Big contest here -- Wow! Still am buzzing from it.
The short story with numbers is this:
Claimed score: 176,790
6 meters : 600 Q's and 173 mults
2 meters: 115 Q's and 40 mults
In 3 seasons of contesting, this is easily my best score and
most draining/exhiliarating contest. Couldn't pig out on 6 back
in June due to a wedding on Saturday.
Soapbox type stuff -- wish we'd hear more of this from the
folks here, instead of getting bogged down in all of the procedural
stuff -- HELLO. (said with a mostly good-natured grin)
Operated all but the final 2 1/2 hours. Had some late-night activity
on 144, and a few of us even thought to try stirring things up on FM
simplex. Worked a handful of guys from Outer Minnesota, to Iowa
and down to Terre Haute, IND on simplex to keep things going until
the morning SSB types woke back up in Mich/Ohio/VE.
I've only been at this for 3 seasons, but this has to be pretty much
the motherlode of propagation for 6 and 2, all weekend long. And
it fell during a contest weekend to boot -- praise the RF Gods.
I knew I could work far more stations on 6, so I had tunnel vision
for that band pretty much from the start on Saturday. Had Es on 6
until about 10-11pm central time. I knew 144 was very good also
with tropo in the Upper Midwest, but I really didn't want to lose my
spot on 6, when I finally found a frequency I could hold. So I hoped
that when 6 finally died down for the night, there would still be
hungry 144 ops. There were a fair amount (way more than a 'test
with flat band cx's), but I still have the nagging feeling I should have
been nimble enough to do more on 144.
I did pound 144 hard from about 10:30pm until about 8am Sunday
morning. Q's could be found, but not easily, and not regularly, like
they had been on 6. In fact, the tropo on *6* overnight was amazing!
I spend a lot of time on 6 and have never heard S3-5 signals out
300-400 miles consistently. It was that good overnight Sat., even
once the Eskip died out.
I was bugged that I never tapped into the KS/MO/NE/OK area
on 144. I know others around here were, but I must have been
zigging when they were zagging. Still, 40 grids on 144 for any
contest is a good score. I just know that with the conditions we
had, it should have been more like 50 or 60 grids. It wasn't for
a lack of me calling CQ, at least overnight. I did do pretty well into
NW Wis/Minn/IA. Feel like I missed almost all of the Twin
Cities folks, though. I think if I had had a multi-op with one
person devoted to 144 and me devoted to 6, it would have been
even more amazing.
With respect to 6, I felt very fortunate that I got a 2nd chance this
contest season to really try and push the envelope. I couldn't be
around for the Saturday of the June contest, but this past weekend,
I was locked and loaded. 6 was amazing.
It was open right from the start, and it took me a while to find a
decent spot. When I'm just hanging out in the shack, I tend to hunt
and pounce for the grids I need, but in a contest, I want to do what
the objectives state -- to try and work as many amateurs in as many
grids as possible. So I needed to find a frequency, and just run as
hard as I could. Even with just 100w, I thought I did pretty well.
I had a run of about 250 Q's during a 3 hour span early Sat. evening,
and another similar run Sunday morning into the early afternoon.
Also, I would switch between a M2 6M5X beam and a pair of
Par Omniangle loops, and most of the time, the loops were way more
than I needed. The band was *that* open. There was a good hour
or two, where I was just CQ'ing away with the loops and after
working dozens of strong FN's and even eastern EN's, I'd have
callers from CN/CM/DM. Was afraid to commit to the beam, lest
I lose the wide geographical coverage.
Then it got to where I was just feeling like junk. I couldn't even
say
the "Quebec" in my phonetics properly. I was losing it and I pulled
the plug a few hours early. I probably should have hunted around
some on 144, but we also had an evening birthday party I needed to
get ready for. I still can't believe I made it up 36 hours -- good
thing
my better/saner half did the driving!
I did have a 2-day spell where I didn't even want to look at the rigs,
check propagation loggers, etc. But now I think I feel better, hi.
Can't wait for CSVHFS next weekend in the Twin Cities and for the
August UHF!!
Oh yeah -- I need to make a few changes. 1) Somehow learn to
utilize whatever those CQ machines are. It's just too much talking,
calling CQ manually 1000's of times. 2) Get dialed in with a headset
that has the mike right in front of my yapper -- all hands-free. I'm
amazed I don't have to see a chiropractor, after holding the mic with
one hand and typing in calls with the other hand.
73 and let's see some contest stories/observations/feedback.
Todd KC9BQA EN63ao 50 thru 1296 (2304 in August, too)
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|