KE3HT/R
Sept 2003 report
Best contact: 355 miles @ 2304mhz
Grids activated: 6
Best grid: FN02 , 19 QSO?s
54 QSO?s total
Score of 4158 points. (Not my best trip)
Contest length: 33 hours
Sleep: 8 hours
Drive time: 14 hours (during contest hours only)
Setup time total: 2hours (10 minutes each up or down)
Bathroom/food/gas breaks are in the drive time.
Operating time: 9 hours total at 6 sites =
Average time per site: 1.5hrs
QSO per hour avg = 6 qso/hr
Miles: 1225 exact round trip
Gas: 73.191 gallons
Miles per gal average= 16.73miles/gal (.73mpg improvement over August)
Cost= $124.70
Cost per QSO = $2.31 per QSO.
Avg= $1.70 per gallon
Best price= $1.599/g
Worst= $1.899/g
Major Contributors:
25 QSO?s W2SZ/1 (mostly just microwave but they want me to do low bands
sometimes too)
14 QSO?s N2PA I missed three contacts due to site location problems (FN11),
Missed EN92 altogether due to lightening.
15 misc call signs
24 Microwave QSO?s
30 Low bands QSO?s
Hi all, I am now getting the idea that conditions were not to great overall.
Sunday being worse. I think I can verify this from my locations. My 355 mile
contact Saturday on 2ghz was better than the 225 mile contact Sunday with
the same station. I did not work EN92 due do almost golf ball size hail and
lightening. I turned off all of my radios as I could see the lightening hit
the next row of hills to the east from me. I lost my 3ghz transverter and I
also lost my brand new ICOM 706 MKIIG during this contest. I had high hopes
of a 50mhz opening. I never could tell, I had no 50,144 or 432mhz all day
Sunday! What a bummer. My old ICOM 706 MKII was a workhorse and never had a
hiccup! This one died two days after being installed. I had high winds at
all sites except EN91 (right before the storm) and FN11 was very nice! A
farmer at fn02 asked me not to park on the side of the road. He would prefer
if I parked on the hill in his farm field. I will oblige next time. I had a
new MAST mount for the bottom of my main dish mast. This made it possible
for me to be up and running at all the windy sites. If I had not made this
change I would have not have activated 3 more grids. I have a picture of my
Orange flag showing it horizontal with all the wind! My Sunday activities
were just not to great and I only had 222mhz on the low bands. Fortunately
some of the big gun stations also have healthy 222mhz so I was able to
continue with my favorite part of this contest, the microwaves. I now have
the feeling I can do 355 miles on 2304 doing most contests as long has
conditions are average. As you can see I looked at my time usage. I found
that my drive time is crazy. If I want to make more contacts I MUST reduce
the contest time driving. I need FN02, FN01 and FN00 WEST sites, anyone know
of any? FN02, FN11 and even FN01 seem to be desirable sites for many contest
stations. If I want to spend more time doing stuff other than the Microwaves
I will need less driving. I want to spend more time on the low bands giving
out points. I don?t need them, I am addicted to Microwave distances but I
know people want more rover points. If I did not loose my ICOM I would have
had a lot more low band contacts Sunday. As it was I did 6 more contacts on
low bands than Microwaves and I could have done more. I missed some contacts
with N2PA because of a site access problem and I also was hopeing to work
N2PA from EN92 since it has a nice path profile to N2PA from there but the
Lightening cut that off at the knees. Sorry guys. I missed all of my low
band scheds. Saturday I did not hear any of you on 144.260 and calls on your
freq?s did not find you. On Sunday I was unable to make any contacts with
out my ICOM.
2004 goal 400 miles on 3456 and maybe 5760!
I also want to improve my Microwave captivity by doing more low bands for
those I need of some of my grids that are not active on microwaves.
By the way guys, a pair of looper beams on 2ghz is not as good as a 6 foot
dish! There is a lot of DB?s difference! I run 30 to 40 watts on 2 and 3ghz
AND I run a 6 foot dish that has around 33db of GAIN! That?s a ERP of 30,000
to80,000 watts respectively! I have a pair of 3456 amps that should give me
twice that power next year! I need more serious microwave stations to work
me! So far the only stations I find workable have been K8GP, W2SZ and N2PA.
So you might say I am captive to these big gun?s but ?MY BAG? is microwave
distance. Some of you go for scores, some collect grid?s, others just
collect QSL cards. I am a Microwave distance addict! Anyone else out there
like me?
If you want to know more about my equipment and see some pictures come visit
my site. Pictures from this contest will not be up until this weekend due to
work obligations.
http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover
Tim Ertl (KE3HT/r Pennsylvania)
ke3ht@lmrgroup.com
Rover: http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover
June 2003 contest: http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover/june2003
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