ARRL September VHF QSO Party
Call: K1TEO
Operator(s): K1TEO
Station: K1TEO
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: CT/FN31
Operating Time (hrs): 28
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 246 85
2: 363 74
222: 129 49
432: 151 48
903: 60 29
1.2: 78 33
2.3: 45 25
3.4: 18 14
5.7: 9 8
10G: 15 10
24G:
-------------------
Total: 1114 375 Total Score = 724,125
Club:
Comments:
Before every contest you hope for some kind of interesting condx. Some Au , some
e-skip, some tropo. Well, this contest we hit the Trifecta as all 3 occurred and
made for a lot of fun. Beautiful wx (don't have air conditioning in the shack
and didn't need it this time), and few equipment problems added to the fun. Only
small downside was that I didn't do as well with the rovers as I've done in
recent June and Sept contests. And, the microwave condx didn't seem enhanced. My
3.4 and 5.7 ghz scores are down quite a bit. I think the rigs worked fine but
working fewer rovers and some equipment problems with a few I did work on other
bands hurt the results there. Otherwise, couldn't ask for much more.
Worked some Au early Saturday evening. Was pretty weak but enjoyed working Mike
VE9AA among the half dozen or so QSO's. Welcome back to 2M Mike! Au was in and
out all evening but didn't really find much interesting and didn't spend any
real time at it. The Au seemed to finally kick in around 0545z at my QTH. I
worked a few very strong sigs on 2M but there didn't seem to be all that much
activity. Probably too late to have really widespread action. Eventually I
decided to get some sleep at around 0745z though the Au was still strong.
Figured Sunday would be too painful unless I slept a bit. When I returned (after
sleeping through my alarm clock ringing) at 0945z the Au was still there about
as strong. Worked a few more stations until it died down around 1150z. I didn't
actually work all that many stations - about 15-20 on 6, about 20 on 2 and 3 on
222. Best dx on 2 was En50,51,52 and 53. I did hear K0AWU in En37 but had
already worked him on wsjt. Worked En52, 60 and 74 on 222. The Au was in weakly
much of the day but never really found the time to chase it. And, few new
stations were heard. I did hear both EM88 and EN81 on 2 but never got either
station's attention.
Early Sunday am was on the lookout for tropo as the Hepburn map indicated we
should be getting some. Sure enough as early as 1000z I worked W4VHH in EM95,
beyond my normal tropo distance. AA4ZZ in EM96 was in very loud a little later.
Nothing else was worked though I could hear AA4ZZ through the rest of the day.
And, W4IY was well over s9 on all bands for the rest of the day - off the back
of the antennas. They and AA4ZZ must've been sitting right in the duct. With
these 2 stations so loud I was hoping that the tropo would extend and allow low-
land stations to get in as well at some point. Worked W4NH in EM85 with good
sigs around 1700z. They were in for the rest of the contest. I kept checking
during the early evening 6 Meter Es opening and sure enough around 0000z started
working some other stations. By 0100z the tropo was quite good and the last 2
hours of the contest were action packed. Had about 100 q's in over the last 2
hours even as I took time out to run some skeds on the microwaves. Picked up
EM74, 84, 86, 94, 04, FM04 and 05 in that time and a few on 222 and 432. W1RT/R
in FM08 was nearly a full pin on 3.4 ghz and well over s9 on 5 and 10 ghz.
The 6 meter e-skip was also fun. I had worked the VP5 and HI3 around mid-day .
The band opened up around 2200 to 4 and 5 -land. Never was able to get any
significant runs going but hunted and pecked to a little over 40 e-skip q's and
25 or so new grids. In June I worked 3 e-skip q's - not bad to significantly
outdo June in a Sept contest! The band was still open long after I stopped
working it but with the tropo action on 2 and above I concentrated there. Was
pretty leery of sticking out on 6 during evening hours....
One funny thing happened at the end. Was listening to the usual gang exchanging
comments and scores on 144.200 after the contest. WO4DX in EM74 was on calling
and calling looking for DX knowing the band was open. But the group on .200 just
kept going on so I think WO4DX and another 4 (W4BCU?) finally gave up. Don't
think I've ever heard that before.....Hey I'm supposed to do the writeup for the
contest in QST. If you have some stories or anything you'd like to share about
your Sept contest experience please drop me an e-mail - I'd love to hear about
it. CU next time and tnx for the Q's 73, Jeff K1TEO
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