ARRL January VHF Contest
Call: W2CCC
Operator(s): K2CS K2QO
Station: W2CCC
Class: Limited Multi-Op LP
QTH: WNY
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 41 19
2: 20 12
222: 6 4
432: 6 4
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 85 39 Total Score = 3,315
Club: Rochester VHF Group
Comments:
With much planning and fanfare, K2CS and K2QO embarked on a mission to whip the
January VHF Contest into shape from the Coldbrook Contest Club World HQ in
FN23mh.
The important things were accounted for:
Friday night dinner at the Ohio Tavern on Rt 8 - CHECK
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - CHECK
Snacks - CHECK
My XYLs famous Taco Soup - CHECK
Heineken and Perrier - CHECK
K3/P3/FT-8/all the trimmings - CHECK
New TS-811 for 432 - CHECK
Propagation and Activity - MISERABLE FAIL!!!!! NO CHECK.
Yikes! Could two seasoned VHF contest ops with good equipment, nice antennas,
and a really good high location actually only make 85 Qs? Is that even possible?
Apparently, it is. You might even think that the operators, K2CS and K2QO were
napping for most of the contest.
The entire weekend was crazy. Saturday into Sunday brought well over a foot of
snow and zero Fahrenheit temps with a nasty wind chill. Propagation seemed much
worse than the usual January with stations that were S7 on one transmission and
simply gone on the next. FT-8 on 6m was showing HUGE signals from stations all
over the US but they'd be there once and not again. Very frustrating. Watching
the P3 on 6m CW/SSB was like watching grass grow in a drought. There were
stretches of scores of minutes devoid of any signals.
Is the neighbor's cattle rance fence acting as a stealth Faraday cage? Are VHF
signals not allowed in/out of the Adirondack Park boundary? Did our competition
sneak in and detune our antennas?
The bitching could go on longer but in the end, the food, drinks, and
camaraderie were excellent! It is time to look forward to June and September.
Will ARRL be renaming these contests? Maybe go with the "June VHF
FT-8-Appaloosa".
73 from W2CCC,
Chris K2CS
Mark K2QO
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