[Fourlanders] W4NH January VHF contest summary

[Bob Lear]

Well there's always a first time and this may be it for folks 
complaining about being bored.  Just the worst propagation I've 
experienced in the 20 years I've been doing it.  It also appeared that 
there was a lack of activity with many of the usual stations apparently 
not on.  It could also have been the severe weather around the Southeast 
and of course the Falcons game drew some attention away from the 
contest.  At any rate, we have set a club low score and number of Q's 
for at least the past 20 years I've been involved with the Fourlanders.  
We also had the smallest number of our own operators participating this 
time.  Let's not let that be a habit or let this one score set us back 
for future contests.

Score Summary:  12,348 points raw unscrutinized results.

Band     QSO's     Grids
50         82           27
144       46           16
222       12           7
432 _22           13_
               162         63

Operators:  Johnny K4SQC 6m Band Captain, Kos N4NIA 2m Band Captain, Bob 
W4ZST 222 Band Captain, Ron WW8RR 432 Band Captain, Kim WG8S, Sherman 
W4ATL, Bill KI4US, Jerry W5TDY,   Visitors included Mike KC4RI, Rick 
KK4LPP and a very nice turnout of members of NGARC in Dahlonega and GARC 
in Cleveland who had gathered for a lunch bunch at Gustavo's  before 
coming up for the open house and contest kickoff.  Considering how much 
it was raining, it was a fantastic turnout.  Because of the rain though, 
it made it hard to do a proper tour of the antennas and the crowded 
shack with so many.  Club visitors were led by Renee KK4LOJ hosting the 
lunch and visit bringing along Elton KK4UOE, Murray WA4MPZ Ned WC4X, Tom 
W4TWK, Paul W4DUI, Brad KM4QHJ, Joshua KM4YKJ, David NA4AL, Rip W4RIP, 
Russ K4WQS and a soon to be ham Damon Lusky and his daughter Liv from 
here in Dahlonega.  We are planning another lunch bunch and open house 
for Feb 4th and maybe the weather will cooperate with us for that one.  
It will also be an opportunity to make some EME Moon Bounce contacts as 
the moon position and conditions will be favorable for that visit unlike 
this time when it rose at around 3AM and conditions for possible contact 
were not good.  Johnny did make several 2m EME Q's in the wee hours 
though, thanks to the weak-signal copy ability of WSJT.

Eight of the operators got together for Saturday lunch at Rooster's and 
then returned to the shack to kick off the contest, although kick off 
was not an encouraging word to use this time. We had Hickory Prime BBQ 
Pork, Jerry's great Pinto beans and sausage,  cole slaw, jalapeno 
poppers ala Jerry and Mexican cornbread for a great Saturday night 
dinner.  Pancakes and Sausage for breakfast and Turkey/Ham/Cheese 
sandwiches and chips for lunch Sunday.  We skipped dinner on Sunday as 
most folks started going home as early as 3PM leaving Ron and I here 
with the dead bands and highest winds and heaviest rain of the weekend 
and we even gave up and shut down at 8PM, forgoing the final hours of 
the contest.  I don't think we missed anything by doing that.  Around 
7PM there was very strong propagation into Texas on 6m and I made a 
couple of Q's but there were just no stations on taking part in the 
opening.  I did work our good friend and longtime Fourlander Dick K5AND 
in Austin.

We had very strong rain static on 6m and 2m during the heavy rains which 
we have not been experiencing much since we made the grounded hairpin 
feeds for those bands antennas.  Not sure what was the real cause but 
the noise levels were too high to make weak-signal Q's when it was 
happening.

Everyone who operated Johnny's new 6m station with the FLex 6500 seemed 
to like it.  We ended up using the laptop and large 24" second monitor 
for the panadaptor rather than using the Maestro for control of the Flex 
radio  I really liked it and also used it for the Monday night 6m net.  
I don't think we got a really good feel for it though because of the 
poor conditions and small number of Q's.  It looks like it's a 'keeper' 
though.  Kos's new station with the Yaesu FT-991 worked well but again 
hard to judge from the limited number of Q's.  No problems with it at 
least.  Thanks again to Jack K4FSE for the use of his W6PQL solid state 
2m amp for the contest even though he couldn't be here due to a prior 
commitment.  Thanks also to Brian NX9O for use of his excellent 222 
station for the contest when he couldn't make it either.  Ron had his 
usual station and antennas for 432.  My personal thanks to Bill for 
working on getting my Arduino boards up and running and also for 
installing the microcell here.  It was a challenge to get logged in and 
complete the installation!

We conducted the required annual FourLanders meeting on Sunday during a 
lull in activity (like we had a problem finding that!). The current 
officers agreed and were re-elected, there being no other nominations or 
volunteers.  We had the treasurers report and voted favorably on club 
purchase of the 'BlackHawk' tower trailer which has been held by W4ZST 
for years.  Discussions were also held on new contesting computers as we 
see that we are being forced by both MS and software writers to upgrade 
to Win7 and eventually Win10, as programs are now offering less backward 
compatibility than they had been doing in the past.  Ron is tasked with 
identifying and purchasing as needed.  We also had a discussion about 
interference among our own stations when we are set up in the limited 
space at the mountaintop campground. Several suggestions were presented 
and considered for placement of trailers and antenna towers there.  We 
also discussed the results of our FM foray during the September contest 
and had several suggestions for continuing with some FM capability in 
future contests.  Dues were collected from all active members here for 
the contest.

BTW, we are still looking for a new cook and of course new operators 
interested in VHF weak-signal operating and contesting.

Thanks again to all our operators, visitors and stations who worked us 
during the contest.  I will review the logs and submit them before the 
deadline as usual.

Be sure to put the June contest dates, June 9-12, on your calendars.  We 
have out reservations at the campground and will need to have a good 
turnout of operators and trailer pullers for the contest.  Thanks.

73, Bob W4ZST



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