[NLRS] N9DG Jan 2014 notes

[Duane - N9DG]

Well had some scary pre-contest problems. First was that the 1HP electric motor powered hydraulic pump that I used to raise and lower the tower did not like the 8 degree temps I was trying use it in at all. In normal Summer temps it will stand the tower up in about 1.5 to 2 minutes. On Saturday morning it took better part of a half hour. And even worse is that the pump seized a couple times in the process, I sure hope I didn't so any permanent damage to the pump. As a rule I didn't try to run the pump at temps lower than 32 degrees in the past, and my concerns for why not to do so were well founded. But since I had already destroyed one Yaesu G-800 rotator, I have now been leery of leaving the tower stood up through Winter like I used to do. So it has been a trade off between letting the rotator get hammered by gusty winds through Winter, or try to run the pump in potentially cold WX. Problem two was that it took extra long to get the rotator to turn,
 I've had it be a bit cantankerous before in cold temps, but this time it was extra bad. It did finally free up, once it goes, it is good for the rest of the contest.

The good:
Local Madison area activity levels were up some, partly because two rovers came through Dodgeville grid corner, and also there were a number of locals who have been scarce previously who did get on this time. And there was even a station doing a “summits on the air" activation from a location by Lake Wisconsin who had both 6 and 2M going. The 138kV power line that cuts across the corner of my property was pretty well behaved this time too. Knew it was there, but it wasn't bad, and PowerSDR's noise blanking did good dealing with it.

The not as good:
Conditions, flat, again. One of these days I hope to write about the “oh wow” conditions on 2M and up. Didn't do as well as I normally do for the longer haul stuff, suspect it was do to a mix of so-so conditions, and lower activity levels elsewhere. No Es on 6M at all that I could find, so all the 6M Qs were of the grind them out variety. And I just didn't hear or find anything North of EN35 this time around, similar to not finding as much to my far E and SE as I normally do either.

Other:
I didn't quite make it around the compass once and hour, but was fairly close to sticking to that. I did majority of my 2M CQs on 144.205, though did drop to .200 when things were quiet. And was also able to find people well away from .200 as well. One was all the way down 144.130, and that was the only place I found or even heard them all weekend. And in couple cases jumped on board a 'running the bands' train with someone starting at 222 or 432.

The numbers:
50 MHz TX count ~620
144 MHZ TX count ~1300

Q x Grids
50 73 x 24
144 86 x 28
222 39 x 20
432 50 x 21

Assuming no scoring hits, should be a 31K and change total score - SOLP.

As in the past my grid totals for 222 and 432 were neck and neck. Though this time I think I am seeing some widening between the Q counts for each of those two bands. A side effect of the SO3B category I wonder???

Duane
N9DG