[Fourlanders] 2020 January VHF contest summary

[Bob Lear]

W4NH operated the ARRL January VHF QSO Party contest from the W4ZST 
shack in EM84, Dahlonega Ga this past weekend.  This is the fourth 
contest in a row we've done from this location as we didn't manage to 
make it to the mountain-top location last year due to circumstances.  We 
had rain all day Saturday and cold temps, especially at night and on 
Sunday so most of the congregating was in the shack where the amps did a 
good job of keeping us warm.  I don't think the heat system had to come 
on.  Just too cold to have the tents and tables set up outside for 
eating and visiting like we usually do.

Propagation was not great but wasn't completely dead for this contest.  
We ended up scoring higher than last years January contest where we 
placed second nationwide in full multi-op so maybe we'll do as good this 
year.  We'll have to wait months to find out though.  We had 12 
operators here for the contest, eleven visitors and five overnight on 
Friday and eight overnight on Saturday.

Bob W4ZST set up the 6m 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.  The station was still set up from the last 
contest and I use it weekly to check in to 6m nets and for contacts when 
I manage to get on 6m.  This time I spent many hours learning to set up 
N1MM and WSJT-x myself and had good success, including making the 
computer and N1MM call CQ for all the operators, that we've had problems 
with before and I relied on Johnny and Bill to try to straighten things 
out. Finally did something right!!  Did that with the 6m, 2m EME and 222 
stations.  No real problems with the station during the contest.

2m band captain Kos N4NIA 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 again having rotator problems with the 2 m 
EME antennas getting them tracking properly.  We had replaced the 
problem elevation rotator in December but hadn't had good weather to get 
things aligned. Johnny and Kos worked on the antenna positioning in the 
rain on Saturday.

Brian NX9O was here for the contest and ran his 222 station.   I had 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.   I had 
gotten things working properly before the contest but as usual we had 
some software problems.  Still working on that.  We did make some good 
Q's but more activity would have been nice.  No takers for 222 EME this 
contest.  We only had one moon pass during the contest and moon 
conditions for the weekend were not optimum.  I had managed to fix the 
problems from last time and it turned out to not be the amplifier but a 
broken power supply wire that took me a while to find.  We were 
disappointed to not make EME on 144 and 222.

Ron WW8RR had his station on 432 using Jim's  IC-9700, giving us a 
chance to see how it would do on 432, his 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 yagis with Left/Right polarization.  Only one EME Q on 
432 as there just wasn't much EME activity and conditions were 
sub-optimum as mentioned.  Ron is going to change the antennas back to 
just horizontal polarization for the next contest.

Johnny K4SQC had another new station for 1296 now with four 45 element 
loop yagis and mast mounted relays and preamp and with Az-El rotator for 
EME and terrestrial.  Not many folks on but his three Q's included  one 
FT8, one CW and his first 1296 EME QSO with HB9Q in Switzerland.  The 
new station is an Icom IC9700 and W6PQL 150W 1296 amp.  We should make 
more Q's but there are not many folks on 1296 in our area.  Very pleased 
to have our first 1296 EME contact and Johnny is planning to keep that 
available with W4NH.

Our score was 35,640.  Our operators for the contest were Jerry W5TDY, 
Jim W4KXY, Bill KI4US , Kim WG8S, Bob K4VBM, Brad KM4QHI, Brian NX9O, 
Ron WW8RR, Johnny K4SQC, Bob W4ZST, Kos N4NIA and a new friend David 
KN4ZKT from Clayton GA who found us recently and had visited the shack 
once before the contest (and helped us when we changed out the 2m EME 
rotator) and came again to operate as he is interested in VHF/UHF 
weak-signal work.  We hope he will be a long term member of the group.

