[Fourlanders] September Contest Report

[Bob Lear]

FourLanders September 2005 VHF QSO Party Report

The Crew:  Neal K4EA, Brian  NX9O, Jim  W4KXY, Paul  W4SKI, Jim WE8W,
Ron WW8RR, Bob K4SZ, Jeff W0ONR, Kim WG8S, Ivan K4VJM, Bob WA4VJC and
Robert W4RFC.

It was nice to have some new folks join us.  It was the first time for
Jeff W0ONR from Dahlonega, but many of the group knew him already from
Field Day with the NGARC group.  Also new with us were Bob Crone and his
son Robert from Cumming.  Robert is a new ham, all of 11 years old I
think and Bob reports that he did have a good time.  They operated the
Six meter station for a while and really enjoyed it.  We hope all of
them will join the group and come to operate again next year.

The FourLanders again went to Mile-High Campground for the September
2005 VHF QSO Party.  We did have a group of 12, but went limited -multi
because we only had four towers available.   We also cut back on the
amps because of the generator situation and it worked out real well. 
Brian tried out a new stacked pair of K1FO's on 222 this time and was
very happy with the results.  In fact, the 222 and 432 numbers are
records for Mile High.  The great opening Sunday evening really helped. 
Six meters never really opened up for any good periods.  Two meters is
down probably because of the antenna problems.  The single 2M5WL we used
was taken down twice during the contest and we lost four or five hours
of operating time all together messing with it.  Still not sure what the
problem was, but may have been connector related.  Anyway, after we
cleaned and swapped ends the second time (and reduced the amp output
power) we didn't have any more problems on 2m and took good advantage of
the Sunday evening opening.  

Here is the point summary from Brian as submitted to ARRL.

       VALID   PTS PER    QSO      GRID SQUARE
          QSOs      QSO    POINTS    MULTIPLIERS
50 MHz     285       1      285         90
144 MHz    171       1      171         41
222 MHz     70       2      140         35
432 MHz    108       2      216         40
TOTAL      634              812        206    167272

We did have some computer problems again with WriteLog.  We need to
start a discussion about the problems and what we can do to solve
them.   I'd like Brian NX9O to take the lead on the computer issues for
the group and be moderator of the discussion.  Any ideas that anyone has
about the problems, let's get them out on the reflector so we can all
consider the problem and possible solutions.
 
The campsites at MileHigh cost us $30 each for the participants for the
weekend.  The food came to $25 each for those there the entire time
(pro-rated by the meal for those only there part time) and we spent $8
each for the generator fuel.   Brian's 9kW generator did the job for the
entire contest and only used 30 gallons of gas.  The only problem was us
checking often enough as I think it ran dry a couple of times.

The food was fantastic.  Jeff W0ONR outdid himself in my opinion.  We
had smoked Pork BBQ with slaw and potato salad for Friday nights dinner,
London Broil with baked potatoes and apple sauce on Saturday night and a
spiral-sliced ham with scalloped potato casserole on Sunday night.  Ham
or Turkey sandwiches with several choices of bread and cheese for lunch
each day, and excellent breakfasts each morning of scrambled eggs with
cheese and peppers, sausage, biscuits and such.  Jeff reports that he
really enjoyed himself on his first trip up to the mountain with us.  We
sure hope he'll be a regular with us.

Thanks to all who participated in the June contest and to all our
friends who supported us in many ways.   Those who didn't make it missed
another good contest.

73 Bob K4SZ