[Fourlanders] W4NH June 2024 VHF Contest Summary

[Bob Lear]

Once again we have done the June VHF contest at the W4ZST station QTH.  
Operators for the contest were Kim WG8S, Bill KI4US, Jerry W5TDY, Ron 
WW8RR, Kos N4SDK, Sherman W4ATL, Robert KQ4CLM and Bob W4ZST.     Robert 
was a visitor until he wanted to get on the air with us.  Robert is from 
Sautee-Nacoochee.  We had visitors: Mike KC4RI from Brookhaven, Ashton 
KJ4AMA from Cleveland, Don KD4APP from Blairsville, Scott KQ4NBC from 
Chamblee, and Ryan W4RLW from Clarksville.  We did meet at Roosters for 
lunch on Saturday as usual and there were eight of us were there 
carrying on the tradition.  The visitors were here for Saturday 
afternoon and dinner.  Jim W4KXY and Brad KM4QHI had signed up to 
operate but didn't come because of illness.  We had enough operators.

Bill stayed 4 nights, Kim two, Kos and Ron one night.  Sherman brought 
his camper and set up at the end of the building and stayed 3 nights  
Jerry commuted. He even put up his G5RV antenna and operated HF early in 
the mornings.  Bill did software updates and computer work on Thursday 
and Friday and got all the stations on the air and tested and on the 
computer network.

Jerry's meals were great as usual.  Saturday night dinner was his 
excellent Brisket, Texas Beans, Cole Slaw and both Kielbasa and 
Andouille smoked sausage snacks.  He made us Eggs, Bacon, toast and 
Pancakes for Sunday morning.  Sunday lunch and dinner we had leftovers 
and Brisket Quesadillas.  There were even some leftovers to share to 
take home on Monday.  Thanks again as usual Jerry for feeding us so 
fine.  The brisket was fantastic.




The contest was very slow on Saturday.  We were worried that we would 
post a record low score.  Conditions and activity much better on Sunday 
and we made it to  430 Q's and 100k points.  Might keep us in top 5.  
BTW, we were 5th nationwide for the January contest as the scores just 
came out last week.

The moon was up during the daytime as it was only two days after new 
moon.  We probably should have tried some on Saturday when things were 
so slow but didn't.  Bill got 432 on the moon Sunday and 5 Q's for grid 
mults.  I didn't see much activity on 2m so didn't fire that station up 
for EME.

Other highlights were 6m Q's with Japan, England, Ecuador and Spain.  
Just short openings to those directions though.  Many Q's all around the 
country including to pacific NW states.  Sherman had a very nice CW run 
going on Sunday and worked about 54 Q's in an hour.  That sure helped 
the final score too. In the wee hours of Sunday morning Ron worked 35 MS 
contacts on 6m for some good multiplier numbers.  There were two MS 
contacts made on 2m.  Thanks to Bill and Ron for those.  I couldn't stay 
up for that this time.

I had finally gotten the 1296 station working again and made three 1296 
terrestrial Q's this time, with a best distance of 218 miles.  Tried 
with W4DEX on 903 and I could hear him but he didn't hear my 8 watts 
back.  Need to get an amp back on there for sure. Sherman has found one 
after the contest and will get it to me sometime.  Also interesting 
highlights were 444 miles on 2m, 460 miles on 222 to Iowa and 350 miles 
on 432.

Very few equipment problems this contest but we swapped out the FT DX 
3000 on 6m for an IC7300 and still noticed problems like we had 
experienced before.  We replaced the 6m power supply and that appeared 
to be the problem.  It was an old one and I shouldn't have trusted it!!  
My bad for sure.

Field Day is coming up and hope everyone participates somewhere and 
enjoys that.
We will be here for the September contest as usual, Sept 14 & 15.  Be 
sure to put that on your calendars.

73, Bob W4ZST


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/fourlanders/attachments/20240614/b57955a3/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: KH6l3c70Oa21aY4b.png
Type: image/png
Size: 91340 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/fourlanders/attachments/20240614/b57955a3/attachment-0001.png>