ARRL September VHF Contest
Call: W4JNB
Operator(s): NV4B KW4HT W4DMW KI4UX N4GLE AA4YB
Station: W4JNB
Class: Limited Multi-Op LP
QTH: AL (EM64dq)
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 49 21
2: 38 10
222: 7 4
432: 18 6
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 112 41 Total Score = 5,617
Club:
Comments:
The Muscle Shoals Amateur Radio Club operated Limited Multi-Op from Colbert
Heights Mountain near Tuscumbia, AL (EM64dq). We operated from the Colbert
County EMA's mobile command post parked in a county-owned lot near Colbert
Heights High School. Aside from intermittent noise problems, this proved to be
a good site for VHF contesting. We improved greatly on our score from last year
and added digital modes on 6 meters, which yielded one more QSO than did SSB.
We made zero CW QSOs on any band this time.
We did not experience any significant enhancement on any of the bands above 2
meters. Although there seemed to be a fair bit of meteor scatter on 6, we were
only able to complete five MSK144 QSOs with 100 watts and 5 elements. We did
not have the benefit of Internet access for any permitted assistance; we will
work on this for next time. Groundwave range from our site on 6 meters was
very good.
We also noticed the incompatibility between FT8 "regular" and contest
mode that others have noted and are confident that Joe and the other WSJT
contributors will come up with a good solution. FT8 and MSK144 have been
game-changers -- in this submitter's opinion, in a positive way -- this year,
and we are grateful for them.
It was brought to our attention Sunday morning that we spent too much time
using 144.200. I (NV4B) primarily operated 6m and 222 while some of our less
experienced contesters operated 2m and 432. As our contesting experience as a
club thus far has been limited primarily to Field Day, I accept full
responsibility for not explaining the cooperative nature of VHF contesting or
the need to move our directional antennas more often when calling CQ and
causing frustration for least one nearby contester. We're sorry if this
frustrated anyone else. We will absolutely do better next time and hopefully
boost the scores of everyone involved.
We are also interested in recruiting some of our members who don't want to or
can't operate long periods at our multi-op to rove. We are near the
intersection of EM54/55/64/65 and tried this idea out Sunday afternoon with one
of our members who has an FT-857 and ATAS. It worked better than expected, and
with further development of mobile stations, perhaps we can provide even more
QSO and multiplier opportunities to stations in our region.
Another to-do item is to further develop our 222 station. We used NV4B's
portable 222 station with just 10 watts and 4 elements. We missed several QSOs
because of our weaker signal on this band, although having the 222 station at
all still proved valuable.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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