[Fourlanders] September contest summary

[w4zst at windstream.net]

W4NH September 2013 VHF Contest Summary 
 
A welcome relief from the bad weather and poor propagation in June, this time we had some of the best weather ever up on the mountain and some long awaited enhanced propagation on the higher bands.  Made us wish we had the microwave gear with us.  Especially after working up into MA and ME on 222 with about 20W, the microwave bands must have been good too.  We'll see when the results come out.  We are pretty pleased with the score we had too as it is more in line with what we are used to in September.  I think we made Q and grid records for mile high on 2, 222 and 432.  Two meters even bested 6m this time, something that is very rare for us.  The 6m ops were the ones disappointed this time with the propagation on that band.  We made double the total grid count of the June contest.
 
Here are the numbers:
6 meters    203 Q's    62 grids 
2 meters    204 Q's    77 grids 
222            65  Q's    41 grids 
432            98  Q's    48 grids 
 
Total          570 Q's  228 grids

Points total    167,124
 
Ron has the grid maps and will put them out to the band captains soon.  If anyone else wants to see them, contact WW8RR as we can't attach them on mail to the reflector. 
 
Station information:  (The stations are shown in Kim's pictures).

Scott used his K3 with WW8RR's HB 3CX1000 Amp for the 6m station.

Kos used his K3, new DEMI 2m transverter and W4ZST's 2m Commander amp.

The 222 station was W4ZST's FT-920, DEMI 2m transverter and Teletec brick.
  
Ron had his usual 432 station of IC-910 and his HB 432 K2RIW type amp. 

There were some devious station problems this time that we haven't yet figured out.  Apparently Murphy did come along for the weekend.
Strange things on changing from CW to SSB on the 6m station resulting in deafness until the radio was rebooted, but sometimes wouldn't.  Strange PTT keying problems with the 2m station and some equally strange things went on with the 222 station that I eventually isolated to the IF radio itself but didn't have a spare for that.  Had swapped out the transverter, eliminated the sequencer and amplifier and we still had some deafness on return to RX after TX.  We did miss some 222 Q's on account of the problem.  Also on 222, I found that my keyer paddle wasn't 'making' on DAH's which I still haven't been able to figure out.
 
The usual pairs of antennas and ominis were used on both 6m and 2m.  222 had the usual 
stacked pair and the FM antenna, but no omni's.  Ron had a four-square of K2RIW-19's on 432 and the 432 omni beams.
 
There was little boredom during this contest, especially for upper band ops, but maybe the 6m ops got a nap or two in this time with the lack of 
activity and propagation, but they hung in there for the duration.
 
Thanks to Johnny Kludt K4SQC taking the 222 band captain duties again, but sometimes he couldn't get in to operate with Bill KI4US having a lot of the fun.
And of course we were frustrated with the problems we had.  I will report on what went wrong with my 920, but I suspect some internal TX/RX relay in the radio.
We were pretty excited though to work so many stations with 20 W after we took the amp out of line.  We could have put it back, but it wouldn't have mattered.
 
The full time crew were: 
6m band captain Scott NN4W, Kim WG8S, Paul W4SKI, Jim W4KXY, Ivan K4VJM
2m band captain Kos N4NIA, Bob W4ZST, K5FSE
222 band captain Johnny K4SQC, Bill KI4US
432 Band Captain Ron WW8RR, Jim WE8W, 
There was a good bit of operator swapping on the three high bands too
Chris W4ONT left early and Scott went home for most of the contest because of a back problem.  Back relief in his own bed was the RX.
He returned Monday morning to help take down and pull his trailer home. 
 
There were 7 trailers in the convoy, pulled by Bill, Bob, Ron, Jim, Scott,  Ivan and special thanks to Johnny for pulling Great White this time.
The 2m crank-up mast and A-frame rode up in Great white and we put them on my tower trailer after we unloaded the golf cart.

Kim posted some pictures on the reflector a couple of days ago with a lot of good pictures of the set up period with his timed camera and other contest photos.
Here are the links:

The one minute interval series of photos is at
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcuGzdk5auWLHVg
you might consider playing some "Keystone Cops" music while you view these photos!!

The regular pix are at
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcuGzdk5auWLHMA
 
Full time camping and fuel costs were $49 each and the Full time food cost for 8 meals was $31.
 
As to the food, once again no one went hungry and no one got sick from W4ZST's cooking.  It was a usual W4"Never Hungry" weekend.  
 
For Friday night dinner I brought pulled pork BBQ from 'Smoking Gold BBQ' in Dahlonega.  This time I cooked a large batch of Jerry's recipe charro beans and a larger batch of cole slaw and some buns.  Little evidence remained.

Saturday breakfast was scrambled eggs, hash brown patties and bacon, lunch was turkey and ham and swiss cheese sandwiches and chips.
Saturday  night dinner was a special treat from Dean K2JB as he cooked his excellent chili, Dutch oven cornbread
and dutch oven cobbler for the group.  Thanks so much Dean.  He didn't get to spend much time with us, but
we really do appreciate his coming up and cooking the excellent meal for us.  I also appreciate the break from having to cook that meal.

Sunday breakfast was pancakes and sausage, lunch was hot dogs with slaw or chili and chips and sunday dinner was Stouffer's Lasagna, hot Italian bread and a large tossed salad. Again no leftovers.
I got to try out our new propane oven for this dinner and it worked good, but I needed to have prepared sooner as dinner was somewhat late.
 
Monday morning was microwave Sausage, Egg and Cheese biscuits.
  
Thanks again to all who participated in any capacity, including Chris W4ONT  
who helped out at the W4ZST QTH with trailer maintenance and loading on the workday before the contest.
Special thanks to Bobby Hirschi KG4DGP from Cleveland for 
supplying the much better tires for the BlackHawk trailer and to the club for voting to pay for the tires.

We did have a club business meeting Sunday after lunch, the current officers were re-elected with the exception of the secretary (election postponed) and we had some good discussions about club issues.  We found that we need to work on the by-laws and some other issues.
 
Put January 18 and 19 on your calendars for the January contest which we will do here at the W4ZST QTH again.
Thanks to all for the help before and after the contest and for your participation.
 
73 for now, Bob W4ZST