ARRL June VHF Contest
Call: K9CT
Operator(s): K9CT
Station: K9CT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 576 178
2: 83 48
222: 27 23
432: 47 30
903: 8 7
1.2: 8 7
2.3: 0
3.4: 0
5.7: 0
10G: 0
24G: 0
-------------------
Total: 749 293 Total Score = 250,515
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This was the first big contest since the antenna change out to 2 and 6 meter
Innovantennas and the SO2R setup of the FlexRadio 6700. The goal of the contest
was to evaluate the performance of the changes. In the past, I did invest more
time in using multiple antennas and EME operations. I backed off on EME this
year because I have a rotator change out yet to do and I needed some sleep! On
a couple of occasions, I did regret not having two or three other antenna
choices available as 6m opened in multiple directions. This required following
some gut instinct in just pointing the stack in the right direction….DXMaps
is your friend!
Picking the operating category can be an issue. There are not many stations in
my area that have bands over 432 MHZ. The cost per QSO on 902 and 1296 is very
high. 222 MHz is another lower QSO band for the same reason. So picking High
Power allows for all bands or I could choose the HIgh Power 3 Band category.
The contest had its ups and downs. This was one of the better
experiences….just enough going on to keep me in the seat. Six meters started
slow and it was concerning. Then the E cloud appeared between us and the SW
where we had a good rate Friday afternoon and early evening. Sunday morning was
really quiet on 6m. Mostly scatter and some MS using MSK144. There was about an
hour of decent prop mid-morning. Right after lunch, The window opened to the NE
US. Lots of 6m stations there and both phone and cw had great payoffs with
higher rate. Later in the contest, the band opened to the SE and portions of
Texas followed by another good opening to the SW and closing to the Pacific NW
area. Many stations were sometimes worked on scatter as a result of these good
openings. Even split on 6m between phone and cw contacts….what a difference
from just a few years ago.
The higher bands had several effects. Not much tropo enhancement noticed except
early Sunday morning or the multi-path on 144 and 222 in the last hours of the
contest. 902 and 1296 had some good and bad times but so little activity it is
hard to judge. I tried with some stations out a ways but was not
successful...just no enhancement.
We had a few rovers in the area that kept interest and they did a very good
job. K9JK and AC0RA are really smart and efficient. They made sure everyone
knew where they were and where they were going next and when. Kudos to them!
Several other rovers were worked and their effort was appreciated….most were
out of local area.
I thought the Innovantennas were pretty good. There patterns are sharp and they
null out the noise and QRM very well. In this contest, that sometimes can be a
problem! All in all, there is no way to make any comparison to the previous
antennas but I felt pretty good about the investment. DX was worked very easily
and MS is a dream.
This was my first contest using the FlexRadio 6700 on VHF. I set it up so that
one slice/receiver was always on 6m and the other slice/receiver was on 144 to
1296. It was very easy to find openings or see activity. I interfaced the USB
port of the radio to a Denkovi relay board. This was wired to switch the PTT
and IF lines to the DEMI XVTRS. It was a breeze to run stations from band to
band….many times I was waiting on them to transition. The DAX (audio) setup
on the Flex allows for simple connection to the WSJT-X suite which uses the API
connection to the radio. It was easy to move from SSB or CW or Digital, MSK144
during the contest. No wires! Clean audio, etc. I was testing the next release
of software to the public that allows for remote capability...Flex has made a
refinement in this release that also really improved the front end on
6m….just as good as the SSB Electronics preamp...nice touch.
One thing that is getting worse…..noise. It is getting worse and worse each
year as the noise floor moves up with home gadgets flooding the world. It is
not just a power pole any more, it is everything. Sometimes when pointing at a
neighbor nearby or a mile or two away or propagated noise...it is getting to be
awful. Although it can’t solve all of this, I can’t tell you how much the
WNB, Wideband Noise Blanker in the Flex gave me many more DB to allow for more
QSOs. Sometimes, it makes so much difference that I can’t believe it. Still
the noise floor when the WNB is invoked is still too high compared to years
ago.
The activity was very good in this contest and there was plenty of time to
visit with friends. It is nice to make a few calls on the FM simplex
frequencies to stir the local pot also!
There were a couple of times I had to stop and fix a couple of things. Thank
goodness there were no show stoppers. The tower quit rotating at 11 am Sunday
morning and with some quick sleuthing determined the reed switch that detects
motor rotation had failed. Thank goodness for spare parts! The best part is
that this didn’t happen in the dark or on a snowy day in January.
So I lost maybe an hour or two here and there sorting things out. I just
don’t use the VHF setup very often and things don’t show when they are
tested…..they show up in the contest! Now that there is so much interest in
MS with MSK144, not much time for sleep! Crashed at 2:15 am and got back on at
6:15 am. Lots of fun….
Thanks for the QSOs and being patient with the QSB and repeats.
73, Craig K9CT
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