[Fourlanders] W4NH January VHF Contest Summary

[Bob Lear]

Even with the snowstorm and ice here we ended up with a pretty good 
contest.  We were never off the air except when we slept some Sunday 
morning.  The highest score yet for us in January in the 14 years we've 
done it here at my shack.   I would say we had nearly 4" of snow and 
fortunately only a little sleet.  I know some places got more sleet and 
had more problems.  Bill and I saw a couple of power glitches around 6AM 
on Sunday morning and I had to reset some clocks and such but that was 
the only disruption and after we got the computers restarted, even 
though they were all on UPS's, we had no further problems.  As cold as 
it was, we did have to turn the AC on in the shack a time or two to 
counter the amplifiers heating us up and we were quite comfortable for 
the entire contest.

Bill KI3US and Kim WG8S came up on Friday afternoon and didn't leave 
until 11 AM on Monday and both got home OK seeing some ice and snow on 
the roads.  It did take us a little while to get the ice off their car 
windows on Monday morning!  We went to dinner Friday night and kept up 
the Rooster's tradition for lunch on Saturday before the contest.  Jerry 
W5TDY came up Saturday afternoon with enough food for a crew of 10 for 
sure.  He operated and fixed supper and then went home late Saturday 
night and didn't come back Sunday on account of the weather.  It started 
snowing here at 1AM on Sunday and kept up until about dark.  Here is 
Jerry's menu for the weekend and we had plenty.

Dinner Saturday:  Beef/Vegetable Stew in a Crockpot  - Cubed beef, 
potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn, green beans - Salad - 
Crackers
Breakfast Sunday:  Casserole  - Eggs, sausage, mushrooms, onions, and 
cheese on a crescent roll crust  - Toast (butter & jelly)
Lunch Sunday:  Sandwiches & Chips  - Turkey  - Ham  - Cheese
Dinner Sunday:  Wing it depending on who's left - May have Beef Stew 
leftovers
And we did have leftovers.  Bill took some home and Judy and I have had 
a couple of extra meals of the breakfast casserole and beef stew.
Thanks so much Jerry for taking good care of us.  You guys who didn't 
come have missed another good one!

So with the 4 of us operating on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, here are the 
results:



In 2012 we had 54k and 2021 50k so this is our new record.  The JT65 and 
Q65 Q's on 432 were EME Q's and all new grids.  They bumped the score up 
about 800 point each time.  I didn't see anyone to work on 222 EME 
although I surely would have done it but didn't want to get on 2m EME as 
conditions there kept us busy enough.  65 Q's and 29 grids on 2 were 
pretty good.  We had almost as many total Q's last year but many more 
grids this year that bumped up the total points.  It was all digital as 
you can see we only made 4 voice Q's.  I'm sure missing not being able 
to chat with old friends and run the bands.  We worked them digital but 
it's just not the same to me.  Bill and I came out around 6 AM on Sunday 
morning and made some good Meteor scatter Q's on 6 and 2.

Kim had brought his 3456 gear and we worked on that on Friday afternoon 
and evening using my 3456 station for testing. Finally got his figured 
out and running.  He has a friend in Huntsville who want to try 3456 Q's 
with him.  I also spent some time and put together a temporary 1296 
station as a couple of folks mentioned that they might be on.  Turns out 
the weather kept some off and I didn't make a Q there.  I did solicit on 
the 4L slack page but no takers.  Bill, Kim and I put up a small 1296 
looper in some pretty cold wind.  And we did have plenty of strong winds 
up here all weekend.  But no damage and we were never off the air.  The 
lower 6m antenna ended up pointing slightly down but it didn't seem to 
affect our QSO's there.  We have the Bip/Bop Box now instead of the 
Upper/Lower/Both so I couldn't just switch to upper alone anymore.  I 
could have done that by swapping some very cold coax connectors outside 
but didn't.  Turns out, the hanging feedlines got caught on something on 
the trailer deck ( or maybe was frozen to the trailer deck) and that's 
what caused the pointing down.  I had already planned to bring the 6m 
antennas down soon for maintenance as we've been using that coax for a 
lot of years now and I want to test if and replace it if needed.

Enough for this contest.  Thanks to all the friends who worked us during 
the contest and to Bill, Kim and Jerry coming up to operate.  We did 
have a good time.

73, Bob W4ZST       Don't forget to put the June contest on your 
calendars.  It will most likely be here as we couldn't get reservations 
in NC for June this year.
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