ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: K1TEO
Operator(s): K1TEO
Station: K1TEO
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: CT/FN31
Operating Time (hrs): 26.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 369 94
2: 274 47
222: 97 35
432: 123 37
903: 30 18
1.2: 48 20
2.3: 13 7
3.4: 15 9
5.7: 9 7
10G: 8 7
24G:
-------------------
Total: 986 281 Total Score = 420,657
Club: North East Weak Signal Group
Comments:
Getting ready for the contest this year was a lot of work - about 10 days
beforehand the swr on 6,2 and 222 suddenly shot up. That required taking both
of my tiltover towers down and a good deal of diagnostic work to find the
problems. I have had a 4 bay array up for 19 years on 2M and this issue was a
first - 2 of the 4 antennas had significant amounts of water right at the N
connector to the driven element. Testing the other antennas while the towers
were laid over 903 looked problematic and there too there was water in 2
different places. After a lot of hard work I thought everything was working.
Once the contest started it became clear that wasn't the case. 2304 would not
xmit on my first 2 skeds. I figured I was done on that band for the contest but
doing a test a few hours later showed that the xmit capability worked in certain
directions, mainly to the SW. I assume the heavy duty 12v line for the amplifier
has a short in the rotor loop. Thanksfully I made a few contacts with the
limited capability - it sure was frustrating to try with 10 other stations/6
new grids who I could hear fine but couldn't hear me.
The 432 station appeared fine ahead of the contest - the swr was normal as was
the Packrat beacon. I did notice that earlier in the week the W3CCX beacon was
louder on 222 than 432 which is not normal - I have a lot more antenna gain on
432 than on 222. That should have been a tip off as all weekend stations were
louder on 222 than 432 which is the opposite of normal at my station. And,
several stations were easy to work on 222 and not heard at all on 432 which is
not normal. I'm guessing one of my 4 antennas on 432 has a problem and it is
not showing up on the Bird wattmeter.
One thing I didn't solve ahead of the contest is a terrible noise problem on
144 that has been around since May of last year. I have yet to be able to find
the source which is frustrating. The noise wipes out the band from 270 degrees
up to 340 or so making it basically unusable in that direction. The noise was
off for 3.5 hours Sunday morning and on for the rest of the time. I had lucked
out in the other contests since it started and had many more hours of operating
time with out the problem.
As others have observed, trop9 condx here were mostly about normal. Nothing
ususual was observed though I was able to work AA4ZZ in EM96 on 222 and 432. We
don't usually work without enhancement. However, both attempts came from
connecting on the 'KST chat page to it's possible that allowed us to connect
since we were in the same place at the same time with beams aligned.
6M was as noted by others - basically no significant Es until Sunday night. I
heard stations to my NE in New England working 4's for about a half hour but
couldn't hear anything. That was frustrating. Then it opened up and for 90
minutes we had a good opening to the EM grids, with a few EL, EN and DM grids
checking in as well. I had been sick going in to the contest and by Sunday
night my voice was pretty well shot so I was glad to take time off running on
SSB and work CW where there was good activity as well. I really enjoyed that.
That sure helped my voice last until the end of the contest, hi!
I think overall the new rules were helpful. They didn't lead to as many skeds
and connections as I thought but there were some. I think the biggest thing I
learned was the it was a way to replace pre contest wsjt skeds had I been more
on the ball. I finally checked Ping Jockey Sunday morning and made 2 skeds and
worked both easily. I wasn't doing much Sunday morning from 0400z until 0600z
as activity had dropped off and I only had 2 wsjt skeds. Had I jumped on Ping
Jockey at that time I could have made skeds and been busier. Lesson learned.
But I think the news rules had a surprising plus for me. I always wonder how
others are doing in a contest. Is the band open somewhere else? What are others
doing? Watching the chat pages and cluster gave me a sense of the overall
contest and I found that interesting. Kind of like I was on the court playing
the game but also in the stands watching at the same time. It helped make it
more interesting for me.
One final thought - I suggest everyone make sure they are ready and on for the
2016 event. My son will be graduating from college the weekend of the contest.
It's a Sunday graduation and since it's a couple of hundred miles from home I
will be up there on Saturday too. That pretty much guarantees the "big
one" will be arriving that weekend with endless Es, Aurora and tropo all
at the same time. Enjoy....:)
73,
Jeff K1TEO
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