[Fourlanders] W4NH 2019 Sept VHF contest summary

Mon Sep 16 22:24:05 EDT 2019

Gee Bob, are you trying to tell me something?

W4SKI

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019, 9:54 PM Bob Lear <w4zst at windstream.net> wrote:

> 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
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>
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