[NLRS] Jan VHF Contest - kc0iyt report

[Glen Overby]

I put in about 5 hours of operating time during the contest.  So, as you
might expect, I don't have much of a score: 3525.  I worked 60 QSOs and got
25 grid multipliers.  I worked 14 unique calls.

This year instead of a minimal operation from home I decided to activate 2
grids near home, using small antennas that I could carry in my car.  I used
a dipole for 6m at about 10' (the wind forecasts didn't look good for
putting something up higher), Cheap Yagis for 2m - 1296, a soup can antenna
for 3456, and a dish on 10Ghz.

The roads were slippery at around noon when I drove through minneapolis to
Ridgeway Park, luckily I left a lot of time for setting up.  I got set up
early, and Jon, W0ZQ, showed up a few minutes before the contest started.
I think I did okay in EN35 as I was busy running bands with someone over
half of the time I was there.

My second site, in EN34, was a park-and-ride in Eagan at Hwys 77 & 13.
Quite a few people showed up on frequency right away, but it slowed down a
lot by 6pm ('dinner hour lul').  Soon after I set up the snow plowing crew
showed up so I moved from an area they hadn't plowed to one they had -- and
didn't get stuck while doing so.  I was glad to be out of their way, given
how they were driving.

I made a schedule with Bill, K0AWU to try 10ghz on Sunday afternoon.  I
went back to the same site, but forgot my compass and weak signal source.
I pointed the wrong direction and was low in frequency so there was no QSO.

I made a point to limit the time I called on or listened to 144.200.  I
stuck to calling on 144.225 where I said I would be, 50.140 where I had
been QSYing to, and and tuning around either 2m or 6m looking for other
stations.

Glen, kc0iyt