ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: K0W
Operator(s): K9DRO,K9MU,KC9TVG,W9JN,WB9E
Station: K0W
Class: Limited Multi-Op HP
QTH: EN38cf
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 550 204
2: 5 3
222:
432: 1 1
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 556 208 Total Score = 115,856
Club:
Comments:
K0W EN38 Grid Expedition
It was a success! 817 QSO's in 260 different grids! All logs have been uploaded
to ARRL's Log Book of the World and you'll be able to do a quick search in the
clublog applet below. If you're sure you worked K0W and don't see your callsign
in the log, email K9MU with your QSO details. Also, your callsign might be in
the log duplicate times. This is due to uploaded logs from our networked
computers to be sure we didnâ??t miss any QSOâ??s.
We departed central Wisconsin early Friday morning and made it to Big Falls, MN
in the afternoon. W9JN and K9DRO were calling on 50.125 while mobile but no
QSOâ??s were made other than K0AWU when we passed though Grand Rapids, MN.
Thanks Bill! We met with Marty (N0NKC) in Big Falls and he escorted us a few
miles though a narrow and rough forest trail to his very secluded hunting
shack.
As we exited our vehicles, we were greeted with a swarm of northern
Minnesotaâ??s notorious mosquitoes! We all scrambled to put on our sweatshirts
and long pants. You couldnâ??t take a deep breath or you would inhale a
mouthful. They were everywhere and made being outside miserable. Dave (K9DRO)
was smart and brought along a head net!
We immediately began unpacking equipment and setting up camp. We were up and
running with low power in a couple hours. We got the 6 element yagi up at 25
feet, hooked it up to an IC-746pro and the SWR was terrible. I tuned across the
band and signals from the east coast were pounding. N2GHR and W3DOG beacons were
20 over. We quickly took the 6 element down and put up a small 3 element yagi
fixed east. N3ALN in FM19 was the first in the log at 22:46z. We took turns
operating and worked about 100 QSOâ??s. After things slowed down, I worked on
the SWR issue and found out the coax we were using didnâ??t have a long enough
center conductor. We were on the air with the big 6 element and 700 watts
before sunset.
Temperature at night creeped down to near freezing and sent the mosquitoes
hiding. We lit a nice fire and had a few 807â??s. Near 1 am, I noticed the
Canadian Channel 2 TV video carriers were sounding auroral. I turned the yagi
north and sure enough the VE4ARM/B was 55A. Other beacons heard were VE4VHF/B,
W9JN/B, K9MU/B, K0KP/B, and N8PUM/B. For about a 30-minute period the beacons
were quite strong but no stations were worked. Everyone must have been getting
sleep for the contest ahead! <br>
Saturday morning, Johnâ??s (W9JN) son, Kevin, made a nice breakfast and we let
the auto keyer go. We made a few scatter contacts until 1300z when the band
opened to Texas. W5WVO was the first worked on Es and he was thankful for the
new grid. The band was on and off until the contest.
I headed out and found the EN27/EN28 grid line on a forest service road off
Highway 71 a couple hours before the contest started. When the contest started
at 1800z, I made a few QSOâ??s as K9MU/R giving K0AWU and K0W new mults. The
band was dead and I decided to head back to base camp around 20:00z. As I
pulled into base camp, the W7â??s started rolling in. K0W had a big pile-up
going.
The band was open almost all the time throughout the contest to different areas
of the country. Most of the contacts came from W4 and W5 with a few nice but
short openings to the Pacific Northwest and New England areas. The W5 big guns
(NR5M, K5TR, W5ZN, K5QE, WD5K, etc.) were in almost the whole contest period.
Dave (K9DRO) and I set off for the EN27/EN28 line again at around 18:00z on
Sunday. We got up a small 3 element yagi for 6m and a 10 element yagi for 2m on
a 15 foot mast mounted to the rear of the truck. The mast was at exactly 48.0000
degrees north! Shortly after setup the band opened to W5. N5RKD was worked at
18:28z. Dave was sending K9DRO/R EN27 and I was sending K9MU/R EN28. We each
worked about 70 different stations and most were very thankful for the double
new grids! We had a short opening to W1/W2 and also the PNW. 6m dried up at
around 22:00z and we headed back to base camp (K0W) and finished the contest.
When the clock struck 03:00z, we had 115,856 points with 550 QSOâ??s/204 grids
and a few tired operators!
We had the radio monitoring the VE4ARM/B frequency with the yagi pointed north
when we hit the sack. The S5 auroral hiss woke me up at around 11:00z. Not a
bad thing to wake up to! I fired up the amp and called and called. Only N8JX in
EN64 was worked with weak signals. The aurora faded soon after that. <br>
We again had a nice breakfast and decided to pack up camp and do some exploring
of the north. While breaking down camp we made a few more QSOâ??s on scatter and
worked a few from the Duluth and Minneapolis areas. Overall, the trip was a
great experience and lots of fun. Just one â??Thanks for the new gridâ??
comment would of made it worthwhile; we received hundreds!
73,
K9MU/0 and the K0W crew!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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