[Fourlanders] W4NH June 2015 contest summary

[John Ackermann N8UR]

Hi Guys --

I just wanted to say thanks for the great hospitality when I came up for 
the contest!  Bob has a great setup, and "W4 Never Hungry" is absolutely 
true!

I had a blast, and would certainly like to participate again whenever 
schedules permit.

I'm hoping to be on 6M for the CQ contest from EN75, so point the beams 
that way once in a while... (I think I worked W4NH in the June contest 
from there maybe two years ago.)

73,
John
----

On 6/25/2015 10:06 AM, Bob Lear wrote:
> 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