Dave,
All in all it looks like you did pretty well. When I checked the HB9Q 222
chat page I couldn't believe I missed all the western and the HI stations. It
really bummed me to see they "had been" logged into the page. I could have
used the multipliers.
As far as not being answered by loud digital stations, I also experienced quite
a bit of it also. I had more than a few instances of +level signal levels
that I could not get to respond. I think it’s a combination of things like
poor receiver specs, not rotating thier antenna and adjacent RX signal
interference on their end. I saw many instances of signals piled on top of
each other making them all near impossible to decode. To avoid that happening
to me I make a point to change my TX df often. And, along the lines of
stations piled up on the same df, there are more than a few who over drive
their audio and splatter the waterfall with interference making decoded
difficult. There is a (to remain unnamed) ham 200 miles south of me that
almost every contest severely overdrives his FT8 audio on 222 & 432 to a point
that I cannot decode anyone within 400 to 500hz of his signal on the waterfall.
When I turn down the gain to minimize the issue, it also minimizes reception
of everyone else. Pointing this out to him has not helped. I've even sent
him screen captures.
I wish I could log even half your 222 & 432 stations. I'm pretty sure I could
if they pointed their antennas my way.
Dave - K3SK
"Regardless of what you've read on the internet, FM07 is not an RF Free Zone.
Point this way and check it out."
-----Original Message-----
From: VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting-bounces+k3sk=buckwalter.co@contesting.com>
On Behalf Of Dave Olean
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 5:22 PM
To: newsvhf@mailman.qth.net; VHF Contesting <VHFcontesting@Contesting.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] The September Contest summary k1WHS
Hello VHF ops and VHF phreaques,
I saw a few interesting things over the contest weekend. One look at the
Hepburn map showed that propagation would be very marginal, and that turned out
to be very true. I heard lots of complaints. It was sobering with no
propagation lift to help. I noted that being on only 222 and
432 poses a few problems for running the bands. I can't pick up stations on 50
or 144 and then "run the bands". Yes it is my own fault, but I am still
clearing wreckage from the last 144 antenna farm. Waiting on 222 or 432 and
trying to catch people 'passing through" is almost impossible. I called AF1T
at several times but never could get him to notice as he was gone the
millisecond after completing his contact and moving to the next band. The fact
that he was 59+20 did not help me.
Stations that are S4 or S5 are impossible with these circumstances. They do not
listen nor hear me and are gone to some other band. That leaves sitting at the
computer and watching chat pages to dredge up contacts. I did try calling CQ on
SSB and a bit on CW, but that was very unproductive. I really have no idea how
to operate the contest and still have fun. I love analog contacts but the
numbers are decreasing. The big guns now have four or five bands operating
simultaneously on FT8 even if they are single ops. This maximizes FT8 contacts
as the exchange is slower than molasses in January, so having four or five band
signals at once can speed things up quite a bit. I went snooping around the
chat pages looking for stations to try with. It is very slow and hit or miss,
but that was the only routine that seems to work. CQing sure does not work on
222 or 432. I remember 20 years ago we had a multi op station and actually
called CQ on 1296 and it was productive. Things are sure different today.
I missed many contacts with a few rovers as they would never respond to my
requests for a sked. I think the problem is that they are very busy pointing
their antennas to the populated areas and have their hands full with action
there, so do not turn their beams elsewhere and cut their score. Pointing to
the populated areas will increase your score much faster than trying to work
someone 180 degrees away. I missed several grids because of that. Some rovers
were easy to find and responsive. I want to single out VA3TEC/R. I am not sure
what Mike was doing there with his rover-mobile, but he was exceptionally loud
on the two bands that I worked him. I caught him in FN04 and FN14 on both 222
and 432. IN each case he would respond to a request for a sked even though my
beam heading was not very productive. His major action area was SOUTH I was
East! Signals on both 222 and 432 were monstrous. Congrats, Mike.
I found conditions to be flat for the most part, but i did see a few bright
spots. On Saturday evening, N3MK was blasting in from Eastern Shore of Virginia
and FM27 between 0130 and 0200 UT. He was on FT8 and was very loud. On Sunday
evening I heard a few stations calling him, but could not even detect him then.
I did try working VA3IKE on 222 MHz on Saturday evening and was surprised to
work him with Q65B digi mode. He was at -20, which is pretty good for his 25
watts. That is an insane distance of 600 miles for 25 watts on 222 MHz. I think
Ike religiously uses antenna wax on his antenna. Other observations were the
missing grids that are always bugging me. No one was worked from FN33 that
abuts my grid square. On 222 MHz I missed four grids that border my own grid.
I did manage to work the other four grid squares that border FN43.
(FN42, FN32, FN34, and FN44 I missed quite a few easily workable grids due to
lack of activity. Others went missing because I could never find the station
to even try in the first place. KE8FD and N8LRG are two that I would love to
try but never got a chance. I missed EN80 on 222 and 432. I think I had a good
chance on 222.
Now for the good news and positive results. I concentrated on working grids on
222 and had a good result picking off the grids that are extremely far away. I
worked K3SK and W7JW in FM07 and EN82 via EME on Sunday morning. Other stations
worked then via EME were W4NH EM84, K9MRI EN70, W6TCP CM83, W7TZ CM97, and NH6Y
in BL10 N4QWZ in TN was worked via meteors on Sunday evening. I was amazed
that eight stations were worked via the Moon on Sunday morning in a very short
period of time.
Every contact was quick with no problem with Faraday rotation. W8ZN in
FM09 was worked on 222 & 432 on CW. VE3ZV was worked from EN92 on SSB and CW.
These are close to 500 mile distances. I did hear a bunch of stations on DIGI
mode who could not hear me. I kept looking at the wattmeter as I figured that
maybe my PA had failed. It never did and it pumped out max power all weekend
when I was on. Still I was amazed at what I heard and could not work on the
digi modes. I think some receives could use an engineering update. I did snag
KE4WMH/R on 222, who was down in FM17 on early Sunday evening when the band was
stinko. I had to call for quite awhile to get his attention, but eventually he
turned his antenna and we completed. That was nice. I ended up with the
following
score:
BAND QSO GRID
144 4 2
222 61 34
432 52 27
Due to the slow nature of the September contest these days, I was participating
with a half hearted radio effort timewise, and spent most of Saturday and
Sunday afternoon working on removing antenna tower debris from the site. My
hilltop now looks like a scrap metal yard with all the bent and broken towers.
when things seemed slow on the band, i turned off the generator and went to
work outside. I accomplished a lot and rigged things up to get the last 90 ft
of Rohn 45 out of the tree limbs. I had 90 ft of Rohn 45 up about 25 to 30 ft
in trees where it fell. As of today, I was able to lower them all to ground
level, all 90ft worth!! I used several boat winches and heavy aircraft cable.
I even hauled rocks to fill in the woods road up to the shack. So between the
manual labor and the contest, I was a busy boy.
73
Dave K1WHS
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