[Fourlanders] W4ZST June VHF contest summary

[Bob Lear]

A decision was made earlier this year to continue the distancing and not 
have W4NH do the contest here and continue to turn in scores for the 
club competition.  I had posted in May that since things had changed 
somewhat for the better that I would host a smaller multi-op group here 
for the June contest and again use my call sign.  A few operators 
responded.  Here for the contest were Brian NX9O, Kim WG8S, Bill KI4US, 
Bob K4VBM, Jerry W5TDY, Rick KK4LPP and myself, Bob W4ZST.

Brian had been up a couple of times to help me with various problems 
that had occurred with software updates, etc.  The most problems were 
with the new version of WSJTx 2.4.0.  Really wish I hadn't upgraded to 
that right before the contest, regardless of Joe's appraisal that it was 
better than cold margaritas.  There were many problems.  I wasted at 
least two whole days just trying to get the 222 station to PTT.  If I 
went back to the previous version, everything worked.  The new version 
was not keeping the settings or something.  Still I floundered on, not 
thinking how easy it would be to just stay with 2.3.2 or whatever it 
was.  Many double logging instances on all the computers during the 
contest, like maybe 80 total.  Very strange.  You'd think they would 
have de-bounced the software by now!!

The stations we used are mine for 6, 2 and 432 and Brian's for 222. They 
have been set up since last fall and we really didn't have any hardware 
problems with them although some strange occurrences of lower output 
from the amps on 6 and 2 when nothing had been changed in the drive 
levels.  Still doing that intermittently on the 2m station as I have 
been on the moon with it for a couple of days recently.  Also was on 
just 6m FT8 and the double logging is still occurring.  All the stations 
are the ones still shown on my QRZ page.  This is the first contest that 
we've been using the Flex 1500 SDR's on three stations.  Somewhat 
different than running a traditional radio but I don't think I heard any 
complaints.  Of course, with most of the operation digital, we never 
touch the radio anyway and also don't need to use the headsets much.  I 
had made a CQ button box for the IC7300 on 6m like Jim had made once for 
a contest but we didn't end up using it.  As before, if it could be made 
easier to change back and forth between digital and SSB in N1MM/WSJTx it 
would really help.

We did have a good time and we had some good digital operators.  Kim 
made some initial 6m SSB Q's and then went over to FT8 on 6m.  I started 
out on 2m SSB and made a number of Q's before going to FT8. 222 and 432 
did similarly.  Brian got up early on Sunday morning and made some good 
Meteor Scatter Q's using MSK144 on both 6m and 2m and I think Bob came 
out to help him.

Our results:
Band Mode Q's Grids
50    FT4        1    0
50    FT8    335    143
50    MSK    22    15
50    SSB      25     9
144   JT65    2       2
144   FT8    64    22
144    SSB    23    12
222    FM    4      1
222    FT8    3      2
222    JT65   3     3
222    SSB    4     3
432     FM    3     1
432    FT8    14    4
432    Q65    1      1
432    USB    9     5          for a total of 519 Q's    229 Grids and   
128240 points.  I have submitted to ARRL, posted on 3830, both with 
Fourlanders Contest Team for the club competition and have already 
uploaded to lotw.

This is a lot higher score than I had in June 2020 by myself but I did 
work 560 Q's then and almost all 6m SSB.   Last year after I tried to 
make a few Q's on 2m and 222, I just stuck with 6m and there was plenty 
of SSB activity.  Not so much this year.
Note that I made two EME Q's on 2m, Brian made three on 222 and I made 
one using the new Q65 mode on 432.  I think JT65 would have been easier 
but the other station wanted to try that so I did for the first time.  
It remains to be seen if it's better for EME.

Our secret weapon, Jerry W5TDY offered to feed us.  I did not advertise 
that fact before the contest because I'm sure it would have resulted in 
about 25 ops showing up for Saturday night dinner. And he outdid himself 
as usual with a fine brisket, smoked sausages, jalopena poppers, potato 
salad and cole slaw.  He made egg, cheese and bacon and egg, cheese and 
sausage casseroles for Sunday morning breakfast, Hot dogs with chili or 
slaw and chips for lunch and Sunday night, the leftover brisket found 
it's way into some excellent brisket quesadillas with lots of cheese.  
They were fantastic and along with leftover slaw, potato salad, sausages 
and poppers, most of us couldn't drag ourselves back to the operating 
chairs.  Don't ask how many of those Quesadillas we destroyed.

Maybe it was the long time since folks had been here, but we started 
early this time.  Kim and Bill made it up in time for lunch on Friday 
and we went to 'Almost Famous' BBQ for that.  Then Brian came in the 
afternoon and we all went for supper to Cafe Cancun in Cleveland for a 
great Mexican dinner.  I fixed frozen biscuits for us for breakfast on 
Saturday.  We continued the tradition of meeting for lunch at Roosters 
and the four of us were joined by Bob K4VBM and Mike KC4RI.  Mike was 
working on his new lake house and did not come up for the contest, but 
did eat with us to carry on the tradition!!  Kim, Jerry, Bob and Rick 
left a various times Sunday evening.  Brian, Bill, and I finished up the 
contest to the end and they stayed over Sunday night.  We were pretty 
tired and shut stuff down quickly and I was in the sack by 11:27 on 
Sunday night.  They went home Monday morning after breakfast biscuits 
and coffee.  I got back to normal after a couple of days taking it 
easy.   We all ate too much as usual but Jerry's cooking and a contest 
weekend always seem to end up like that.

Here's hoping that things will continue to get back to more normal. Put 
the September contest on your calendars, 9/10-13.  We have our 
reservation for the campground in NC and right now it looks like we will 
have enough operators and trailer pullers but things can change as the 
summer goes on.  Let's hope we can make that happen.  It will have been 
two years between our visits there to operate.

73, Bob