ARRL January VHF Contest - 2020
Call: N0URW
Operator(s): N0URW
Station: N0URW
Class: Single Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6:
2: 28 19
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 28 19 Total Score = 532
Club:
Comments:
January 2020 ARRL VHF contest
N0URW EN41go Iowa
All beam antennas for 2,6,222,432 and 1296 iced over and non usable Saturday or
Sunday from ice/snow storm Friday night. I didn't know just how wide spread the
ice storm was, and I didn't want to be left out. My only option left was to put
up a 2 meter square loop I had hanging in the basement off my truck. It would of
been nice to put up my 6 meter loop also, but dummy me left it outside by the
garage and it was frozen down under several inches of ice to the ground. Have
you ever tried to put up an antenna in 30 to 40 mph winds with a wind chill of
-35 degrees. Cheap black electrical tape doesn't work so good. Zip ties only to
anchor the coax to the mast pipe. I think the mast pipe has more wind load than
the loop has. Luckily I have a tripod with a mast pipe already mounted in the
yard for testing antennas that goes up 20 feet. I know what you are thinking. 20
feet isn't much, But I have a really good location so 20 feet is enough. So I'm
only about an hour or so late for the start of this one. But at least I'm on the
air. Where is everyone. The ice/snow storm must of shut down a lot of stations.
I'm not hearing anyone calling cq on 2 meter ssb. My first contact was from here
in Iowa to St Louis on ssb. A kilowatt into a loop will do that. Signals very up
and down. More calls on ssb went unanswered, so I went to WSJT FT8. I was
hearing signals and seeing them on the waterfall, but not decoding much if
anything. My software was out of date, so went to the website to get the latest
download. Once installed I was decoding all kinds of signals. Signals that
didn't even show up on the water fall would decode. Signals you could see and
hear
would sometimes decode, sometimes not. Very strange. It was very slow going as I
figured it would be running FT8. Plus since most were not even on, and the few
that were. Would be on 6 meters running FT8. They would never show up on ssb or
2 meters. At the end of the day on Saturday, around midnight. I had 37 contacts
partially decoded, (both calls and an R, nothing more) yet only 12 contacts
completed. The worse January first day ever.
Sunday brought more wind and snow flurries. Thoughts of going outside to install
something for 6 meters was quickly shot down when I looked out the window and
saw all the blowing snow. Calls on 2 meter ssb went unanswered all day long.
Once in a while I would see a spike on the waterfall up on 144.200. When I
checked it out, it was always someone I had already completed with on FT8. These
were not locals either. They were all out 250 miles away or more. There just
wasn't any locals on, and if they were on, they were not running 2 meters.
Only new contacts made on Sunday were on WSJT FT8 on 2 meters. It was so slow I
took some time off to watch football. By the end of the contest I had partially
decoded just under 60 contacts yet only completed 28. I had partial decodes on
calls from several East coast stations and Texas stations. Plus a single decode
from a Hawaii station to a California station, and a very strange Russian two
way contact. No doubt from meteor scatter. Not bad for a square loop at 20 feet
under such poor weather and band conditions. I couldn't believe I did not copy
more rovers. The few that did make it in the log were all running FT8 and were
very far away. Emails sent out to locals after this test confirmed what I
thought. Everyone was iced up and didn't even turn on their radios. Even though
this was the worse January contest I have seen. It was still nice to get on the
air. Hand out some points, and just see how well a single 2 meter loop at 20
feet would work.
The Spring sprints will be here before you know it. So hope to hear you then.
I think it's strange that with all the HF+6 rigs out there, and a lot of
operators running only one band. (6 meters only) There isn't a single operator
single band category for low and high power operators. I also noticed that most
of these single operators running only one band never send in a log either.
Perhaps they would if there was a category for it. Definitely something that is
needed for these vhf tests. Will I be sending in my log ? Nope, no single
operator single band category. I don't run single band during any of the VHF
contests under normal circumstances. Just saying for those HF operators that
choose to come to 6 meters and make contacts during the VHF contests. It would
be nice to include them with a category.
Rig: Icom 9700
Amp: Tube type, 1500 watts (ran at 500 watts FT8 to 1000 watts SSB during this
test)
Antenna: 2 meter square loop at 20 feet.
73, de N0URW EN41go Iowa.
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