[Fourlanders] W4ZST 2022EME Contest Summary

[Bob Lear]

Conditions were different on both nights of both weekends, at least it 
appeared to us.  These were 10/15-16 and 11/13-14.  All nights were 
all-nighters as earliest moonrise was 8 PM on Friday night 10/14.

Operators were Bob W4ZST, Brian NX9O, Ron WW8RR and Jerry W5TDY. Bob and 
Brian were joined by Bill KI4US for part of the second weekend.

Strange conditions seemed to start off.  It was three and four hours 
into the contest before we were able to make any Q's the first night.   
We did finally make 17 Q's on 2m, 4 on 222 and 7 on 432 the first 
night,  quitting about 8AM on Saturday to get some rest.  On Saturday 
afternoon, I was bringing all the antennas around and down for moonrise 
and the 2m antennas stayed stuck up at least 80 degrees.  No amount of 
fiddling with the rotator controller or trying to move them physically 
would do anything.  So we were off 2m for the Saturday night moon pass.  
Also that afternoon we worked to help Brian get his new 1296 folding 
portable dish set up to listen on 1296.  Didn't get it all done until 
well after dark.  He had just received the dish by UPS on Thursday and 
we kludged it up by C-clamping the mount to another trailer in front of 
the shack.  We connected it to my 1296 station for RX only and he was 
quite happy to have decoded around 30 stations in four hours on Saturday 
night. We only made two Q's on 432 and none on 144 or 222 on Saturday 
night so it was pretty boring and hard to stay awake then.  Ron and 
Jerry went on home Sunday morning.  We got some rest and then took down 
the 1296 dish Sunday afternoon.  We went out to eat for most meals and 
enjoyed those.

Four of the Fourlanders crew came up on Wednesday Nov 9 to help set up 
the scaffolding and replace the 2m elevation rotator.  Much thanks to 
Jerry W5TDY, Brian NX9O, Rick KK4LPP and Ashton KJ4AMA. Took about 3 
hours even with all this help and I surely couldn't have done it without 
them.  2m antennas back to normal (at least we thought).  Then that 
night I cranked the mast back up and promptly snatched the control cable 
out of the elevation rotor.  Thankfully it didn't damage the terminal 
board.  Brian helped me the next day and we repaired the cable and once 
again had Az and El working.

For the second contest weekend, Brian was planning to get his complete 
portable station on the air for a first test.  He came Wednesday to help 
with the 2m rotor and stayed till Sunday.  He set up the dish with the 
mount attached to his truck.  He did all the work himself as he wanted 
to make sure he was able to do it alone like he would be when portable.  
I offered encouragement and advice though.  He was also was finishing 
construction and testing on the 'PQL pallet amp Thursday afternoon.  Amp 
worked fine and 400W out on first testing Friday afternoon and evening 
but no joy on RX Friday night of the contest.  Kept changing feedlines 
and such to see what it was but no results.  Again conditions were 
strange.  No Q's on 144 or 222 despite many tries and some decodes on 
2m.  No one on to work on 222.  And only three Q's on 432 although many 
more were tried.  All-nighter again and we were very tired.  Bill was 
here for some of the time but he had pretty strong back pain and decided 
to go home in the wee hours.

Saturday night was somewhat better.  Still no Q's on 144 despite trying 
and no tries on 222.  Things were somewhat better on 432 and I made 
seven more Q's there.  Brian however finally found the right formula and 
made his first 19 Q's on 1296 until he accidentally pulled a coax 
connector out while rotating.  After that we gave up and got some rest.  
We were very tired by then anyway.  Brian did use his own NX9O callsign 
for the 1296 activity.   Hopefully I'll have my own dish up for 1296 
sometime soon.  He had all his own new station gear set up, a Flex 1500, 
new Q5 multi-band transverter, preamp and the 'PQL pallet amp feeding 
the W2HRO folding dish.  7/8 hardline on TX and 1/2 inch on RX.

Our totals for the contest multiop were 17 on 2m, 4 on 222 and 18 on 
432.  Certainly not our best showing over the years.

I suspect that the phasing lines for RX and TX are mixed up so that I 
was effectively on only one antenna on 144 for the second weekend.  
Going to check that out soon and hope the problem is as simple as that.  
Going to mark them better too!

Thanks to all the operators and the stations we made contacts with.

73, Bob W4ZST