[Fourlanders] W4NH January VHF contest summary

[Bob Lear]

We were worried that the weather system moving in on Saturday would 
really hurt us for the contest.  We had almost 2 inches of rain up here 
on Saturday and some pretty cold temps on Sunday but our score turned 
out to be not so bad.  Times are changing and the contests are now 
heavily weighted digital, especially on 6m for this one. Similar to past 
contests when there was good propagation on 6m and the upper bands would 
suffer low activity because the single op stations tend to stay on the 
active band, now the increased activity and capability of FT8 has made 
6m seem like its open that way and again, the upper band activity 
suffers.  NIne operators were here for the contest at the W4ZST shack in 
Dahlonega, EM84ao and we had three visitors come by.

Johnny K4SQC is the 6m band captain and his station was his IC-7300 and 
M2 6m SS 1kW amp with the stacked pair of 5 element beams at 35/50'.  We 
also have the stacked pair of M2 HO loop omni's that can be selected.  
Johnny has a new AMD Ryzen 7 computer for the station and was running 
two monitors, one for the N1MM logging program and the other for a 
panadaptor display from the 7300 through N1MM.  Also of course the new 
WSJT-x v2.0 software for the digital modes.  Kim WG8S, Bill KI4US and 
Johnny mostly ran the 6m station and made 90 Q's and 36 grids on FT8, 31 
Q's and 21 Grids using MSK144 and 26 Q's and 7 grids on phone.   Bill 
stayed up all night Saturday night operating 6m digital.  You can see 
that FT8 is the dominant mode these days.  Recently we were seeing about 
a third for each of the modes.   On Saturday morning before the rain we 
did manage to replace one of the elements that had fallen off the upper 
6m beam. Seems we have a QC problem on setup!!

Kos N4NIA is  the 2m band captain and brought his station with an FT-991 
and a Beko SS 1 kW amp.  We had put up two K1FO 12 element yagis for the 
contest replacing the M2 9 element ones we have been using for years.  I 
think the 2m results show that they are an improvement.     We also had 
the 2m omni-beams up and they did get some use.  Kos, Jerry W5TDY and 
Rick KK4LPP did most of the 2m operating.    Pretty good results here 
for a January contest with 8 Q's and 6 grids using FT8, 13 Q's and 10 
grids with MSK144 and 27 Q's and 15 grids on phone.  There were a number 
of 2m EME QSO's made both on Saturday and Sunday nights using Johnny's 
2m EME station that is set up here.  Johnny and Kos made about 9 EME Q's 
on 2m WSJT(65B) using a Flex 1500, Demi 2m transverter and M2 2m SS kW 
amp to a pair of M2 2m cross-pol 20 element beams with a mast-mounted 
preamp.

Brian NX9O ended up on the road on company biz and didn't make it for 
the contest.  His 222 station was still set up here and 8 phone Q's to 5 
grids were made by the operators Jerry, Bob W4ZST and Rich KX4KD.  We 
think the good 6 and 2 activity kept folks off the higher bands.  
Brian's station consists of an FT-1000MP, DEMI transverter, Lunar LInk 
Amp and a pair of M2 cross pole 30 element beams with a mast mounted 
preamp.    MSK144 was attempted but computer problems seem to have 
prevented success.  Couldn't find anyone this time to try 222 EME again 
but we were ready.

Ron WW8RR had his station on 432 with an IC-910H, HB K2RIW kW amp and 
four K2RIW H-pol antennas with Az-El.   We also have the 432 omni-beams 
up.  He did make one EME Q and was confounded that folks were reporting 
hearing him and he wasn't decoding.  432 EME can be a challenge with 
things happening that don't occur on other bands. Ron ended up with 4 
Q's on CW to 3 grids and 11 phone Q's to 5 grids.   There didn't appear 
to be any digital activity up on 432 yet but as I said, when there is so 
much activity on 6m, few ops seem to venture to the higher bands and 
digital just hasn't taken off on 432 except for EME.

Johnny had a new station for 1296 set up this time and unfortunately 
made only one Q.   Not sure if there is a real problem with receive or 
just conditions.  Further testing is called for.  His station is much 
nicer than my old 1296 gear.  Johnny was running his Flex 6700 as a 2m 
IF to a new DEMI L23HP transverter and a W6PQL 150W SS amp to a pair of 
45 element loop yagis at 30 feet or so.  All new LMR-600 for the feed 
line too.   He was also ready for digital modes too.

We made a 6 voice Q's among ourselves on 2300 and 5650 with available 
gear for fun and to fill time.   We forgot to get the 10 GHz 
Gunn-plexers out for a Q!

So our preliminary score of 32,523 is actually our second highest 
January score in our 10 years of operating the January contest from here 
so we may come out OK in the final standings.  We'll just have to wait 
and see.

Our visitors were Mike KC4RI, Russ K4WQS and Jim W4KXY.  Jim had signed 
up to operate for the contest but ended up with other obligations.  He 
came for our official annual meeting and also collected 2019 dues from 
those here.  Anyone else wanting to pay their $30 dues for the year can 
contact Jim.  Looks like we forgot to railroad an officer slate so the 
current officers will continue.   My bad for not passing an official 
agenda on to Bill.  We have about $600 in the bank and approved 
expenditures to repair the roof vent on Great White and also purchase 
some RV style tire covers to see if we can better protect all our 
trailer tires from the Sun.  We also plan to purchase a new canopy tent 
for the club.  We also discussed some computer issues.

Last but not least, Jerry cooked two big pans of Baked Ziti with Italian 
Sausage, tossed salad and bread for our Saturday night dinner.  So good 
but so much left over we also had that for our Sunday night dinner for 
the remaining ops and still had some leftovers to send home with folks.  
Thanks to Jerry for the great cooking.  I had microwave biscuits and 
coffee for everyone for Sunday breakfast and we had Hot Dogs with choice 
of slaw, chili and relish for lunch on Sunday.  Seven of us met for 
lunch at Roosters on Saturday and came back to get all the radios on the 
air for the contest.

Make note on your calendars that we will also operate here at W4ZST for 
the June 8,10 contest and have reservations at MileHigh for the Sept 14, 
15 contest.

Thanks again to all our operators, visitors, friends and the folks we 
made contact with on the bands for the contest.

73, Bob W4ZST for the W4NH Fourlanders