1290 miles to WD0T DN94 (S9+20 at one point) 6m fall Sprint 2014 -- N2SLN
6M FALL SPRINT 2014
CATEGORY: SINGLE OPERATOR
N2SLN hilltop portable    FN22








ANTENNA SYSTEM

    Directive Systems 5-el yagi







RADIO EQUIPMENT

    Icom IC-7000
    TE Systems 0552G amplifier at 190w







DESCRIPTION

The 6 meter fall sprint was sponsored by the Southeast VHF Society. The rules and more info were provided here. After two years of trying a different time slot, this sprint was moved back to the old hours of 2300Z-0300Z, Saturday, 09 August 2014 through Sunday.

In last year's version of this event I was running the amplifier at the low end of the input range. I did some testing in the months afterward and discovered that raising the transceiver power from 15 to 30 percent power raised the amplifier to 190 watts output, a good number for keeping under the 200w limit for the ARRL limited rover category, but more importantly, for keeping the 60A fuse happy and keeping the alternator safe.

After traveling an hour and a half east, I arrived on the hilltop a bit earlier than usual and leveled the van. I had just finished assembling the yagi and looked up to see the state police arriving. After explaining that I was planning on taking part in a ham radio communication exercise, they asked if a license was needed, so I showed them my FCC license. They were concerned about my possibly interfering with other communication systems, so they asked to see my drivers license and wrote down my information, explaining that they would be back if they received any reports of interference. I'm not sure how they would know it was me causing it, but nonetheless I agreed to shut down immediately if I saw them again.

The first contact was W1AW/1 FN44 answering my CQ, so I knew this was going to be a good sprint. The "fabulous first hour" lived up to its name, as 2/3 of my QSOs would happen in the first hour. The second hour brought a few new grids, including the first foray into the FM field and the first station from normally-hopping FN31. The horrendous third hour arrived and I made only two contacts, but thankfully both were new grids. At 0200Z I left my run frequency in order to check 50.125 and heard a station giving out DN94. I continued to listen and it was WDØT in South Dakota calling CQ. It was right at the beginning of the band opening for my area, so his signal was weak and I had to give my call a few times, but we completed the unusually long 1290-mile single hop contact. Fourteen minutes later his signal had built up to 5x9+20. Around 10:30 he was still coming in 5x9+ so I made an MP3 recording. With a signal like that, I decided to keep my beam pointed west to work all the other stations that would surely be coming in strong. Unfortunately, the only other distant station I ended up hearing was Wyoming station K7TNT DN74 but I couldn't get through the lightning static crashes that he had to his east. So I ended up with only two contacts in the final hour as well, but the state police did not arrive again, so I guess I'm transmitting a good clean signal while having good clean fun. My most worked grid was FN32 (5 stations). I did not hear anything out of adjacent grids FN23 and FN33 nor did I work any VE's. The only Perseids meteor scatter signal I heard was someone saying "EN52" just as I was tuning past their frequency (and it was probably KO9A--I worked him via MS during the same event two years ago). Results are here.








POINTS SUMMARY



BAND   QSOs   QSO    UNIQUE
              PTS.   GRIDS
---------------------------
 50     29     29      17



--- Claimed score = 493 ---









LOG



   UTC  CALLSIGN  GRID
--------------------------------
PH 2301 W1AW/1    FN44
PH 2302 WA1NPZ    FN43
PH 2304 N2NEH     FN32
PH 2305 KD2DKR    FN32
PH 2307 KT1J      FN34
PH 2309 NA2X      FN13
PH 2311 KU2R      FN12
PH 2315 AI2T      FN12
PH 2317 KØBAK     FN20
PH 2319 W3MEL     FN10
PH 2323 WA3SRU    FN20
PH 2325 K8ZES     FN02
PH 2331 AB1MI     FN32
PH 2344 K1SIX     FN43
PH 2351 K2CZ      FN22
PH 2351 WW1M      FN43
PH 2353 KM2KM/1   FN32
PH 2358 W1BS      FN32
PH 2359 W1ZC      FN42
PH 0000 K1TR      FN42
PH 0005 K3EOD     FM29
PH 0007 KB1JEY    FN20
PH 0030 KC3BPZ    FN21
PH 0033 W3BMM     FN21
PH 0035 W1VD      FN31
PH 0117 K1DQV     FM19
PH 0126 N3RN      FN11
PH 0200 WDØT      DN94
PH 0230 WB2OEE    FN21