[Fourlanders] January Contest Summary

[Bob Lear]

I sure let the time get away from me on this one, but here it is finally.

Operators for W4NH in the January VHF Contest:  Bob W4ZST, Bill KI4US, 
Kim WG8S, Kos N4NIA, Scott NN4W, Tom K4TJD, Ron WW8RR, Jim W4KXY, Ivan 
K4VJM, Brian NX9O, Claire KK4JJT, John K4SQC, and Jack K5FSE.  All these 
ops stayed overnight for the contest except Bill who went home as he 
wasn't feeling well on Saturday evening.

Band Captains were Scott NN4W on 6m with his K3 and Ron's 6m Amp, Kos 
N4NIA on 2m with his K3 and Bob's DEMI transverter and Commander Amp, 
Brian NX9O on 222 with his usual station of FT-1000MP, DEMI transverter 
and Lunar-Link Amp, Ron WW8RR on 432 with his IC-910 and K2RIW Amp and 
finally we'll let Claire KK4JJT be the FM station Captain with Ron's V7A 
Dual-Bander and a dual-band vertical.  All the CW/SSB stations had omni 
antennas in addition to the usual stacked pair of beams, except 432 
which had an H-frame with 4 K2RIW-19 antennas on it.

Visitors were Chris W4ONT who brought the pork BBQ and smoked sausages 
from Auburn, Tom W4SDR and Audrey, Mike Stipick KC4RI who was here for 
his first visit with us and Jerry W5TDY.  Also stopping by were Anna 
N9KHC with Duncan and Eilis, Rob WB4GKI, Jeff W0ONR and Murray WA4MPZ. 
I don't think I missed anyone and happy that so many got to come visit 
along with all the ops for the contest.  Never seen so many cars in the 
yard.  I counted 18 at one time and I'm sure that wasn't the total!

Our Saturday evening dinner was the excellent Pork BBQ from Mike and 
Ed's BBQ in Auburn, delivered by Chris W4ONT who also smoked some 
bratwursts to go along.  Thanks again to Chris for coming and bringing 
the BBQ.  Jerry and I made a batch of Jerry's recipe Charro Beans and I 
also made my cole slaw recipe.  There were no leftovers and no 
complaints about lack of food.  Another FourLanders success.  I cooked 
pancakes and sausage for breakfast Sunday morning and we had ham and 
turkey sandwiches and chips for lunch and then my recipe Spaghetti, 
salad and bread for Sunday evening dinner.  Again, no one lost any 
weight over the weekend.  Beside the meals there were a lot of snacks 
and a deli tray and Scott's meatballs in tomato sauce too.  No one was 
thirsty either.

Oh yeah, it was a contest weekend.  We got on the air too.  There were a 
couple of amplifier problems.  Brian's Lunar Link arced over once, but 
after cleaning it up and putting it back on the air, it seems OK.  I 
think Mr Small Bug took a wild ride thru the blower myself!  Also, my 2m 
amp lost power and was running hot.  We replaced it with my TeleTec amp 
and completed the contest.  Later I found that a dropping resistor had 
increased in value and caused the blower to slow way down.  I've 
replaced the resistor and the amp is fine and full output.  Ron still 
was having problems with tracking the moon with the antenna system.  We 
didn't make any EME Q's this time, but did make some grids on FSK-441.

The conditions weren't great, as usual for the January contest, but it 
turned out that we were better than our worst January score and short of 
our best, so I expect that we will maintain our usual fifth or sixth 
place in limited multi.  We didn't hear of any band openings anywhere 
else around the country.  6m got into TX, OK, & ME for short periods.

I have looked over the logs and submitted to ARRL for the contest. 
Final results:

Band	Q's	Pts	Grids
6m	174	174	54
2m	51	51	19
222	14	28	7
432	24	48	8
Tot	264	303	88
for 26,664 points total.

Thanks to all who participated and also for the workdays before the 
contest on 1/6 with Scott, Tom, John, Jack, Ron and myself and 1/13 with 
Scott, Tom, Ron, Kos, Brian, Tom and myself when we got the remaining 
antennas and stations set up and also on 1/27 when Ron and Scott came to 
pick up their stations and we took down the 432 and 222 antennas.  Kos 
took his station home Sunday night after the contest.  Kos let me know 
this week that he has now received his own new DEMI transverter.

Put June 8th and 9th on your calendars and make plans for the June VHF 
Contest when we will again go to Mile High Campground.  I think Jim has 
already made the campground reservations for us.

73, Bob