ARRL June VHF Contest - 2020
Call: NV4B/R
Operator(s): NV4B
Station: NV4B/R
Class: Limited Rover LP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 259 79
2: 37 10
222:
432: 6 3
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 302 102 Total Score = 31,416
Club:
Comments:
This rove was a culmination of many months of planning and scheming to activate
rare grid EM61 among others in my first rove in one of the ARRL VHF contests.
Until last year, I had primarily competed in the Single-Operator QRP Portable
category. My interests started to shift to roving as I have become more
interested in the Fred Fish Memorial Award on 6 meters and, since my home grid
is so incredibly common (EM64), I've been looking at how I can operate from
places that would be more useful to those chasing VUCC and/or FFMA.
Last July, I roved for the first time in the CQ WW VHF Contest, operating
portions of both days from EM61 with 100 watts and a quarter-wave whip. That
trip served a dual purpose: to get a taste for roving, and to scout out
potential locations in EM61 for a future activation.
Since that rove, I have been planning to return to EM61, and, although some
personal constraints required that I modify my plans a bit and perhaps spend
less time than I had hoped for there, it did give me the opportunity to activate
10 grids while still sleeping (briefly!) in my own bed Saturday night.
The plan was to begin the contest from one of my favorite hilltops, Woodall
Mountain in EM54, then circle the nearby grid intersection via Pickwick, TN
(EM55), cutting back briefly across EM65 to EM64, then leave very (very) early
Sunday morning to EM61 via EM63 and EM62. Then, after spending most of the day
in EM61, I would return via EM51, 52, and 53.
Things went very wrong at the start. I set up on Woodall and found out that I
had issues on both 6m and 432. The 6m issue was a potential showstopper -- my
radio was showing full power output, infinite SWR, and full ALC with no audio
applied on SSB when trying to use my portable 3L Yagi. After an hour-plus of
troubleshooting in which the coax and antenna were verified to be in working
order and trying various things with the control head cable, putting a wattmeter
in line made the problem disappear for the rest of the contest. I had seen the
same issue while testing another antenna at home but assumed it was due to the
antenna itself, so I have to conclude the radio didn't like my particular length
of coax. Debugging this issue caused me to miss the best conditions while I was
in EM54. It was extremely frustrating to decode G8BCG among others only to not
be able to respond until well after the opening was over! On 432, I found that
my SWR was significantly higher than it had been on recent trips and concluded
that I was actually using an antenna designed for the FM portion of the band;
this proved true when I got home and measured. It had seemed to work reasonably
well on previous trips, but I realize now that it didn't perform as well as it
should have, so I didn't set that antenna up for the remainder of the weekend,
relying instead on my mobile loop antenna.
I ended up making only 30 Qs from EM54 compared to the 100+ I should have been
able to make, and that's with adding additional op time in 54 -- an hour delay
that propagated through the remainder of the weekend. The hilltop I picked out
in EM55 was an effective site, resulting in some regional 2m QSOs as well as a
number of 6m Es QSOs with the northeast on the quarter-wave mobile whip. My
time in EM65 was brief, stopping on a wide shoulder with a decent view of the
southern horizon. A lack of cell service here made skeds challenging, so a
handful of QSOs to obtain the rover mult satisfied me, and I moved back into
EM64. If I'd had time, I'd planned to stop for awhile on Colbert Heights
Mountain, but the EM54 delay made this impractical. I did, however, make my
best 2m mobile QSO of the contest with W5ZN (EM45) while in motion near
Tuscumbia.
After three hours' sleep, a quick shower, and something resembling food, I hit
the road to EM61 at 3:45 a.m. local time with an ETA of 8. I didn't even power
on the radio while driving through EM64 between 3:45 and 4:45 a.m., waiting
until I crossed into EM63 to pick up another activation mult. I made one 2m
contact with N4OGW (EM53), then moved into EM62 and found a decent spot where I
could work N4OGW on 6, 2, and 432. These would be my only QSOs from EM62,
although I heard AG4V (EM55) on 2m through almost the entire grid; my 50W to a
loop simply wasn't enough to be heard that far away given the conditions.
