[3830] ARRL Jan VHF K2QO Limited Multi-Op LP

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                    ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes

Call: K2QO
Operator(s): K2QO W2TAU AB2YI
Station: K2QO

Class: Limited Multi-Op LP
QTH: FN03ra
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   63    19
    2:   57    19
  222:   10     6
  432:   14     7
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  144    52  Total Score = 8,684

Club: Rochester VHF Group

Comments:

Another contest is in the books and it was not pretty. With the exception of 1/2
hour of E-skip to FL on Sunday, condx were flat to poor. The K2QO team ran the
lower 4 bands from my QTH with my permanent setup for 6 and 2 and a temporary
mast and antennas for 222, 432, and 2/446 FM. The radios were manned nearly
full time except for overnight. I was hoping for a good showing given the new
FM category but it turns out to be the all time worst score posted by K2QO in
January.

There were some bright spots for sure:
1. the food (my XYL made a great beef crockpot meal for Sat and a super Chix
dish Sunday.)
2. the camaraderie (who can argue with a 100% rover crew over to run a LM!)
3. the IC-9100 that AB2YI provided (the most expensive piece of gear ever to
grace my shack.)

We ran the following setup from the RF Black hole (aka FN03ra).
6M- IC746 at 80W to 4-el at 58'
2M- IC9100 at 100W to 7-el at 62'
222- FT817/XV222/Amp at 100W to 6-el at 30'
432- IC9100 at 75W to 11-el at 33'
2/446FM- FT100D to a Cushcraft dual bander at 26'
Two networked laptops running N1MM. There would have been an extra laptop for
the FM setup but the old IBM ThinkPad R40 with 512kB of RAM just cannot handle
the job anymore. 

The operating crew consisted of AB2YI, W2TAU, and K2QO.

IC9100 mini review- This was my first time in front of this very nice rig. The
ergonomics are very nice. A clean display, robust knobs and switches,
easy-to-use filtering, and many other creature comforts add to a pleasant
experience. It took a while to get the radio talking to the computer using its
USB connection but once completed it interfaced nicely with N1MM. Even the full
break-in CW was nice for a non Elecraft/TenTec rig. The TR relay has a neat
"chirp" but it cannot be heard when wearing headphones. There are two things
keep me from ordering this radio today. First is lack of RX antenna port for
160 operation and the second is a single power control for all bands. (In the
rover, the FT-100D can supply each band with its correct power.)

One neat tidbit: There were guys on the air lamenting that only one rover was
heard all weekend. Normally, we'd have added two to the mix, K2QO/R and
AB2YI/R. But the WX on Friday for setup was 15 and windy. Saturday and most of
Sunday brought wind gusts of 60 mph and a few hours with sustained winds of 40
mph. It would have been impossible to keep the antennas in the air while
driving INTO that wind. 

As much as I love VHF contesting it may be time to jump ship and do the NCJ
NAQP on the same weekend. It is difficult for me to entertain the idea of an
SSB contest on HF but activity in VHF Sweeps is so low that something has to
give.


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