[Fourlanders] W4NH January VHF contest summary
Ryan Kovacs
tukosei at gmail.com
Sat Jan 28 08:29:05 EST 2017
I would have been there but had to travel to Michigan for a funeral. That
did not stop me from operating from the road! I was very disappointed too,
where was everyone? I only made a handful of contacts on 2m on the drive up
during the contest. Debating if it is worth turning in a log.
Ryan
KK4OSG
On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Bob Lear <w4zst at windstream.net> wrote:
> 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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>
>
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