I made a brief preliminary stop in EM61 to test out a high spot I'd found the
previous July. This resulted in another three-band sweep with N4OGW and a 2m
QSO with WB8LYJ/R in EM72. N4OGW's 432 signal was surprisingly good given that
I was just using a mobile loop antenna under mostly un-enhanced conditions.
Due to these and one other stop along the way, I arrived at my planned operating
site around 8:45 and set up only 6 and 2 meters due to the previous problem with
432 and my lack of desire to get my Rube Goldberg 222 setup working (a setup I
hope to refine by August for 222 & Up). After a brief short skip opening to
the northwest, the band remained open to the northeast most of the day. The
afternoon brought good troposcatter conditions, and I was able to work several
north Alabama friends on both 6 and 2 meters. My site proved to be very good to
the north as expected; it sat on a bluff approximately 250 feet above the
Alabama River and surrounding terrain to the northwest, north, and northeast.
Unfortunately, propagation never materialized to the west where EM61 is the most
needed. I had planned on tearing down in time to leave the site at 5:00 with
the hope I might be able to set up for an hour in EM51 with the Yagi, and a dead
band during the 4:00 hour reinforced that decision. A conversation with a local
(more on this later) drug this out until 5:30, so I skipped the EM51 stop and
operated in motion for the remainder of the contest. In-motion operation with
my Windows tablet on FT4 proved to be a winner -- conditions picked back up, and
I maintained a good rate for the remainder of the drive through EM51, 52, 53,
and the final seven minutes in EM63. Unfortunately, this was also a time when
the band opened to the midwest and some areas other than the northeast, too late
for me to have been able to give out EM61 to those areas.
About the visitors: I always go out of my way to explain what I'm doing to
members of the general public who inquire, and I usually bring along some ARRL
flyers and a grid square map to help explain it all. As I was operating at a
public park -- albeit a quiet one -- I was still approached by a gentleman who
camped there overnight. He asked some very intelligent questions about radio, I
demonstrated making contacts, and he was happy to take some of my flyers. As I
was tearing down, another gentleman drove up and asked what I'd been doing. He
lived nearby and saw me earlier in the day. We struck up a conversation, and it
turned out he had been a CB operator and knew a bit about radio himself. I
explained what all of the antennas were for and also give him some flyers. By
the time our conversation ended, he had given me his name, address, and phone
number, and offered me use of his land for future contests. Though I lost some
time and some QSOs by taking the time to engage with the visitors, one never
knows what might come of it. Ultimately, it might even result in a new ham in a
rare grid who already has a head start in understanding VHF contesting!
I met all of my goals for this rove, although I'm disappointed in the issues I
ran into in EM54. Looking at the other claimed limited rover scores, I was just
on the cusp of being competitive with several higher scores, but losing out on
however many QSOs and mults left me short. Nevertheless, I still did better
than I expected, I activated all 10 grids as planned, and I made more QSOs in
less time from EM61 than I did last July, although I know I disappointed several
on the west coast who were looking for me.
As for future plans, I do plan on returning to EM61, perhaps in the CQ WW VHF
Contest. Difficult decisions have to be made when choosing to activate a rare
grid in a contest vs. trying to achieve the highest score possible. The latter
discourages spending a lot of time on skeds at the expense of rate, and the CQ
VHF Contest in particular discourages spending disproportionate periods of time
in a single grid square. However, the goal of the former is to go out of one's
way to work those who need the grid, especially in directions or on modes that
may not achieve the highest rate. I ultimately have to decide which goal is
most important to me and plan accordingly rather than trying to compromise.
Thanks to all for the QSOs!
QSOs by band per grid:
Grid 6m 2m 432
EM54 15 13 2
EM55 17 15 1
EM65 4 2 1
EM64 2 6 0
EM63 5 1 0
EM62 1 1 1
EM61 142 9 1
EM51 11 0 0
EM52 43 0 0
EM53 19 0 0
QSOs by Mode:
Band CW PH DG
6m 7 110 147
2m 0 12 25
432 0 2 4
Station:
ICOM IC-7100
6m: 100W, quarter-wave whip (in motion), 3-element Yagi (stopped)
2m: 50W, Efactor dual-band horizontal loop (in motion), 9-element Yagi
(stopped)
432: 35W, Efactor dual-band horizontal loop (in motion), soon-to-be-replaced
11-element Yagi (stopped)
Digital modes with Lenovo Windows tablet
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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