[3830] ARRL June VHF KR1ST Single Op LP

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                    ARRL June VHF Contest - 2019

Call: KR1ST
Operator(s): KR1ST
Station: KR1ST

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN21
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  254   102
    2:   72    23
  222:   16     8
  432:   23     9
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  365   142  Total Score = 57,368

Club: Mt Airy VHF Radio Club

Comments:

Rigs: IC-9100 (6m, 2m, 70cm), IC-7300 + DEMI L222-28HP + Brick (1.25m)
Pwr:  100W (6m, 2m, 1.25m), 75W (70cm)
Ants: 3 elements 6m yagi (M2 6M3 @29ft)
      9 elements 2m yagi (M2 2M9SSB @32ft)
      10 elements 1.25m yagi (222-10EZ @ 31ft)
      21 elements 70cm yagi (M2 432-6WL @ 30ft)
Elev: 1900+ ft


I started the contest with fellow Packrats at W3CCX, and ended it with fellow
Packrats Dave, W2KV, and Lenny, W2BVH. It was great to have an almost clean
sweep of 4 bands in 6 grids with Andrea, K2EZ/R. Unfortunately, we were not able
to make it on 432 from her last grid. There were nice 6m openings in different
directions on Saturday that allowed a little pistol like me to have some nice
runs on SSB. 

Sunday morning started promising with a small 6m opening to the South, but that
fizzled out rather quickly. At least this allowed me to concentrate more on the
higher bands. Late Sunday afternoon and evening 6m opened up to the West and I
was able to make several double hop Q's which added much needed multipliers. I
did not notice any propagation enhancements on the higher bands, except maybe a
little tropo on 2m that allowed me to make a 460m mile FT8 QSO with KB8U with
just 10 Watts. I use N1MM's DVK and it set the volume of the audio CODEC very
low, and I forgot to reset the volume when I switched back to FT8. 

Speaking of the N1MM Logger, I did find that I had to correct many USB contacts
after the fact because they were logged as FT8. I'm not sure what caused this,
but it may be prudent to check your log if you start the WSJT-X software from
within N1MM+. I did close the WSJT-X software when I switched to CW or SSB, but
still the QSOs got logged a FT8. Perhaps I have an incorrect setting somewhere.

Two weeks before the contest my wife and I added the 10 elements 222MHz beam to
the stack and replaced the feed line for 432 with LMR-600. These improvements
seemed to have been worthwhile. My score improved by 58% over last year, but
it's hard to attribute this improvement to any one cause. Having 2 additional
bands available definitely helped! This was also the first time I actively
pursued some CW contacts as well. I have to seriously work on my CW skills. I
did not attempt to make MS contacts a there was enough activity on FT8 to keep
me busy.

It was great fun and thanks you for all the Q's, for the rovers to go out there
and activate many grids, and the ARRL for sponsoring the contest!

73,
--Alex KR1ST (FN21)


Band-Mode breakout:


 Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts  Grd  Pt/Q
    50  CW       5       5    0   1.0
    50  FT8    100     100   34   1.0
    50  USB    149     149   68   1.0
   144  CW       1       1    0   1.0
   144  FT8     41      41   15   1.0
   144  USB     30      30    8   1.0
   222  CW       3       6    2   2.0
   222  USB     13      26    6   2.0
   420  CW       3       6    2   2.0
   420  FT8      1       2    0   2.0
   420  USB     19      38    7   2.0

Totals by mode:

        QSOs   Grd
     CW:  12     4
    USB: 210    89
    FT8: 142    49


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