ARRL UHF Contest
Call: W9SZ
Operator(s): W9SZ
Station: W9SZ
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Illinois
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
222: 14 10
432: 15 10
903: 8 8
1.2: 9 8
2.3: 6 6
3.4: 5 5
5.7: 1 1
10G: 4 4
-------------------
Total: 62 52 Total Score = 19,812
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
I got to the hilltop in EN50rl at about 3:30 pm local time (2030Z) on
Saturday. It had been raining and continued to rain. I set up the antennas
in the rain and got drenched. I started setting up the station on a table,
with a large sheet of plastic over the gear and my head. I worked one
station on 222 and 432 and tried to work him on 903. I had just recently
built two new LNA's for 903 and 1296 and had them checked at the Central
States VHF conference a week earlier. I found out the 903 preamp oscillated.
I thought I had it fixed but couldn't hear the station OR the K3SIW beacon
with it. Fortunately I had taken my original GaAsFET preamp and swapped it
out (in the rain). By then the other station could not be found but at least
I could hear the K3SIW beacon with it. I retired to my car to wait for the
rain stop.
The rain quit at about 7 pm local time (00Z Sunday). I worked quite a few
people including W9SNR/R when he was in two of his grids. We worked on all
bands thru 10 GHz but 5760, where he was S9+20 but he couldn't hear me.
I slept in my car and actually had to run the heater a few times during the
night to keep warm! I never thought I'd have to do that in August.
I got up on Sunday morning and worked some more people. My only band sweep
was with K3SIW on all bands 222 through 10368 MHz. I worked W9SNR/R when he
was in another of his grids. He still couldn't hear me on 5760 even though
he was quite loud at my end.
I had to QRT at 1500Z on Sunday. Wish I could've stayed longer. There were
no spectacular long-haul tropo openings this year like there were last year,
but I did quite well all the way up to Milwaukee (240 miles) through 1296.
I had no other equipment mishaps and was happy with the way everything was
performing. All in all, a fun contest.
73, Zack W9SZ
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