[Fourlanders] W4NH Jan VHF Sweepstakes Report

[Tom McElroy]

Well it sure looked like you all had fun, Bob.  The view from your house
makes for a fine outing, for any reason.
I look forward to June.

Regards,
Tom McElroy
KI4WOU

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Bob Lear <w4zst at windstream.net> wrote:

> 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
>
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