The January VHF contest is always a bit interesting
for the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators.
This year was no different.
1. Our usual first few hours working lots of stations
in the Baltimore - Washington - Richmond corridor
(200 - 400 miles, PVRC home territory) was not to be,
in part, due to the PVRC emphasis on the NAQP/SSB contest.
2a. A nice 6m Eskip opening started at
about 21:30 (SAT) netting 5 QSOs on the Gulf Coast;
though only 2 grids - EM60 and EM80.
A few minutes into the opening
the Grid Current on the Amp went "bonkers".
The SWR was "Sky-High" on all antennas.
Some quick testing: A thick coating of ice
had de-tuned the beams to make them unusable.
2b. Five or so minutes later,
2m was off the air for the same reason.
3. So, "let's get off the mountain,
and do a nice dinner in town". Easy to say.
After at least a half-hour of scraping the ice
off the windshields, the four truck[*] convoy
heads down the mountain very carefully.
No mishaps.
4a. Meet at 9:00am Sunday in town to decide
what to do Sunday. Weather seems better.
We go back up.
5a. VERY slow going.
I (w3idt) had proposed on the VHF contesting reflector
to do SSB at top of hour; CW at bottom of hour;
Hope for FT4 in-between, else FT8 (on 6m).
I did. Netted very few contacts.
Never found anyone on FT4.
But did get a few CW QSOs at bottom of hour.
5b. Unless rules get changed
(more about that in a future post),
would change proposal to
SSB at top of every EVEN hour;
CW at the top of every ODD hour;
FT8 in-between (better would be FT4).
20 minutes or so of FT8 is simply not
a long enough continuous stretch.
6. Contest ends.
More scraping.
It's 10 degrees.
The wind is. . .
well, you get the idea.
(WHY are we doing this?)
7. Results (use FIXED font):
------CW---FT8---SSB GRIDS
50 5 72 51 37
144 65 78 38
222 (OFF)
432 1 32 18
----------------------------
6 137 161 93
Total QSOs: 304
Total Grids: 93
Total Score: 31,341
We had fun, more-or-less.
Bob, w3idt
w3idt@arrl.net
w3idt@comcast.net
For the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators
(W3BTX, W3XOX, W3YOZ, W3IDT; JAN 2020)
[*] Three REAL trucks - after all,
this is Western Pennsylvania -
and my "civilized" truck:
a new Subaru Ascent;
it did real well on the snow / ice.
--
.............................
. Robert F. Teitel, W3IDT .
. .
. W3IDT@arrl.net .
. W3IDT@comcast.net .
.............................
--
.............................
. Robert F. Teitel, W3IDT .
. .
. W3IDT@arrl.net .
. W3IDT@comcast.net .
.............................
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