222 SPRING SPRINT 2014
N2SLN SINGLE OP LOW POWER  (hilltop portable FN22)








ANTENNA SYSTEM

  Directive Systems and Engineering 10-element Rover Special yagi









RADIO EQUIPMENT

    Icom IC-7000 mobile on 10m
    5 watts

    Downeast Microwave 222 transverter
    30 watts

    Mirage C2512G amplifier
    90 watts









DESCRIPTION

For the second spring sprint in a row, precipitation was predicted for all the hilltop sites I was considering using for a portable effort. In fact, a Flood Watch was already issued Saturday effective Sunday through Thursday for the areas east of Lake Ontario--a result of high weekend temperatures melting the existing snowpack plus new rainfall expected Tuesday. My area would end up being included in the Flood Watch on the day of the sprint, but the bigger concerns were plummeting temperatures and especially the wind gusts to 35 mph on the exposed hilltop, dropping the wind chill to near zero. This was shaping up to be more difficult than the January VHF contest!

The site chosen was an FN22 hilltop 15 minutes from home. At least I know I can eventually walk home if my vehicle gets stranded on the hilltop. At 2 PM the rain had just changed to snow in my area and by 4 PM the ground was completely white. Just two days ago it was 80 degrees and sunny...when will old man winter let go?

The good news is that I arrived on the hilltop to see that the snowfall total was only an inch, and no more was falling. No rain either, so that means no roof leak. Riding high on this surge of good fortune, I leveled the van and got the antenna system set up 12 minutes early. I did not bother with the FM yagi this time for a speedier setup and teardown. Next, I went to take some photos, but the camera's batteries were dead, and I would later find the headband lamp batteries to be dying slowly, and same with the logbook lamp. The headband lamp survived long enough for me to see the logbook until the end of the sprint, though. Best DX to the south would have been Maryland station K1DQV but he forgot to send his grid, so I can't count that one. He didn't hear me ask for it twice more because signals were already marginal in the rough propagation (with deep QSB nulls like during the 2m sprint the previous week). Best DX to the west was VE3ZV EN92 (230 miles / 371 km). No contacts were made to the north. Best DX toward the east was W1GHz FN34uj (213 miles / 343 km). Stations I heard but did not work: WA3SRU, W1XM FN42, K1TR FN42, WA2FGK, and W2BVH. Nothing heard out of adjacent grids FN11, FN23, FN32, and FN33.









POINTS SUMMARY



BAND   QSOs   UNIQUE
              GRIDS
------------------------------
222     11      9


 --- Claimed score = 99 ---









LOG


MD   UTC   CALL     GRID   OTHER
-------------------------------------
PH   2306  N2DCH    FN22
PH   2309  K3TUF    FN10
PH   2312  W9KXI    FN12   5x9
PH   2331  WZ1V     FN31
PH   2340  WA3NUF   FN20
PH   2344  AF1T     FN43
CW   0000  K2ERG    FN13
PH   0009  VE3ZV    EN92
PH   0046  W3GAD    FN20   had to send my callsign in CW to complete
CW   0133  W1GHZ    FN34
PH   0230  K1TEO    FN31
















"N2SLN: A fringe rover in more ways than one."