[Fourlanders] W4NH June 2015 contest summary

[Bob Lear]

June VHF Contest Summary - W4NH

The FourLanders did the June contest from the W4ZST QTH again as we 
couldn't get a quorum together of operators and trailer pullers to go to 
the mountain.  I will have to say that it ended up being much less work 
for me personally as most of the antennas were still up from the January 
contest at the time we had to make the decision to not go portable.   
And several of the stations were still set up in the shack.   We did 
have a couple of workdays where we set up the 432 EME/Terr array, the 
6m, 2m and 432 omni's and did some work in the shack, including Ron 
setting up his 432 station.  Kos came on Friday night before the contest 
and set up his 2m station so that evening we had the four bands on the 
air.  Johnny and I had been messing with the microwave station and 
feedline problems with little progress.  Kim and Johnny took over on 
Saturday morning and ultimately found the problem to be the 1296 power 
divider of all things.  It actually looked OK on sweeping with the AIM 
analyzer and on the TDR.  It isn't shorted and checks OK on DC 
continuity but wouldn't let a signal through.  So we put on a spare PD 
and all was well.  We copied the beacon and made a couple of Q's during 
the contest.  However we entered as limited multi so those Q's will just 
go in as checklog.  Anyone with ideas on the PD, let me know as it's a 
quandary to me.

The contest weekend didn't have a lot of good propagation and we were 
bored but not as bad as in January.  Sherman managed to work Portugal 
and the Azores on 6m CW but that was our only EU direction DX.  Right 
after supper on Sunday evening, Sherman and Jack left for home.  I came 
back in to the shack and the 6m panadaptor was ablaze!!  A nice opening 
into the NE US.  Ron, Kos and I were the only ones left so I sat down at 
the 6m station and had a nice run of 120 Q's in 120 minutes adding 20 
grids before the opening subsided. That helped our score a lot.   Here 
are our results.

BAND          QSO's           Grids
6m             280             80
2m              49             21
222             17             10
432             26             13
(1296            2              2 )

Totals          372            124        for 51,460 points.  I 
submitted the log to ARRL on 6/23.

I expect that we will score in our usual sixth, seventh or eighth place 
nationwide.  You've probably seen the results but for January, even with 
the bad conditions we experienced we ended up first place full multi in 
the SouthEast division and FIFTH place nationwide in full multi!!!

Moon conditions were not good.  Lots of complaining on the reflectors.  
And we made no EME Q's this contest in contrast to the results in 
January.  It turned out we also had RX hearing problems on the 2m EME 
station.

Operators for the contest were:  Bob Lear W4ZST, Ron Rogers WW8RR, Scott 
Spencer, NN4W, Kim Hensley WG8S, Sherman Banks W4ATL, Dennis 'Kos' 
Kosmetatos N4NIA, Johnny Kludt K4SQC, Jerry Long W5TDY, Sherman Banks 
W4ATL, John Ackerman N8UR, Jack Nelson K5FSE and Bryan Dunn W3CP.  We 
were happy to have a couple of new faces join us for the contest, John 
and Bryan.  We were also visited by our friend Vince Pardinas W4VRP from 
Cumming. 4 of us were here Friday night and 8 ops spent Saturday night 
here at the house.

As usual we ate well, starting with Rooster's in Dahlonega where about 
10 us met up for lunch before the contest on Saturday. Saturday night 
dinner was a special treat.  Jerry W5TDY smoked a couple of briskets, 
made a pot of his famous Charro Beans, brought some leftover pork that 
he had smoked earlier (he had just gotten a new smoker and it sounds 
like he used it for a solid week without stopping!), some smoked 
sausages and pickled carrots and onions that some of us got to taste 
after Vince decimated the container full!  I also made some slaw for the 
feast.  Hardly anything left that might be described as a left-over!!

I cooked pancakes and sausage for breakfast on Sunday and we had 
ham/turkey/cheese sandwiches and chips for lunch. On Sunday evening I 
went to town and picked up a couple of Pizzas for the 5 or 6 of us left 
by that time.  Then I caught the good opening on 6 from about 8 to 10 PM 
while Kos was packing up 2m and I changed the 2m beams over to the 2m 
EME station and made a last few Q's with that one on 2m. Ron and I 
stayed to the bitter end and got a few more Q's on all 5 bands right at 
the end of the contest.  Charles K4CSO seems to have taken over the 
"tail-end-charlie" duty from Dave WB4JGG!!  Thanks Charles and we missed 
you Dave.

Kim took some pictures and they are posted at
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcuGzdk5auWLRBA&emid=shareprintviewer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharview 


Sherman took some and they are at
http://shermanbanks.net/Mary_and_Sherman_Web_Site/Photos/Page/05.2015_June_VHF_Contest_at_W4ZST.html 


Put the September contest on your calendar, September 12th and 13th.  
Jim has contacted MileHigh about the reservations.  Let's just hope we 
don't have another situation where we just can't get a large enough 
group together to make the trip and pull all the trailers.  This is one 
of those years when the contest is only 1 week after Shelby.  Make plans 
now!!

  Thanks and 73, Bob