 6m and 8 stations on 2m (all but one on CW). Limited AU was worked because once again the phone rang. The presumptuous neighbor with the 300ohm twinlead and TV preamp was having a football party .... preamp overload was ruining their fun while I watched the same channel unfettered. Watching the 6m and 2m softrock panadapters I think I worked most that were running strings. Don't know how many "pouncers" I missed since I didn't dare try to run a string. Great to see those AU guys calls in the log again. The AU came and went from around 4:45pm to 7:30pm. First only 6m, then both and then only 6m. Once the AU was gone not another station was worked. 

RESULTS:: 

6m -- 55 QSOs -- 34 grids 
2m -- 43 QSOs -- 20 grids 
222 -- 12 QSOs -- 9 grids 
432 -- 17 QSOs -- 10 grids 
902 -- 2 QSO -- 2 grid 
1296 -- 3 QSOs -- 3 grids 
10Ghz -- 2 QSOs -- 1 grid 

134 QSOs 79grids 15,168points 

My 3rd best Jan contest since I started keeping records. (15yrs) Only an half dozen or more Qs would have made it my best. I am pleased non the less. Fun weekend, just wish there could have been more activity on Sunday. Gary, GHZ said that he had ice Sunday, so maybe SWR issues limited Sundays participation. 

73 and have good DX --- Bill K0AWU