[Fourlanders] CQWW VHF contest this weekend

[Bob Lear]

Well we got started late with any plans for the contest and even later 
getting the word out.  We will do the contest here at the W4ZST shack.  
So far we only have W4KXY and W4ZST and possibly WW8RR part time as 
operators.

Jim bought a new IC9700 a couple of weeks ago and then thought of trying 
it out on the air for a contest.  He brought it up last Sunday and we 
did some drift testing on it (because of internet traffic) and couldn't 
find any problems but he had done the internal software latest update 
which is supposed to cure that problem and also give the radio RefLock 
input.  It seemed fine either way in our testing.  So we thought it 
would be good to see what it does on the air.  I have only had it on for 
a couple of local nets so far, without the amp.  Pretty nice radio like 
the 7300.

So we have set up the 2m station for the contest (terrestrial only, not 
set up for EME) with my 2m LunarLInk amp and the stacked pair of contest 
yagis and the omni's also available.  I'm still working on getting both 
N1MM and WSJTx working properly but expect help from Johnny to get this 
under control.

The 6m station is set up with the IC7300 and Jim's BEKO amp to the 
stacked yagis and omnis.  Software and computer there were still set up 
from the June contest and I'm using that as my template.  It is all 
working fine.  Been on a couple of nets with it this week.

So if there are some of our ops who would like to join us and operate 
with us for this contest, let me know.  There are some beds available 
for Saturday overnighters.

Unfortunately we haven't made big plans for food like we usually do but 
I'm sure we can come up with some solutions so that no one goes hungry.  
I'll at least have breakfast biscuits and coffee for Sunday morning.

Also I expect this contest will be even more heavily digital with the 
release this week of FT4.  I have seen concurrent FT8 and FT4 on 6m as 
early as Monday night and I think the release was just issued Monday!

  Bob W4ZST    770-654-4057