[Fourlanders] January Contest summary

[Bill Pence]

Greeting everyone!

well, another one in the books as we submit our logs.  I was able to just
break 10k with 147 total QSO's and 67 grids in the log.

As Ron notes, the  "Fourlanders Contest Team" is selectable from the club
drop down selection on the ARRL contest log submission page!   (
 https://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/
<https://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/>  )

I hope everyone had a great time on the air!

a nice bit of 6m prop on Saturday late afternoon helped as the ACOM 1000
loafed along at about 300w on FT8. I was also able to make a couple of
surprising 2m FT8 QSO's into central FL with the Mirage at about 100w.  Did
not really expect that type of distance with the yagi at only about 28' !!

It's not quite as fun working the contest alone compared as when we all get
to join together and eat Jerry's cooking, but it might be a bit better on
the waistline....
Slack helps with the conversion and contact SKEDs but it's not quite the
same, of course.

I was able to pick up a couple of local SSB contacts, and was hoping to see
a few more around here on the air, but I did not encounter any others.

I saw MANY single decodes (and they were stronger than -10)  only to have
the signal vanish after that 1 cycle.

I thought at first K4VBM was pranking me.  I'd see him at -5, then nothing
for several cycles, the -8, then gone again...  I later noticed that I
could hear some "whistles" for several seconds like 6m would have a very
tiny opening.  I guess it might have been a meteor, but many times I could
hear/see the full WSJT TX interval only to get a single decode then not see
the signal again for several minutes in most cases.

Next task is to go through the 432 coax jumpers to see if I can identify an
intermittent connection as I seemed to not have reliable 432 operation.  I
also think I saw a trace on 222 from WB8LYJ/R when he was not too far from
my QTHwhen I used the 2m yagi, so there is some hope for the 222 xvtr.

Also many thanks for "VHF Jeff"'s efforts to light up grids around GA!!  I
know it is a huge effort.

my logging worked all as expected. After I finished the contest, a few
clicks in DXLab DXKeeper put all the contest qso's into LOTW and eQSL.
Then a couple of clicks in N1MM+ had the cabrillo ready to submit to the
ARRL contest log submission page.
 (all the contest QSO's were logged into DXKeeper real time from N1MM+ via
the N1MM+DXKeeper bridge)

had 1 PC issue.  seems like I either had a software glitch or a bit of RF
got in (only happened 1 time...) but the COM port for CAT to the radio
broke.  quick PC reboot and back running...


73 KI4US
Bill
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