[NLRS] EN37ed June VHF Contest report

[Bill Davis]

  This contest was different to start with than any contest in the last 13yrs, in that I could not avoid conflicting family obligations. I was NOT on from 2:40pm - 9pm Saturday. We had a 50th anniversary open house/ dinner to attend and then a world premier screening of a 30min documentary produced by one of my ex-media students from 1976-77. Both events were not to be missed. Both were chock full of wonderful memories.

  The station was "solid" except for a intermittent BIRD WATT METER on the 8877. That in the end cost me about 30min Sat night (9-9:30). A flaky PA keying circuit popped up at the same time and I was mislead for a while before I was able to determine that the TS-2000 / 8877 were doing their thing just fine, just no activity on the band or the activity on the WATT meter! Once the watt meter issue was resolved, it was only a matter of activity and conditions.

  I have no idea of who and what I missed Saturday afternoon. I know I missed the vast majority of the rover activity.

  6m Es into southern coast and the SW on Sunday provided 30 or so DX grids. That gave a few more points
 to an otherwise a very dismal contest. Keeping in mind being off Sat afternoon, the following observations ...

June 2013 Contest (13 yr history)

  2m Average QSOs 57 -- This contest 26 -- LOWEST EVER (Range 109-26) 

 222 Average QSOs 18 -- This contest 10 -- LOWEST EVER (Range 35-10) 

 432 Average QSOs 23 -- This contest 10 -- LOWEST EVER (Range 44-10)  


Contest Average 69,218ps -- This contest 12,546pts -- LOWEST EVER Range (183,522-12,546) 



 Again what is unknown is the Qs that I missed during my over 6hr absence. 6m numbers were not analyzed given they are sporadic for the most part.  



  Highlights .... 


(1)
Thanks to Jim K0MHC/R for being out there. We had a chance to try to run the bands in 2 grids (EN28 and EN15) and once in motion in EN17 on 2m. Far better signals from Jim than what I would have ever expected. I was not contest active years ago when others were roving the RRV, so I had no idea what to expect. I also worked Matt K0BBC/R on 2m from EN15, thanks Matt.

(2) Thanks Mel for getting out Sunday night for a bit. Worked Mel KC0P/R on 2,222,432 SSB from EN34 near Rochester, over 200 miles. Cool.


(3) Nice "Northland 
QSOs" with W0PHD, NT0V, VE4MA, K0MVJ, N0KKT, W6GMT, N0EO, N0RCT. Very nice to see grids 
north/ east/ west in the log. Thanks guys. Your activity far from the 
center of the VHF universe is very special to this OM, keep on keeping the fire 
burning.



(4)
 Nice 2m QSO with W9EWZ (2m 
only, 374 miles) then of course K2DRH (411 miles). Bob and I worked CW on 6, 144, 222. 432 was a bust with neither of hearing a thing, even on JT65. No chance for SSB 
except I heard Bob quite well on 2m SSB Sunday afternoon. This is very 
common for Bob. I don't know if he just looks more to the NW on Sunday 
afternoons or what?



(5) My replacement rotator worked fine, except for flaky meter motion in some directions. Pot looked in good shape, but in some areas pretty erratic. (CDR / Hy-Gain type) The Ham M that failed after the Jan contest had multiple issues including one stripped gear.  

  Low points ....

(1) Loss of so much of the Saturday operation time.


(2) Conditions
 observed here were not real great. There were times with some really 
outstanding signals. Jim K0MHC/R in EN15 (straight through my local 
450ft mt) was S9+20db on SSB! The strongest 2m signal all weekend .. 
that was Sunday afternoon. Jim was good copy on SSB from that grid on 6 
and 222 also. His 432 signal was never detected (170watts) nor was mine 
250watts. The mountain and foliation losses were just too much to 
overcome. 



(3) Lack of activity. Sunday was just awful, again. Is this the new "normal"? Two contests in a row!



 For
 those of you that managed to get on the air, THANK YOU. 

 


End results of K0AWU -- EN37ed June 2013 VHF Contest

Band    Qs   Grids   Points 

50     78    47       6396
144    26    17       2132
222    10     8       1640
432    10     7       1640
902     1     1        246
1296    2     2        492
10Ghz   0     0      


Total  127 Contacts  82 Grids  12,546 points  <<<<<< LOWEST JUNE CONTEST EVER
                                                 (Previous low was and "outlier" at 24,444pts)

Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed