On contest weekend we had a TS-2000 taking care of every band 50-1296 except 902. The 222 band was made possible by the Kenwood's 10m signal being fed into a DownEast Microwave 222 transverter. The 902 band was an Icom IC-706 I.F. radio driving a Q5 Signal transverter for 25 watts. There were amplifiers with built-in preamps for the bottom 4 bands. The challenges we faced were that the rotor control cables temporarily did not reach much further than the entry point into the shack due to the tower project being finished so recently. Our equipment table was in the middle of the floor, so turning the rotor meant getting up out of the seat for a few seconds or yelling commands at the op who was taking a break. The other challenge was that the needle on the microwave rotor control box would start moving erratically whenever it got to the right of north. We would have to go outside and compare the position to the "bottom 4" tower which had already been pointed in the proper direction. The control boxes will get extensions added to their control cables so that they both can be relocated to the operating position. That project can be done on a rainy day. The microwave rotor will be sent for repair. As for the lack of a voice keyer, we will search for a digital recording unit for the Kenwood, or wire up Jon's MFJ-434B external voice keyer. Other future plans include possibly running FT8 on 902 during idle time, and changing to a loop Yagi on 1296.
There was no tropo or aurora during this event at our 1840' hilltop, and analog activity was way down (2 hours and 6 minutes between two of our contacts on Sunday). We did not work any rovers. We did hear a Florida beacon on 6m, but the signal was so weak that we didn't stick around long enough to copy the callsign, then it was gone the next time we checked. We will really put the new 6m antenna to the test in June and July of 2027. The performance of the 2m station was noticeably better on signal strengths, and our best DX was KV1J FN44 (274 miles / 440 kilometers) in the state of Maine. The best DX on 222 was also to the state of Maine, but with K1WHS FN43 (238 mi / 383 km). Best DX on 432 and 902 was Maryland station K1RZ FM19 (235 mi / 378 km). Not bad for a 902 station that was powered entirely by battery. Best on 1296 was Connecticut station K1TEO FN31 (141 mi / 227 km) and Jeff was the only station to work us on all our bands. We didn't work any grids further west than adjacent grid FN12. Everybody we worked on 222 was louder than expected, which is impressive for a shorter antenna with a longer feedline than the previous one. We shut down early for working on guying the tower and heading home for dinner but did not return to the contest site afterward.
POINTS SUMMARY
Band QSOs QSO pts. Mults. ------------------------------------ 50 13 13 10 144 17 17 11 222 10 20 8 432 10 20 8 902 4 12 4 1296 1 3 1 ------------------------------------ TOTALS 55 85 42 --- Claimed score = 3,570 ---