HI Phil,
I was on at 7PM for the 432 Sprint, but had to QRT after one hour for
some shut eye as I had to get up at 2 AM for an early flight to Florida and
the Southeast VHF Conference. I am really learning to hate flying lately.
The conference was really great BTW. I had a great time rubbing elbows with
our Southern friends.
As for 432 and the Sprint, I would have to emphasize what WW1M mentioned
in a previous posting. Bruce was left out in the cold, being in a rare grid
that was not in a VHF populated area. My sense of all of the Sprints is
that the typical thinking is to hammer at the high population areas for most
of the Sprint, and then, after that pool is worked out, you tend to turn the
antenna to pick up the outlying grids that are not in the log yet. The
benefits of this first plan include picking up stations that only get on for
the first hour or so, and then lose interest and go watch the game on TV
etc. The downside is that you miss the rare grids if they quit due to lack
of signals and lack of interest. Guys like Bruce WW1M, will definitely lose
interest if they hear NO signals at all.
I would suggest that we need to aim in all directions from the beginning
of the contest. If we all do that, maybe that initial flurry of activity and
then the cosmic noise that follows the surge of contacts will become a thing
of the past.
In my case, I had one hour to operate, and spent much time looking West
and Northwest for "rare" grids, but heard nothing much in that first hour.
(I'll bet they were all looking for NYC and Philly) I do work a few up there
usually, but it mostly later in the evening.
The good news for this last Sprint is that I hauled up the 432 exciter
at 5 PM and hooked up the 432 station. I was missing a few items like a
keyer etc. so I stole one from the 222 setup. When I fired everything up, I
was pleasantly surprised to see full output, low VSWR, pretty good signals
from the CCX 432 beacon, and the rotor worked!!! Wow! Something went right!!
The snow is gone. The road is getting dry. The generator purred along... I
must be somewhere else? In my short operating time I snagged 39 QSOs in an
unknown number of grids. I think the grid total is very low. I left the
logpage up on the hill, but I suspect it was 12-13 grids. All of my Qs were
Southwest despite aiming West and Northwest for a good segment of my time.
Best DX was K3CB and K1RZ in FM19. Dave K1RZ was very weak when I worked
him, but WW1M was hearing him from Coggins Hill in FN54!! He could not
attract K1RZ's attention. Darn, that would have been a great contact. I had
to QRT before Bruce got to FN44. I missed K1LPS and AIM, the VEs up North,
and everyone to the West.
73
Dave K1WHS
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Theis" <phil@k3tuf.com>
To: <packrats@mailman.qth.net>; <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>;
<newsvhf@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:57 AM
Subject: [NEWSVHF] 432 Sprint results
> Conditions seemed ok last night as I was able to work north to FN25 and
> FN35, south to EM95 with some nice fill in grids of EM96 and EM97 (a new
> one for me)
> Then to the west EN90 and EN91. It was nice to catch Dave in FN43 at the
> beginning, can't wait to hear his story.
> I am a beta tester of software for my Flex Radio and had an issue at the
> start so I didn't work the whole sprint like I wanted. This gave me some
> valuable time using the new backup rig, an Elecraft K3, but I was glad to
> work out the kinks and get back on with the SDR.
> 73,
> Phil K3TUF
> _______________________________________________
> NEWSVHF mailing list
> NEWSVHF@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/newsvhf
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