2M SPRING SPRINT 2017
N2SLN    FN22








ANTENNA SYSTEM

    pair of Directive Systems and Engineering 6-el Rover Special yagis







RADIO EQUIPMENT

    Icom IC-7000 at 15 watts

    TE Systems 1452G amplifier at 200 watts







DESCRIPTION

After the March 14th snowstorm dumped two feet of snow on us (N2SLN vehicle), I began wondering if it would be gone by sprint time. As a result, I started earlier than originally planned on homebrewing a 2m SSB omnidirectional antenna, thinking that I may need to use it if I can't get to any of my high elevation sites. While looking at roadside locations where I could do a quicker setup, the last bit of snow melted on April 6th (3 weeks and 2 days after the storm) so that means moving the omni project back down the priority list. A couple local stations mentioned that they were not planning on using a popular nearby hilltop for the sprint, so I claimed it. A little testing on Easter weekend revealed that turning up the input power to the 2m amp made it go from 150w in the January VHF Contest to 200w for the Sprint.

After setting up, I started by running equipment tests that I didn't get finished in October. I had to wait all winter (November-April this time) to get another chance. I wanted to try using the transceiver's attenuator in conjunction with the "too hot" external preamp to see if the resulting lower number of dB worked better. It did--it raised the S/N ratio by both decreasing the noise and increasing the signal. Sounds like the receiver's front end was being overloaded. So it's time to have the gain figure of that preamp decreased a bit and try again. Since there was no time to get that done, I turned the external preamp off and just used the one in the transceiver and the one in the amplifier for this event.

I knew the sprint would be a good one when the first contact was all-time new 2m grid FN53. It was a portable-to-portable contact, too, and with big signals. I don't even have that grid on 6m yet and I have over 200 grids confirmed on 6m from FN22 (with no tower and no rotors at the home station). Later in the sprint I ran into N1BUG FN55 and that was another all-time new grid for 2m (and another one I've never heard on 6m). WB2SIH/R filled in FN33 and FN32 on the grid map for me and was the only station I worked in those grids. The only missing adjacent grids were FN23 and FN11. Best DX to the south was W3BFC FM18 on the eastern shore of MD, but his 5x8 signal suggests that others further south could have been worked also. Best DX to the east was WA1MTI FN41. Best to the northeast was Maine station N1BUG FN55 (384 miles/618 km) who was the best DX overall. Best to the north was Ottawa station VE3KKL FN25, the only station I heard to the north. I almost worked a station in southeast LP Michigan who copied the last letter of my callsign incorrectly and didn't hear my grid. That would have been 395 miles and a new best DX for this Sprint. This was one of the most fun sprints I've ever seen because of the high activity levels in almost every direction (despite no band enhancements), and because of lots of good signal strengths. Ten contacts in each of the last two hours is unprecedented. This sprint also produced the highest number of QSOs (and grids) I've had in any spring 2m Sprint since my first one in 2007.








POINTS SUMMARY



BAND   QSOs   UNIQUE
              GRIDS
---------------------
144     50     26


-- Claimed score = 1300 --











LOG


MD UTC  CALLSIGN GRID SIG
-------------------------
PH 2314 K1HC/1   FN53
PH 2318 K1RZ     FM19 5x9
PH 2321 W3IP     FM19
PH 2325 N2GHR    FN30 5x5
PH 2326 N2NT     FN20
PH 2329 W2KV     FN20 5x3
PH 2330 WC2K     FM29
PH 2331 N3NGE    FN20 5x6
PH 2335 N2RLA    FN22
PH 2337 N3VS     FN21
PH 2338 K0BAK/R  FN20
PH 2339 WA2FGK   FN21
PH 2345 W1VD     FN31
PH 2345 KE2DN    FN12 5x7
PH 2347 WA1MTI   FN41 5x6
PH 2348 KE1LI    FN41 5x6
PH 2358 AA2UK    FM29 5x9
CW 0001 NE2U     FN20
PH 0007 W3BFC    FM18 5x8
PH 0009 K1TR     FN42
PH 0013 W1GHZ    FN34
PH 0017 N2FKF    FN30 5x7
PH 0020 KB3VQL   FN21 5x5
PH 0022 NF3R     FN20
PH 0025 N2DCH    FN22
PH 0030 K1TEO    FN31
PH 0036 N1NQD    FN13 5x5
PH 0041 N3JDR    FM19 5x8
PH 0043 W3CMP    FN10
PH 0044 KA2LIM   FN12
PH 0105 N2LID    FN12
PH 0110 VE3KKL   FN25 5x6
PH 0112 KC2SFU   FN22
CW 0139 W3SO     FN00
PH 0142 KA1ZE/3  FN01
PH 0145 W9KXI    FN12
PH 0147 K3TLP    EN91
PH 0152 VA3HD    FN14
PH 0156 K1GX     FN31
PH 0159 N1JEZ    FN44
PH 0203 AF1T     FN43
PH 0204 N1JHJ    FN43
PH 0207 WB2SIH/R FN33
PH 0208 N1BUG    FN55
CW 0221 WA1EAZ   FN42
PH 0223 WB2SIH/R FN32
PH 0236 VE3ZV    EN92
PH 0240 W2CNS    FN13
CW 0246 K1ZE     FN31
PH 0258 K0BAK/R  FM29









N2SLN FN22