Score summary:
Band    Mode    Q's    Grid multipliers
50        FT8        101            36
50        MSK        18              9
50        USB         24              6
144        FT8        40           16
144        MSK        6              6
144        USB       27              8
222        FT8          5              4
222        USB        10             6
432        CW           1             1
432        FT8           8             2
432        JT65         1             1
432        USB        22           13
1296       FT8          1              1

1296         CW        1              1

1296         JT65        1             1


Totals                    267         110           for a final score of 
35,640      MSK is meteor scatter using MSK144 mode and JT65 is the EME 
mode, both in WSJT software


Our visitors were the McElroy family from Cumming, Audrey KM4BUN, Jack 
KM4ZIA, Jan K4PRM, Tom W4SDR and a friend (sorry I missed getting his 
name), Smiley KZ4ZK and Buck KC4GCK from our Dahlonega club, and a ham 
new to the area who was roving and came to visit at our invitation, Jeff 
WB8LYJ.  We were pleased to work Jeff on three bands in each of the five 
grids he visited and we think he was pleased with our Saturday night 
dinner!!  He stopped in coming through Dahlonega to operate up at Woody 
Gap.  We also had a special visitor on both Saturday and Sunday.  Our 
former contest cook, Jeff Grote W0ONR came to visit both days to catch 
up with us.  He is retired and living back here in Dahlonega with his 
daughter Blair and they both had Sunday night dinner with us.  It was 
great to see Jeff after several years.  We also had some visitors on 
Friday afternoon.  Johnny had visitors from NC coordinating the upcoming 
ARISS school contact with the Kittredge school in Atlanta.  Bob Koepke 
AA6TB is an ARISS mentor and he and his wife Jan came up Friday 
afternoon to visit the shack while Johnny was setting up the 1296 gear.  
We had some more visitors on Friday night, their first visit here to the 
station.  Jimmy Dean Blair K2JB and Howard Hazelrigg W4PH from Ashville 
came down to go to the Techfest and then rove in our area.  They have 
contested with us on the mountain before.  You may remember me 
mentioning in previous contest summaries about Jimmy Dean's famous Dutch 
Oven Chili, Chicken Pot Pie and Apple cobbler that he has cooked for us 
on the mountain.  Those of us there don't forget!!  Some great chow.  We 
worked them on two bands at every spot they roved to during the 
contest.  Thanks to them and Jeff WB8LYJ for all their Q's.  Great to 
have some rovers in the area again.   Johnny, Smiley, David and rover 
Jeff had also attended the TechFest in Lawrenceville in the morning.

Rick KK4LPP was planning to come but was not feeling well.  He had 
installed the new water pump for the generator in December and we have 
tested if a few times and it's back in service for this years contests.  
Glad that Odyssey is finally over.  Also thanks to our friends at North 
Fulton Amateur Radio League for helping out with the generator 
expenses.  They use it for Field Day.

Special thanks to our cook and operator Jerry W5TDY.  I think the best 
description of the weekend food will be pasting Jerry's menu for the 
contest here.

Saturday - Dinner:
Pulled Pork BBQ
Baby Back Ribs
Venison Bratwurst Sausage
Pork & Beans
Potato Salad
Cole Slaw

Sunday - Breakfast:
Veggie Scramble (Eggs, squash, zucchini, onions, mushrooms)
Avocado Toast
Turkey Sausage
Shrimp & Grits

Sunday - Lunch:
Hamburgers
Chips
Leftover Beans
Leftover Cole Slaw

Sunday - Dinner:
Left Overs Depending on remaining participants.


The leftovers were BBQ, Ribs, Sausage, Slaw, Potato Salad, Hamburgers, 
etc.  We ate as fine on those as the other meals!! Thanks again Jerry.  
You are spoiling us.

Ten of us met for lunch at Roosters on Saturday as is our tradition, for 
a good meal and came back up to get all the radios on the air for the 
contest.  Jeff W0ONR joined us there too.

As usual mark your calendars for the June (13-15th) VHF contest which we 
have plans to do on the NC mountain-top location.  We have our 
reservations and deposit in for both contest weekends (Sept 12-14th) 
this year 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 in 2019.

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