[NLRS] N0AKC Jine VHF Contest Results

[Charlie Betz]

N0AKC Grid: EN44gu Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 6: 559 
168 2: 23 16 222: 3 1 432: 4 1 ------------------- Total: 589 186 Total 
Score = 113,274


This is the second best score ever for a June contest for me, despite 
continued equipment issues here.  My best was back in 2006 with ~190K 
points.

I spent Friday removing, repairing and replacing the rotor on the 222 
and up tower only to have it not want to rotate.  Saturday morning it 
miraculously started working (I assume it must have been jammed at one 
limit and the wind broke it loose).  I then set about hooking everything 
back up in the shack to find I was not getting output from any of the 
transverters running off the Flex-1500 (which is 222 and up).  So I 
hooked up 222 & 432 to my old Yaesu FT-736R and made all of 7 contacts 
on 222 & 432.

On the plus side there was good propagation on 6M and I probably should 
have run more SSB, but running a pileup on Saturday evening I came to 
realize how much my hearing has deteriorated the last few years and how 
difficult pulling calls out of a pileup has become. Yes, making QSOs on 
digital modes is much slower, but on the plus side I don't need to rely 
on my hearing for it.  For the first time yesterday afternoon I tried 
some FT4 - it's much faster, but man I had to type fast to keep my log 
up to date.

The downside to having 6M open is I tend to migrate there and 
concentrate on it and as a result I didn't make a lot of rover 
contacts.  I managed to work Bruce and Janice in three of their grids on 
a limited number of bands each time.  My current station setup uses the 
same radio for 6M and as my 2M IF, so not monitoring 2M when running 
6M.  I need to come up with a better solution to that problem before 
September.  I also plan to migrate away from the Flex-1500 as an IF rig 
as I have had far too many problems since acquiring it.

Overall I manages 204 SSB QSOs; about 80 FT4 QSOs and the rest on FT8.

Charlie, N0AKC
Eau Claire, WI - EN44gu