[NLRS] W9HQ in the ARRL September VHF contest

[David Palm]

In the days leading up to the contest I was scrambling to get some antenna
upgrades in place and getting my "new" Tonna 55-element antenna on 1296
piped into the shack.  As I mentioned last week, I also had a feed-line
problem on 144 MHz, so I added a temporary replacement into the work mix.
With the adapting from PL-259 to N and such I probably lost a dB or two on
that band, but no biggie.

Saturday morning and early afternoon a few local hams, including KC9JTL and
me, helped direct parking cars at the Vernon County Fair and that effort
included making a bit of noise on VHF FM.

After I got home and put in an hour or so making the last fixes to the
antennas and in the shack, I was able to put in a few hours of contest time
on Saturday evening, a bit of time on Sunday morning, then a bit more time
late Sunday afternoon.  Conditions seemed flat to slightly positive.
Others talked about some enhancement to the north, but I didn't really
experience any.

I think the new K1FO-style antenna on 222 MHz worked quite well.  And I was
finally able to make my first contact on 1296 MHz!  I tried that band twice
on Saturday, with K9MU and N0AKC.  I could hear them fine, but my 1 - 1.5
watts running into the huge trees to my north prevented them from hearing
me.  But on Sunday morning I was able to make a full QSO with W0UC --
thanks Paul!

As always, the rovers were great.  I didn't catch Janice and Bruce in every
grid, but was able sweep the bottom four bands with them where I did catch
them.  Thanks also to KC0SKM/R!

For the future: I'm building an LNA into my old-style 1296 DEM transverter
to warm up its Rx front-end and add a 25 watt amplifier on Tx, then I
should do reasonably well on that band.  And I'm also "this close" to being
on 902 as well.  I hope soon to "beat the bushes" a bit and have some folks
help me check those out on the air, perhaps during the microwave Sprint.

Fun contest.  Thanks everybody for getting on the air!

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  14    9
    2:  19   11
  222:  16   10
  432:  16   10
  903:
  1.2:   1    1
  2.3:
  3.4:
  5.7:
  10G:
  24G:
-------------------
Total:  65   41  Total Score = 4100

Club:  Badger Contesters

73,

David  W9HQ