[NLRS] Contest report EN37ed (results at bottom)

[Bill Davis]

  Thanks to the activity (unlike AUG UHF contest), I have a more optimistic report.  Clair K0CJ and a couple of others commented that I really sounded (in my own words "down") after the August activity. I was ..... It was very distressing to experience the lack of activity and it wasn't helped by the cool high pressure system that covered our region for the contest period.

  For the September contest I again became troubled to see the lack of "chatter" and the limited postings on the spreadsheet. Even my requests for meteor scatter skeds were WAY down, in one case a major group on the east coast even CANCELLED a sked they made, because they couldn't staff the contest station! Holy Cow ... is this a precursor to the weekend. With few nighttime skeds, I appreciated the sleep that I often don't get, but ARGH.

  Contest time arrived and THERE WERE stations to work! In fact a very nice start with good activity including Carol and Mel in the rover mobile during the first hour. Charlie N0AKC was sounding good and we worked him on 5 bands including 1296, Paul W0UC also worked on the same 5 bands. Worked Jim K0KFC on 4 bands including 1296. All of this in the first hour. Activity stayed pretty good into the early evening even though conditions were lack luster to say the least. I did hear Bob K2DRH on 2m and we worked with weak signals and I never heard him again until our Sunday morning sked.  John NG0R once again popped up on the panadaptor with great sounding signals. I sure had missed John for the last few contests.

  Saturday night I spent an hour working a newbe in Ohio on 2m WSJT (meteor scatter). He had had only one QSO on WSJT before and it was far more difficult than it could have been. I was glad to sked him and glad we completed, but improper WSJT setup required monster pings to decode, all of which we found out AFTER the QSO. ST decoding was turned off, so my ST RRs were not decoded and I don't think he knew what the single tone bursts really were. Fun to have the new blood. The other WSJT skeds went well and quickly other than Jeff K1TEO on 2m ... we worked in less than 6min on 6m and he had calls on the first sequence on 2m, but out of 30 or more pings I never got his complete prefix ..... saw his grid, TEO and my call over and over ....

  Bob K2DRH was WEAK on 6m SSB Sunday morning, but we made it ... 222 and 432 required JT65B ... good signals then except it seemed that slow QSB was a definite issue (6:30am local)  ND0B and NTV0 were good copy through 432. N9CIQ was pounding in on 6 and also 432. Barry VE4MA was worked with good signals on 2, 222, 432, 902 and 1296 ... Barry's preamps make it all possible with my 25-30w on 902 and 1296. By 1pm Sunday after working Mel and John VPJ/R I had exactly the same score as the final score last Sept ! Cool ..... now will the activity hang in there? It was pretty slow during "football time", but Qs were made. 


  Good showing from "up north". Missed N0UY, Cletis KB0LBS (major cabin project), but lots of guys ... VE3KRP, W0ANH, K0MVJ, K0LR, K0KP, K0MRM,  KD0HRO, N0RCT, W0LWU, W0PHD, VE4MA, NT0V, ND0B, KB0CIM, N0KKT, W6GMT and others I'm sure that I missed. 


  Several new calls to me down toward "The Cities" ... cool, antennas in the attic etc. SO nice to see new calls.

  John W0JT was music to my ears the entire contest with great signals up this way. SO great to see John having TIME to enjoy a contest. Clair K0CJ popped up and sent my total score over 14,000 pts late Sunday night, thanks buddy. I had been keeping an eye on that 14,000 number. Then Jim KB0CIM came on allowing me to work my own grid on 222, 432 and 1296 ... that allowed the 15,000 pt barrier to be passed. KC0IYT closed out the contest with a nice signal from his SoftRock based 2m SDR rig.

  Conditions seemed very flat. Good one moment and poor the next .. never good for any length of time on any band. But our high was 61 on Sat and 64 on Sun, not exactly tropo WX. 


 Fun contest, thanks to all! This contest was my best September result since 2009 and ranks 6th highest September contest in the last 15 years. Rovers were 19% of the QSOs. That's KC0P/R, N0HZO/R, N0LNO/R, W0DJM/R ... good work guys and gal :-)



  End results of K0AWU -- EN37ed September 2012 VHF Contest
Band	Qs   Grids   Points 50     35     16     2450  
144     61     22     4270
222     18     10     2520 
432	32     14     4480 
902      2      2      420
1296	 7      5     1470  
10Ghz    1      1 280 Total   156 Contacts   70 Grids   15,890 points  <<<<<<