[Fourlanders] W4NH 2019 Sept VHF contest summary

[Bob Lear]

W4NH operated the ARRL September VHF QSO Party contest from the W4ZST 
shack in EM84, Dahlonega Ga this past weekend.

Not much propagation for this contest.  We ended up with a score close 
to the lowest we've ever made from GA or NC for a September contest.  
Continuing to occur is the problem for multi-op stations like us and 
also for single-op multi-band stations in that there is no way to pass 
folks to other bands now like we have always been able to do on phone or 
CW.   We had 11 operators here for the contest, nine visitors and six 
sleeping overnight on Saturday.

Johnny K4SQC was the 6m band captain and set up the station with W4KXY's 
Beko 6m SS 1kW amp and W4ZST's IC-7300 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 using the Bip/Bop Box.  Two new 32" monitors 
for the 6m station gave plenty of real estate for the necessary windows 
open from WSJT, internet and N1MM and allowing the nice big panadaptor 
display from the 7300 through N1MM.

2m band captain Kos N4NIA made the contest this time and had his station 
with an FT-991 and Beko 2m SS  1kW amp.   We had the two K1FO 12 element 
yagis and the 2m omni-beams.  For 2m EME we had the two 20 el XP beams 
and the 2m EME station with Flex 1500, DEMI transverter and Lunar Link 
amp.   No  2m EME QSO's were made however as we ended up having rotator 
problems with the 2 m EME antennas both nights.  We burned up the power 
transformers in two rotator control boxes.  More serious troubleshooting 
ahead.

The 222 station is Brian NX9O's but he was unable to be here for the 
contest.  W4ZST and K4SQC set it up with a Flex 1500, DEMI transverter, 
Lunar LInk Amp and a pair of M2 cross pole 30 element beams with a mast 
mounted preamp.    Not much activity on 222 as all activity was down.  
Did copy some nice EME signals and when we tried to make contact, we had 
a problem with the amplifier and had no power output.  Still have to 
work on that problem.  It was just too much and complicated to try to 
tackle during the contest.  We sure hope it is a minor problem with the 
amplifier.

Ron WW8RR had his station on 432 with his IC-910H, HB K2RIW kW amp and 
four K2RIW 19 element antennas with Az-El.   We also have the 432 
omni-beams up.  We again had the antennas with Left/Right polarization 
and the antennas do seem to be better for us this way. Only 1 EME Q on 
432 as there just weren't any folks on for the weekend. We made some 
more FT8 Q's on 432 this time also.

Johnny K4SQC has a new station for 1296 with two new antennas and mast 
mounted relays and preamp.  Again not many folks on but he did get to 
make our first FT8 Q on 1296 and also experimented with W3CP on 
reflecting their 1296 signals off our local mountains.  He also easily 
worked a station in Knoxville on SSB.  Johnny was running his Icom IC910 
and W6PQL 150W 1296 amp to a pair of 45 element loop yagis at 30 feet.

We again had some problems with the N1MM and WSJT-x software packages.  
They do keep adding features that should make using them easier but we 
may not have figured it all out yet.  Found out some good relevant info 
after to contest but we'll make note of that for next time.  The two 
programs are becoming more integrated but there certainly is a learning 
curve.

Our score of 18, 066 is only slightly higher than the lowest scores we 
have posted for a September contest in GA or NC.  We'll have to wait and 
see how we come out in the final standings.   We had a thunder storm and 
rain for a while on Saturday night and had disconnected the antennas.  
Not sure if induced currents from lightning or power surges caused some 
of our problems.   We'll just have to wait and see what else doesn't 
still work.   Our other operators for the contest were Jerry W5TDY, Jim 
W4KXY, Bill KI4US , Kim WG8S, Bob K4VBM and Brad KM4QHI.  It was Brads 
second contest visit with us but he did a good bit of operating this 
time.  He might be hooked on VHF contesting now.

Score summary:
Band    Mode    Q's    Grid multipliers
50        FT8        86            35
50        MSK        2            2
50        USB        18            8
144        FM        2            0
144        FT8        38        16
144        MSK        5            5
144        USB        9            5
222        CW        1            1
222        USB        5            4
432        CW        1            1
432        FT8           3            0
432        JT65        1            1
432        USB        15        8
1296        FT8        1        1
1296        USB        1        1

Totals                    188     87           for a final score of 18,966

The grid multipliers are low for a contest and indicate the lack of 
propagation and low score.

Our visitors were Craig KN4DLS and Carter KN4DLY from the Cleveland 
club, Russ K4WQS and Rick KK4LPP from the Dahlonega club, Mike KC4RI 
from Dunwoody and Vince W4VRP from Cumming.  We also had the entire 
McElroy clan from Cumming visit.  15 year old Audrey KM4BUN and 11 year 
old Jack KM4ZIA fresh back from their summer youth DXpedition adventure 
in Curacao as PJ2T accompanied by proud Mom Jan K4PRM and Dad Tom 
W4SDR.  They have visited and operated with us before, both here and on 
the mountain in NC.

I will report that I finally did receive the new water pump for the 
generator but it was pretty late coming and we had already had to cancel 
going to the mountain-top campground in NC for this contest. We will get 
it repaired for use in next years contests.

Last but never least, Jerry W5TDY, who has signed on as our club cook 
now, smoked an excellent brisket for our Saturday night dinner along 
with pinto beans, potato salad, slaw, smoked sausage and his famous 
jalapeno poppers.  Nothing like Texas style BBQ.  Jerry has now 
completely spoiled us with such great food and we still fully qualify 
for our club call phonetics of 'W 4 Never Hungry'.  Jerry made pancakes, 
sausage, bacon and eggs for everyone for Sunday breakfast and then hot 
dogs, chili, slaw, potato salad and chips for lunch on Sunday topping it 
off with quesadillas made with the left over brisket on Sunday night.  
No one was able to even think about maintaining diet level eating!!  Ten 
of us met for lunch at Roosters on Saturday for a good meal and came on 
up to get all the radios on the air for the contest.  We had the pop up 
tents, tables and chairs set up outside for gathering, shade and eating 
and for folks to hang outside of the operating shack.

As usual mark your calendars for the January VHF contest which we will 
do here at W4ZST.  We have our reservations and deposit in for both 
contest weekends next year on the mountain and hope that we don't have 
issues that keep us from being able to do that.  We didn't make the 
mountain location for either contest this year.

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 VHF/UHF Contest Team