[Fourlanders] W4NH summary for ARRL EME contest

[Bob Lear]

Johnny K4SQC, Bob W4ZST, Ron WW8RR and Kim WG8S did the ARRL 
International EME contest this year using the W4NH call.  We used 
Johnny's 2m EME station that is set up here at the W4ZST shack and a 
kludge of Ron's rig and my amp for the 432 station.  Johnny and I did 
this contest last year with him on 2m with his call and me on 432 with 
my call.  I turned up 3rd place world-wide in the 432 single band, all 
mode category.  Of course, we only used JT65 for all the Q's.

This contest was in two weekends, Oct 22-23 and Nov 19-20.  Kim came 
over for the first weekend.

Contest LOWlights or what the heck is Murphy doing at my shack lately!!!!

Before the first weekend I had been working feverishly all week to get 
my 432 station that I used last year back on the air and trying to make 
some improvements.  Not to be, said Murphy.  After working on updating 
my transverter to an ApolLO reflock board and splitting the output to 
separate RX and TX connectors, I had some sort of oscillation problem 
and couldn't get it sorted.  I also had problems with building a new 
relay box with preamp to use separate feedlines for RX and TX in order 
to also have Vertical/Horizontal polarization available on 432 like 
Johnny has on 2m.   So anyway, I finally did away with the relay box and 
plans for dual polarization, put another transverter in line and was set 
up just like last year.  Got started at the beginning of the contest and 
made a couple of Q's with 432 Big Gun stations. So far, so good.  Well, 
we decided to try putting a preamp in line in the shack to see if that 
would improve things.  Apparently as soon as we got that set up, then 
Johnny finally got started about an hour after the contest kickoff and 
transmitted (with 800+ watts) on 2m and our 432 antennas were looking 
right at 2m to the moon, ZAP!  Out goes the preamp and the front end of 
the transverter.  That's when we kludged Ron's radio and interface in to 
try to keep going.  The next 432 Q is made about 5 hours later and only 
then added 3 more that first weekend.  432 conditions were not good 
according to the comments on the chat pages and they certainly weren't 
too good here! Johnny ended up with 30 Q's the first weekend, which was 
better than the first weekend last year.

I did try to work on the 'smoked transveters and preamp and got on 
transveter and the preamp going with replaced FET's.  No wonder Kostro 
calls them 'front end fuses'!  Anyway, then I decided to leave well 
enough alone and didn't try to change anything on the stations for the 
second weekend.  Not good enough, said Murphy. Although things went well 
on Friday night of the second weekend, Ron didn't make any Q's despite 
showing up on the liveCQ page and trying lots of times on 432.  It 
wasn't conditions this time, just no good decodes and unfortunately, 
little activity.  I operated the 2m station on Friday night and made 28 
Q's, mostly by getting a frequency and calling CQ.  A lot of fun.  
Johnny was in charge of the NFARL HamJam get together for Saturday 
morning and had too much to do and didn't come up for the Friday night 
moon pass.  Ron had to go home after moonset on Saturday morning.  I got 
some sleep and Johnny came up about dinner time.  Then on Saturday night 
at moonrise, the 2m antennas and the 432 antennas were lined up pretty 
well with 432 behind the 2m ones like last month.  Well, this time the 
432 station took out both the 2m preamp and the front end of the 
transverter before 2m could make a Q!  I put my 2m transverter in 
Johnny's station and promptly took it's front end out also.  GD 
Murphy!!  I tried yet another 2m transveter I had but it was DOA already 
so that pretty much shot our 2m activities for the night.  It would have 
taken much effort to get another 2m station going, what with different 
interfacing, audio connections, etc. using a 2m all-mode in place of the 
Flex 1500 and transverter.  And the fact that I was actually making some 
Q's on 432.  Only another six Q's for Saturday night.  Nowhere near as 
good as last year so I don't expect any certificates this time, unless 
Murphy should feel guilty and send me some kind of consolation prize!  
BTW, we weren't wringing out the 432 amp, only ran about 500 watts this 
year vs 400 last year. You do remember seeing the devastation 1500W did 
to my 432 preamp after the contest last year don't you?

We are seriously going to have to relocate the antennas so that we don't 
have one station shooting up the rear of the other or v-v which is how 
it worked out around moonrise last weekend and probably was the 
situation the first weekend.  Still have transverters and preamps to try 
to repair and eventually get my new relay box going too.

Any advice from more experienced friends will be appreciated.  We do 
think the problem though is proximity of the antennas (and me wanting to 
change things!).

I will send the results in.  58 Q's and 52 grids on 2m with 12 Q's and 
12 grids on 432.  I think it will be 448,000 points for multi-op, which 
doesn't put us in the running for a place.

73, Bob