[NLRS] W0UC 222 & Up Contest

[Paul Husby]

Local activity was pretty slim for this one, but conditions were fairly
decent;  above average on Saturday and at least average on Sunday.  Good
representation from the north, I got VE3KRP and NT0V but missed a shot at
VE4MA at the best time.  Longest haul was W8ZZ/R in EN82.

I put together a spreadsheet to figure out my score, and I think this is
pretty accurate:

222:     29    10317 km    20634 pts
432:     32      9677 km      9677 pts
902:       5      1138 km      4552 pts
1.2:      10      2768 km      5536 pts
Total:   76                        40398 pts

As for the new scoring system, making long-haul contacts on 222 is a very
productive use of time;  432, considerably more difficult to work, is much
less valuable.  902 is very valuable, I just needed more people to work.
 1296 is not being rewarded enough for the effort required.  As W0ZQ showed
in his analysis at Aurora '17, working one microwave rover around a grid
corner a couple hundred miles away would beat this score easily;  it will
be interesting to see if anyone exploited that strategy.

It was an interesting added dimension to have to collect the extra two
characters on the grid squares.  Several were off one character from the
data that I have collected to use for determining beam headings, so that
kept me on my toes.

Many thanks to the rovers who were out around the region:  W9SNR, AE0EE,
W0ZF.  Rovers were not a major factor in my score like other years, but
they certainly helped keep my interest up.

See you in September!

73
Paul W0UC
EN44hr (EN44HamRadio}