[Fourlanders] W4NH Jan VHF Sweepstakes Report

[Bob Lear]

The Fourlanders descended (ascended actually) on the W4ZST new QTH for 
the January VHF Sweepstakes last weekend.

We had 10 participants for the contest.  Jim W4KXY set up the 6m station 
with his FT2000 and Commander 6 Amp.  Scott NN4W set up the 2m station 
with his IC746Pro and Jims Commander II.  Brian NX9O set up the 222 
station first with his FT1000MP, DEMI transverter and Lunar Link 222 amp 
and ended up with my FT920 for the if rig after we found an intermittent 
problem with the MP, which can be fixed.  I set up the 432 station with 
my FT1000MP, DEMI transverter and Lunar Link 432 amp.  We used the usual 
club stacked pairs on each band on four of the tower trailers situated 
around my new metal building, somewhat like we do on the mountaintop. 
We had DSL internet which I had just gotten installed at the house the 
day before and had no problems with that and tested out the fine wiring 
job that Kos had done in the trailer with the new networking hard-wired 
setup.  Thanks again to Kos for the great job.

The other ops for the contest were Ron WW8RR, Sherman W4ATL, Kos N4NIA, 
Tom K4TJD, Jeff W0ONR and Bill KI4US.  Five of us stayed over Saturday 
night in the house and the others commuted.  Jeff took care of the 
cooking duties and once again caused all of us to gain considerable 
weight over the weekend.  Lasagna, salad and bread Saturday evening, BBQ 
sandwiches, slaw and potato salad for lunch Sunday and BBQ, sloppy Joes 
and 3-bean salad for Sunday evening.  Kos cooked Pancakes, eggs, bacon 
and sausage for breakfast Sunday morning.  We ate in the kitchen in the 
house as it was cozy warm and easy to set the food up.  Thanks again to 
Jeff and Kos for the great food for the weekend.  W4NH = "Never Hungry" 
once again!!!


Even with the sub-freezing cold over the weekend, snow all afternoon and 
  Saturday night and more on Sunday (almost a half inch accumulated for 
a while) we managed to get the uninsulated trailer as high as 75 degrees 
with a samll space heater and the 'real' amplifiers.  We also slept nice 
and cozy in the house with small space heaters in the two bedrooms 
upstairs (which doesn't have the central heat on) and the gas heated 
downstairs.  There was some major consumption of "anti-freeze" going on 
over the weekend too which seemed to help fight off the cold!!

We also actually operated too.  Just over 200 Q's and 20,000 points for 
the effort.  Not good conditions at all and very few real openings.  Got 
into Canada and Texas on 6, but really only ground wave on the other 
bands.  Fun nevertheless.  I think we will do it again next year.   The 
new QTH is EM84ao and about 1750' ASL.  A pretty good horizon all around 
and of course the leaves are off the trees now.  We did manage to 
experiment some late Saturday night when Jim connected the audio cables 
from the 6m radio to the PC and we tried copying some WSJT signals for 
the first time.  We'll keep practicing with WSJT and hope to have it 
available for the June contest and henceforth.

Sherman posted some picture he took on his webpage at
http://shermanbanks.net/January_VHF_Contest_2009.html
which he had already put out on the reflector too.  A couple of good 
shots of the mountain view to the Northeast and East from here.

We missed those of you who wanted to come and couldn't make it, but look 
forward to the June and September contests this year and doing this one 
again next year.

We did have some local visitors.  Buck KC4GCK came by.  He is 
responsible for getting me started in this mess in the first place!! 
Our first contest was a June contest from his QTH and we did 2m only. 
Things escaleated from there to the excesses of today.  Joe Boone is 
taking a license class from the Lanierland club and has joined the NGARC 
here in Dahlonega.  He said he enjoyed the visit and we didn't scare him 
off!!  Maybe he'll get the 'bug' too.

Well I think that's it for now.  Put the June and September contests on 
your calendars and carve it in stone.  June 14 & 15 and Sept 13 & 14.  I 
plan on getting the microwave stuff going again this year as we seem to 
have enough folks participating now that it will be possible again and I 
have also finally moved so that won't interfere with my plans for this 
years contests.  Thanks again to all who participated in the contest and 
Tom KI4WOU who came and helped set up the weekend before but couldn't 
make the contest.  Also thanks to Mac K4RBM for delivering Great White 
to the new location.

73, Bob W4ZST