[Fourlanders] January Contest Summary Report

[Bob Lear]

Well, we didn't do as bad as last January or even our shortened 
September effort but the lack of propagation sure didn't help our 
efforts this time.  We seem to have had very few computer problems this 
time at least during the contest but none of us would say that about the 
day before and the morning of the contest when everything seemed to go 
wrong with the computers. We even had one contest computer that couldn't 
correctly add two numbers together at the end of the contest.  It did 
not agree with all the other networked computers and didn't add the 
score up correctly even though it appeared to have the exact same data 
to work with.  Murphy!!

Score Summary:  18,040 points.  The log has been submitted and posted on 
3830scores.

Band     QSO's     Grids
50         93           43
144       53           23
222       15           7
432 _22           9_
               183         82

Interesting observation and I'm going to keep mode statistics from now 
on.  Of the 93 Q's on 6m, 33 were phone, 23 were FT-8 and 39 on MSK 
144.  This is a real change in 6m activity and will probably affect our 
strategy in future.  We also think that we copied our EME echo on 6m 
using WSJT echo mode at moonrise.  Not sure but we'll try again.  On 2m 
we collected 14 EME Q's on what was predicted as about the worst moon 
conditions for the year. Just goes to show what power WSJT has for us.  
On 222 we also tried to hear our echo at moonrise but not sure if we 
really did see anything.  We did try 222 EME with K5QE but no decodes.  
Ron made 2 EME Q's on 432.  Also interesting is that we didn't make a 
single CW QSO during the contest.  That is very rare.  Usually someone 
hears a CW signal and we manage to work them and I know Ron called CQ on 
CW a good bit on 432 but strangely no CW contacts for the contest.  I 
also tried to make several contacts on 1296 with no success.  I could 
hear the beacon weakly but nothing else.  I think my front end FET had 
been 'compromised'!!  Couldn't hear beacons on 903 or 2304 although the 
stations seemed to be working.  I haven't had them on the air for a 
couple of years and will continue with some further troubleshooting on 
the microwave gear.

Operators:  Johnny K4SQC 6m Band Captain, Kos N4NIA 2m Band Captain, Bob 
W4ZST 222 Band Captain, Ron WW8RR 432 Band Captain, Kim WG8S, Bill 
KI4US, Jerry W5TDY and Rick KK4LPP.   Visitors included Mike KC4RI, Brad 
KM4QHJ and Rob WB4GKI with his family.

Several of the operators and visitors got together for Saturday lunch at 
Rooster's and then returned to the shack to kick off the contest.  Rick 
cooked spaghetti casseroles, bread and salad for our Saturday night 
dinner.  Pancakes and sausage for Sunday breakfast, hot dogs with slaw 
or chili for lunch and we got a couple of good take-out pizzas from 
Johnny B's for Sunday evening.

Johnny used the Flex 6500 again for the 6m station with the Maestro this 
time.  Worked well all weekend but you see we only had 93 Q's on 6.  
Kos's station with the Yaesu FT-991 again but this year with his new 
Beko SS 2m amp.  Thanks again to Brian NX9O for use of his excellent 222 
station for the contest when he couldn't make it for the contest.  Ron 
had his usual station and antennas for 432.

We conducted the required annual FourLanders meeting on Sunday 
afternoon.  Bill KI4US volunteered to take over as President and give me 
a much needed break after 15 years on the job! The other officers agreed 
and were re-elected, WW8RR VP, N4NIA Secretary and W4KXY Treasurer.  We 
had the treasurers report and we have sufficient funds after collection 
of this years dues.  Anyone else wishing to pay dues and continue as 
full members, please contact Jim W4KXY.

Discussions were held on new contesting computers and problems we've had 
and continue to have with WriteLog and also the lack of horsepower and 
memory for running the MSK144 mode.  We also again discussed changing 
over to N1MM and a plan was made for Johnny and Kos to learn N1MM, 
networking and interfacing and use it for this years CQWW VHF contest 
since it is only two bands. Decisions were also made to cut back on 
portable operations as we just seem to not have a large enough group to 
keep going to NC with the 7 trailers and have enough ops and trailer 
pullers. We proposed and agreed to do the June 9,10 2018 contest at the 
W4ZST shack and a limited portable operation for the CQWW July 21,22 
both to try a new location, MontEagle in TN and for the two stations to 
test out N1MM.  Jim W4KXY is working on the details and location on 
MontEagle.  We don't know if we can operate there yet.  We do plan to 
try to go to Mile High for the September 8,9 contest, again if we can 
get a viable group together.

We are still looking for a new cook and as always new operators and 
members interested in VHF weak-signal operating and contesting.

Thanks again to all our operators, visitors and stations who worked us 
during the contest.

Be sure to put the June, July and September contest dates on your 
calendars.    Thanks.

73, Bob W4ZST





_______________________________________________
Fourlanders mailing list
Fourlanders at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/fourlanders

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/fourlanders/attachments/20180131/9af6c426/attachment.html>