CQ Worldwide VHF Contest - 2021
Call: K1TEO
Operator(s): K1TEO
Station: K1TEO
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FN31/CT
Operating Time (hrs): 19.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 453 163
2: 139 42
-------------------
Total: 592 205 Total Score = 149,855
Club:
Comments:
This was a contest where to it took a lot of effort to score well. 6 was open
nicely in the first hour which allowed the best SSB run of the contest. I had
visions of a repeat of 2006 rates throughout....and they evaporated quickly.
After that 6 was mostly an FT8 contest with a few brief exceptions around 0100
and for shorter periods on Sunday morning. FT8 is a slog. Though I could see I
was being rx'd over much of the country most of Saturday and Sunday AM, there
were many times where CQs went unanswered for long periods of time.
I echo K2DRH's comments about strong SSB stations and little to work. We had at
least 3 openings where Bob, AC0RA and W9GA were like s9++ beacons on the band
and yet there were slim pickings on SSB/CW. I made about 40% of my 6 meter Q's
on those modes but if not for the initial hour and 45 minutes or so of action
around 0100z it would have been much lower. My experience with FT4 is the same
as others - I had one period of about 10 Q's in 10 minutes on Saturday. Other
than that numerous tries led to only another handful of Q's there despite the
high activity on 313.
On Saturday night the band was open to the Midwest with some double hop to West
Coast and a good showing of VE4/5/6's. Many of the MW stations were working JAs
so they were beaming away from the NE (for good reason, hi!). So that decreased
the Q rate I'm sure. Likewise Sunday morning when the band was open to the same
areas of the MW but they were working EU. I could hear DRH and AC0RA for example
working many EU stations. None of them were copied here except for a brief
period late morning where 5 EU stations were worked. Likewise Mid-Atlantic
stations like W3LPL and N3MK could be heard working EU. That's the fun of the
magic band - so close but not there for my area. Sometimes you get lucky and the
opening lands on ur area.
There was also some 2M Es on Saturday that those north of me worked but nothing
was heard here. In the first hour of the contest I was working FN02/03 and EN9X
grids on 6 which is very short skip where you would expect the MUF to be high
enough for 144.
Speaking of 2M this was one of the worst levels of activity on the band in a
contest I have ever seen. For most of the contest, when I went on SSB, I either
heard no one else or perhaps one or two other stations. It was just dead. FT 8
activity was a bit better but still poor. It did help that I automated (finally)
my 2M station so no longer did I have to use a foot switch on 2M. That allowed
easier FT8 operation since I didn't have to focus on timing the foot switch
while monitoring 6M too, hi! If not for being able to do both bands at once my
2M total would have been much lower. Last year was a high water mark for CQWW
VHF on 2M with over 200 Q's. This time only 70% of that and about 2/3rds were on
FT8. It's possible that last year we had some activity advantage with fewer
vacations and people stuck home with the pandemic.
Like others experienced, many stations called me on 6M with message 2 so I got
a signal report but no grid. That was definitely frustrating. And with the band
open to JA and EU many stations were understandably calling CQ DX including a
number in what would have been new contest grids. I did enjoy working 4 new all
time grids on 6 including one toward FFMA. I heard 2 others in the DN's that I
couldn't raise though I DX'd a bit and called them many times.
The equipment worked fine with 2 small exceptions. I had issues on both 6 and 2
with the short coaxes from the preamps to the amplifiers. Strange to have both
fail but easy fixes once identified. And Friday I went to crank up my 6M tower
and when it was about half way up I noticed I was being swarmed by wasps. I ran
but was bit by a wasp right on the nose. I went back and found there was a hive
in the making on the winch that is used to tilt the tower over. I sprayed it
after dusk but in the morning it showed no effect. So my tower remained only
half up so that my lower antenna (side mounted on the lowest tower section) and
the middle antenna mounted on the top of the tower had only about a 10 foot
spacing instead of 17 feet. BTW I sprayed again Sunday night again with no
effect. I need someone braver than I to come over and knock the nest off, hi!
Tnx for the Q's and to CQ for sponsoring the contest.
Jeff K1TEO
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