This contest weekend was owned by Murphy.
Just as the contest was about to start, a series of thunderstorms began
rolling through. Before the rain started the sky turned black and the just
disconnected open ends of my coax cables were sparking like the spark plugs
in a car. Unfortunately, that apparently burned out the front end of my 144
transverter just as I was unplugging the coax, so no 2M coordination.
Anyone else had problems with M2 antennas not having a DC path to ground for
the center conductor?
Four hours later, when the storms had passed, and I got everything hooked
back up again, I was eager to try out my new 2304 transverter. K2DRH tried
sending on 2304 and I heard him 5-9+10, but I couldn't get my transverter to
key into the transmit mode to complete the contact. After finding a wiring
error, I was able to transmit, and K2DRH heard me S-7 to S-9, but I couldn't
hear him any longer because the front end of my 2304 transverter was now
dead. I am using a single TOHTSU CZX3500 T/R relay that is supposed to have
65 dB of isolation at 2 GHz, but somehow the front end got blown out
sometime between the first and second attempts with Bob to make my first
2304 contact. Possibly due to some TX power getting into the receiver?
Anyone else had problems with this relay?
After the weather delay Saturday afternoon, I worked the local gang ( W0UC,
N0AKC, N9DG, W9GA ) and a fair number of Northern Illinois stations.
Only rovers worked were K9JK and NE8I.
Propagation conditions were poor for the whole contest. Last year I made
106 contacts, this year only 43 contacts. No Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Indiana, or Ohio contacts on any band - that is very unusual !
Did work W8MIL, NE8I/R, and NQ8A in Michigan.
Best DX on 222 and 432 was W8MIL ( 220.1 mi ).
Best on 902 and 1296 DX was with W9SZ ( 172 mi, Hilltop )
222 16 QSOs, 9 grids
432 16 QSOs, 9 grids
902 4 QSOs, 3 grids
1296 7 QSOs, 6 grids
2304 0 QSOs, 0 grids
Totals 43 QSOs, 27 grids
Score = 4,374 ( SOLP )
Hope to have everything repaired before the September VHF/UHF contest.
73
Lloyd - N9LB - EN52hv
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