CQ Worldwide VHF Contest - 2020
Call: NV4B/R
Operator(s): NV4B
Station: NV4B/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 135 92
2: 38 33
-------------------
Total: 173 125 Total Score = 26,375
Club:
Comments:
I ran a similar route to the one I ran in June for this contest. I started out
with a stop at Woodall Mountain, the Mississippi highpoint, in EM54, where my
4-element 6-meter LFA made its contest debut, along with my 9-element 2-meter
beam. I operated there about three and a half hours. Unlike the ARRL June VHF
Contest, I got this contest off on the right foot by having everything work as
expected. I then headed north to Pickwick Landing State Park in EM55. I lost a
little time there due to some setup difficulties with my smaller 6m antenna, a
3-element beam. However, despite the location just off the Tennessee River, I
still managed several good 2-meter QSOs and a handful of 6m QSOs, both
groundwave and sporadic-E. I then went to a parking lot on a nearby hilltop to
try to make some additional 2m Qs with the mobile loop before moving on to EM65.
My roadside EM65 stop was very brief and was done entirely with the mobile
antennas. Despite it being what I thought was a decent location, I had trouble
being heard on 2m from that location, so I moved on back to my home grid of EM64
fairly quickly, where I made several 2m QSOs in motion and stopped momentarily
on Colbert Heights Mountain for a few more.
After approximately three hours of sleep, I got up early to head south toward
EM61. I left an hour later than I did in June in the hopes of having a better
chance of activating all of the grids I passed through on the way south, and I
took a slightly out-of-the-way route to be able to activate EM63, 53, 52, and
62. EM51 was too far out of the way to activate during the shorter CQ WW
contest period. Although I only made one 2-meter QSO each from EM63 and EM53
(with fellow rover WB8LYJ/R in GA), I made multiple Qs from the other grids. My
first three QSOs from EM52 were actually from a brief planned stop with the
3-element 6-meter beam from the EM52/53 line. I had stopped there to make a
non-contest MSK144 QSO with a station who needed both of those grids. Once that
succeeded, I went to 50.313 and worked a DM37 station and two EM55 stations
before continuing in motion through EM52 and EM62.
I got QRV at EM61 with the 6m LFA and 2m beam a bit later than planned, around
1645Z, but was rewarded with an opening -- albeit flaky -- to the north. Then,
an opening developed to the northeast that, while not as strong as the opening
in June, still netted a number of SSB in addition to FT8 QSOs. Finally, I
started to decode DM field stations around 1900Z, and just before the end of the
contest, as I had hoped for, the opening developed into a double-hop opening to
the west coast, providing long-awaited opportunities for some FFMA-chasing
stations in 6-land to work me. I stayed QRV for an additional 30+ minutes to
continue working some of these stations as this is my last planned trip to EM61
for the year. 6 meters was productive almost the entire time, leading me to
neglect 2 meters from EM61. Though I had an additional radio that would have
allowed me to operate 6 & 2 simultaneously -- and with 100 watts on 2 -- I
didn't have it ready to use mobile for this contest. It would have been a huge
boost to my score if I'd had it.
In general, 2-meter participation -- and perhaps propagation -- seemed to be
quite good in this contest. I was amazed at some of the stations I heard on
Saturday, although some of the more distant ones didn't seem to hear my 50W to
9L. 6-meter FT8 during the openings on Sunday proved as difficult as it has in
previous contests. During the opening to the north on Sunday morning, I
attempted to move several callers to FT4, but the band conditions were too
unstable for even FT4 to be effective at that time. Subsequent checks of 50.318
showed little activity, but at the same time, it was clear that I was having
difficulty being heard due to QRM on 313 once conditions improved. FT4 proved
very effective in June, yet it still seems under-utilized for contesting in
general. The post-contest FT8 contacts after the activity had died down were
much easier to complete. A real effort needs to be made to spread out the FT8
activity to adjacent frequencies during contests and to utilize FT4 more often.
Radio: ICOM IC-7100 (100W 6m, 50W 2m)
Mobile antennas: 6m 1/4-wave whip, Efactor loop for 2m
Portable antennas: Cushcraft 4-el 6m LFA, MFJ 3-el 6m beam, Diamond A144S10
(minus one element)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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