2M FALL SPRINT 2014
SINGLE OPERATOR CATEGORY
callsign: N2SLN
hilltop portable








ANTENNA SYSTEM









RADIO EQUIPMENT

    IC-7000 at 25 watts into Mirage amplifier for 100 watts out (measured into the antenna) plus receive preamp







DESCRIPTION

I drove 1.5 hours to a hilltop in eastern FN22 and got there at 6 PM to start leveling the van and assembling the antenna system. Sustained winds were about 15 mph with gusts to about 35 mph. I tried raising a long section of just mast as an experiment, but it looked too unstable in the high winds, so I removed one 4-ft section before continuing. The combination of antenna support structures and rotor brought the top antenna to about 25 feet above ground, and was really swaying all around in the wind. I installed a spare bungee cord around the mast and hooked it to the roof-mounted horizontal stabilizer for extra support.

I had the best first hour of any 2m sprint that I can remember, with 22 QSOs occuring in the first hour. That would turn out to be 56 percent of the QSOs for the whole night. The overall QSO total ended up being about average for my portable operations in this event over the years (for ones that didn't have ducting). My best DX, 414 miles, was WA4PGI who was in the cabin at the top of a fire tower at 4300 feet ASL. I worked a lot of stations off the side and back of the antenna this time for some reason, and had a similar experience in the September VHF Contest. I began noticing that I was working stations in batches. When the propagation was in, I would work a group of 3 or 4 stations from the same area, then the propagation gods disapproved and turned off the fun. Then it would re-appear in a different direction and I'd work another batch of stations for a couple minutes. Best DX to the north was FN35, and that one wouldn't have happened without CW. Best DX that I could manage to the west was EN93 at 294 miles. I was hoping to reach K8TQK EM89 in order to break 500 miles, but the troposphere was too turbulent this time. Maybe next time.







POINTS SUMMARY



BAND   QSOs   QSO    UNIQUE
              PTS.   GRIDS 
----------------------------
144     39    39       20


 === claimed score: 780 ===










LOG



START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CALLSIGN: N2SLN
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP 144M LOW
CLAIMED-SCORE: 780
CONTEST: VHF-SPRINT-144MHZ-FALL
CREATED-BY: hand
NAME:
ADDRESS:
ADDRESS:
EMAIL:
OPERATORS:
SOAPBOX: 
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2306 N2SLN             FN22   N2QIP             FN32
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2307 N2SLN             FN22   WZ1V              FN31
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2308 N2SLN             FN22   AC2KP             FN22
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2308 N2SLN             FN22   N2SPI             FN22
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2312 N2SLN             FN22   KA2BPP            FN30
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2313 N2SLN             FN22   K1MAP             FN32
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2314 N2SLN             FN22   W2KV              FN20
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2314 N2SLN             FN22   WA2VNV            FN30
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2319 N2SLN             FN22   KD2ERR            FN22
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2323 N2SLN             FN22   WA4PGI            FM07
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2327 N2SLN             FN22   KC2SFU            FN22
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2330 N2SLN             FN22   W2UAD             FN13
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2333 N2SLN             FN22   N1JEZ             FN44
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2334 N2SLN             FN22   K1WHS             FN43
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2336 N2SLN             FN22   K1BXC             FN31
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2341 N2SLN             FN22   W2GKR             FN31
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2343 N2SLN             FN22   N2FKF             FN30
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2345 N2SLN             FN22   KB1HY             FN31
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2346 N2SLN             FN22   K1KA              FN42
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2350 N2SLN             FN22   K1BX              FN43
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2351 N2SLN             FN22   N1TQP             FN32
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-22 2352 N2SLN             FN22   KK1CW             FN32
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0000 N2SLN             FN22   VA3ELE/R          FN03
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0001 N2SLN             FN22   K2QO              FN03
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0013 N2SLN             FN22   K1TEO             FN31
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0022 N2SLN             FN22   VE3ZV             EN92
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0022 N2SLN             FN22   VE3CRU/R          FN04
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0023 N2SLN             FN22   VE3EU             EN93
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0029 N2SLN             FN22   KF2MR             FN13
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0036 N2SLN             FN22   WA2FGK            FN21
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0038 N2SLN             FN22   K2SMN             FN20
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0047 N2SLN             FN22   KA2LIM            FN12
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0052 N2SLN             FN22   W9KXI             FN12
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0108 N2SLN             FN22   WA1RKS            FN32
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0108 N2SLN             FN22   K3MD              FN10
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0109 N2SLN             FN22   N3NGE             FN20
QSO:   144 PH 2014-09-23 0144 N2SLN             FN22   W1XM              FN42
QSO:   144 CW 2014-09-23 0206 N2SLN             FN22   VE2DC             FN35
QSO:   144 CW 2014-09-23 0213 N2SLN             FN22   WS3C              FM19
END-OF-LOG: