[Fourlanders] June Contest Report

[Bob Lear]

W4ZST 2007 FourLanders June Contest Report

Once again the FourLanders W4NH ventured to Mile High Campground in 
Western NC EM85jm for the ARRL June VHF QSO Party.  We had a larger crew 
than usual, bolstered by some new members, allowing us to go back to 
Multi-Op for the first time in couple of years.

This years crew consisted of Jim W4KXY (6m Band Captain), Sherman W4ATL, 
Kim WG8S, Paul W4SKI, Bob W4ZST (2m Capt), Kos N4NIA, Bill KI4US, Brian 
NX9O (222 Capt), Steve K4RF, Ivan K4VJM, Jeff W0ONR, Ron WW8RR (432 
Capt), Jim WE8W, Gary N8CQ and his son Josh.  Josh graduated from High 
School on Saturday Morning of the contest and came along with Gary for a 
Father-Son campout.  Congratulations to Josh on graduation.

Special Thanks to our newest members this contest; Kos N4NIA, Bill KI4US 
and Gary N8CQ for joining us and acclimating so quickly to operating 
with the group.  They also did journeyman work during set-up and take 
down, both of which went quickly and smoothly due to the large crew.

We did experience a couple of short rain showers during set-up time in 
Friday, but it dried up quickly so we got back to it and still managed 
to have all the antennas in the air before dark (and dinner).  The tower 
trailers worked well with only a minor problem with the 432 tower 
hanging up when being cranked down.  This will get some needed attention 
by K4VJM and W4ZST before the next contest.  Our earlier attempts to 
solve the problem are on the right track and now we’ve come up with some 
more ideas.  The only other problem we had, which is what caused us to 
be cranking the 432 tower down, was due to one of the new antenna mount 
Connect-Quick plates that kept coming apart on the lower 432 antenna. 
Ivan finally analyzed the problem and permanently repaired it the second 
time we had it down.  We are quite pleased with the Connect-Quick plates 
for the antennas.  No other mechanical issues during the contest.  The 
weather was outstanding for the rest of the contest though quite cool at 
night.

Jeff W0ONR outdid himself with the food again.  We could not have eaten 
any better anywhere.  BBQ, Baked Ham and Meatloaf for dinner entrees, 
Brats and Sandwiches for lunches, Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Pancakes and 
French Toast for our breakfasts were excellent and hard to beat. 
Sherman made the suggestion that we use “Not Hungry” for our W4NH 
phonetics and he was certainly right on.  We gave Jeff an Apron with his 
name and call embroderied on it to use while contest cooking.  Thanks 
again to Jeff for all the great meals.  Anyone on a diet would have 
suffered!

Operations wise, we had a record score and QSO totals for our group from 
Mile High, almost 1000 Q’s and 400K points.  The unofficial breakdown by 
band is:

6m:  542 Q’s, 140 Grids
2m:  262 Q’s,  73 Grids
222:   79 Q’s,  45 Grids
432:   90 Q’s,  36 Grids
903:   10 Q’s,    8 Grids
1296:  11 Q’s,   8 Grids
2304:    3 Q’s,   3 Grids

On 6m we ran W4KXY’s new FT2000 along with a Commander Amp.  The set-up 
worked flawlessly and all the ops were quite pleased with the 
performance of the new radio and the station set-up.  2m had one minor 
problem with the 2m transverter oscillating.  Turns out it was probably 
a combination of jumper lengths and a filter that was inadvertently 
placed after the amp rather than before as it should have been. 
Removing the filter solved the problem.  The 2m station was an FT920 to 
a DEMI transverter driving a Commander II.  Brian had some problems with 
his 222 transverters and swapped the old and new ones out couple of 
times, but was on the air with them using his FT1000MP and Lunar Link 
Amp.  432 also had some problems when Ron made a connection and an 
unexpected arc occurred taking out his IC475.  Strangely enough the arc 
was from the coil to contacts of a small relay.  We hope the radio will 
be a minor fix.  He set-up with his backup IC706 and had no further 
problems.  Ron has a HB K2RIW style amp on 432 driving the stacked pair 
of FO25’s.

Right before leaving for the contest, the W4ZST 1296 amp died so K4RF 
brought has HiSpec amp along and I managed to incorporate it into the 
microwave station successfully.  We did have a problem with noise 
(oscillation) for a time with the amp, but finally solved it by 
adjusting the input tuning.  We think we missed some Q’s on 1296 because 
of offset problems and hope to improve on that situation before the next 
contest.  No problems with the 903 or 1296 staions other than missed Q’s 
that we’ve found no explanation for.  The simple set-up made it possible 
for the overnight ops, Paul W4SKI and Bill KI4US to make several 
microwave SSB contacts, even though they had no previous experience with 
my gear.  All my work trying to get it the way I wanted is paying off. 
Thanks guys for making those Q’s and I appreciate your comments about my 
gear and station set-up.

All in all, it was a great contest.  It was made easier by having 
additional folks making set-up and take down faster and easier.  The 
antenna quick connect plates left on the masts now will make the next 
time even easier.  No more more looking for a tape to set the stacking 
distances.  Still going to work on the tower trailer ideas to make 
things simpler for myself and the group.  Having the extra tent for 
storage of our extra containers and equipment also worked quite well. 
Thanks Brian.

This contest cost each of us full participants $53.  We had more camping 
spaces than usual, but the cost was spread out over a larger group and 
that broke down to $25 each.  The fuel split came to only $6 each as 
Brian’s nice diesel generator is running less than a gallon an hour for 
the contest and making plenty of juice for us.  Jeff’s great food 
selection ended up costing us about $22 per person for all the meals. 
It would be hard to do anything else and have this much fun on a weekend 
for only $53!!!!  About the same as last year.

Contest Pix from Sherman W4ATL

http://shermanbanks.net/June_VHF_2007.html

Pix from Kim WG8S

http://w4nh.org/gallery/main.php

Pix from Paul W4SKI

  www.mtnlist.com/W4NH

If anyone else has pix posted on the net or available, let me know.

Thanks to all who participated and hope you can all come again in 
September.  We have made our reservations for the campgound and planning 
for another good contest.  Be sure to keep the September  8,9 weekend 
open on your calendars, it is only 7 weeks away!!

73, Bob W4ZST, FourLanders President