Wow, you guys get all the fun. I had high vswr on 2m and 222 even without
frigid enhancements. My total contacts were 5 on 6m also without
enhancements. I ended up watching your snow fall on the football fields in
out your way from the comfort of my easy chair.
Good Job!
73, Roger
W7TZ
CN83ia
On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 9:25 AM <vhfcontesting-request@contesting.com>
wrote:
> Send VHFcontesting mailing list submissions to
> vhfcontesting@contesting.com
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> vhfcontesting-request@contesting.com
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> vhfcontesting-owner@contesting.com
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of VHFcontesting digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Taken out of the contest by ICE. (K3SK@buckwalter.co)
> 2. Re: Taken out of the contest by ICE. (Ron Klimas WZ1V)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:39:53 -0500
> From: <K3SK@buckwalter.co>
> To: "'VHF Contesting'" <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
> Subject: [VHFcontesting] Taken out of the contest by ICE.
> Message-ID: <07c501dc88cb$5e6ef1a0$1b4cd4e0$@buckwalter.co>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Mother nature?s ice, not the government organization. ?
>
>
>
> I have been VHF contesting for over 40 years and until today I have never
> been taken out of the competition during a contest by weather. For several
> years I did the January VHF contest on a Pennsylvania mountain top where
> the cold froze the rotors to where they wouldn't turn and I climbed the
> tower and knocked the ice off with a hammer so we could keep contesting (I
> was young and "less smart" back then). Today, with about 7 hours of contest
> remaining, the winter storm coming up the east coast went from rain to
> sleet, to ice, then snow. This pretty much killed any propagation
> enhancement. I also quickly found out it instantly made my antennas
> inoperative, ALL OF THEM!
>
> The first indicator was the 2m PA tripped with high SWR indicator, then
> almost at the same time the 6m amp did the same. Within 15 minutes I was
> down on all 5 bands I was operating.
>
> When I decided it was time to give up 3 of the 5 PAs tripped off when the
> TX was keyed. Below is the measured SWR for each band. These are all
> normally 1.2 or better.
>
> 50 MHz 3:1
> 144 MHz 2.6:1
> 222 MHz 3.5:1
> 432 MHz 2.5:1
> 1296MHz 2.1:1
>
> Sadly, I was on a roll to a new personal all-time January contest high
> score with 275 QSOs when I was forced out of the game. The only thing
> positive is my score this year is ~7k points over last January contest
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dave ? K3SK
>
> FM07
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 20:19:54 -0500
> From: "Ron Klimas WZ1V" <wz1v@sbcglobal.net>
> To: K3SK@buckwalter.co, "'VHF Contesting'"
> <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Taken out of the contest by ICE.
> Message-ID: <20260119.011954.929.1@RON>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Same here Dave, SWR went sky high all bands,
> had to throw in the towel, Better luck next time I hope.
>
> 73 Ron WZ1V
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David R Buckwalter via VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
> To: "'VHF Contesting'" <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
> Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:39:53 -0500
> Subject: [VHFcontesting] Taken out of the contest by ICE.
>
> > Mother nature?s ice, not the government organization. ??
>
>
>
> I have been VHF contesting for over 40 years and until today I have never
> been taken out of the competition during a contest by weather. For several
> years I did the January VHF contest on a Pennsylvania mountain top where
> the cold froze the rotors to where they wouldn't turn and I climbed the
> tower and knocked the ice off with a hammer so we could keep contesting (I
> was young and "less smart" back then). Today, with about 7 hours of contest
> remaining, the winter storm coming up the east coast went from rain to
> sleet, to ice, then snow. This pretty much killed any propagation
> enhancement. I also quickly found out it instantly made my antennas
> inoperative, ALL OF THEM!
>
> The first indicator was the 2m PA tripped with high SWR indicator, then
> almost at the same time the 6m amp did the same. Within 15 minutes I was
> down on all 5 bands I was operating.
>
> When I decided it was time to give up 3 of the 5 PAs tripped off when the
> TX was keyed. Below is the measured SWR for each band. These are all
> normally 1.2 or better.
>
> 50 MHz 3:1
> 144 MHz 2.6:1
> 222 MHz 3.5:1
> 432 MHz 2.5:1
> 1296MHz 2.1:1
>
> Sadly, I was on a roll to a new personal all-time January contest high
> score with 275 QSOs when I was forced out of the game. The only thing
> positive is my score this year is ~7k points over last January contest
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dave ? K3SK
>
> FM07
>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of VHFcontesting Digest, Vol 277, Issue 16
> **********************************************
>
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|