[Fourlanders] W4NH June 2025 Contest Summary

[Bob Lear]

Summary report for the Fourlanders W4NH contest operation in June ARRL 
VHF Contest at the W4ZST station QTH.

We had eight operators for the contest: Kim WG8S, Bill KI4US, Ron WW8RR, 
Kos N4SDK, Brad KM4QHI, Jim W4KXY, Mike KC4RI,Bob W4ZST and Jerry W5TDY. 
    We got Mike on the air this time and he even got to make our lone 
432 EME contact.  We had three visitors: Ed WA4YIH and Amy KE4IKF 
Woodrick from Gainesville and David W4HER.    There were several others 
invited to operate and visit that ended up cancelling for various 
reasons.  We did meet at Roosters for lunch on Saturday as usual and we 
had a group of seven there carrying on the tradition.  The visitors were 
here for Saturday afternoon and dinner.

Bill stayed three nights and came on Friday to do all the computer 
updates, network checking and such that is much appreciated.  Kim stayed 
2 nights, Jim, Kos and Ron one night.  Mike, Jerry and Brad commuted. 
Thanks to Ed and Bill for working on and solving a problem of my own 
doing with the microwave station that I had trouble getting on the air.  
I had rebuilt the microwave station (again!), this time adding in my new 
relay switch box to replace the mechanical one I had used for years.  
Finally got it on and working hours after the contest started.  Again 
little activity here in the SE. Only a few local Q's but tried a few 
distant on 1296 but only one way and not completed.   Thanks to Ed and 
Amy and their Icom 905's.  Did not find an opportunity on 902 and never 
finished getting 2304 set up because of the delay and other problems.

Jerry W5TDY was back with us for this contest.  He tried something new 
on us the time and came up with some fine Grilled Bourbon Chicken for 
Saturday night with two kinds of slaw and also Red Beans and Rice.  
There was no leftover Bourbon Chicken.  He fixed us a nice Sunday 
morning breakfast of pancakes, cheese egg omelets, potato cakes, bacon 
and sausage.  Sunday lunch was grilled Hamburgers with all the fixins', 
chips and some of the leftovers.  His new Blackstone gas griddle did a 
fine job on all three meals.   The few of us left Sunday evening had 
enough leftovers to sustain us. Thanks again to Jerry for some great 
food in the Fourlanders tradition.

Here is the N1MM score summary.  Our contest entry will be reviewed sent 
in to ARRL.  This ended up being a mainly Six meter contest as the band 
was open like it is many times for June contests.  This was great for 
Six but the other bands suffered from much lower activity.  We did reach 
500 total Q's in the last couple of minutes of the contest.  We didn't 
quite make 400 Q's but the 200+ Grids on Six were enjoyed by all the Six 
meter ops, especially Kim who stayed longer than usual on Sunday to 
reach his goal of 200 grids!  The contest was almost all digital again 
but we did make a few contacts on phone with some of our North Georgia 
friends and neighbors Sunday afternoon and evening.  Ron tried MS 
overnight but there were very few meteors and he mostly just kept on 
FT8.  There was little EME activity because MR wasn't until midnight and 
the moon was very far South.  Very few folks on the chat pages.  Bill, 
Brad and I stayed till the end on Sunday night.  Not our highest June 
score but we will have to wait and see where we come out.  I will also 
post on 3830 as usual.



No major equipment problems this contest other than my self-caused 
problems with the microwave station.  We had to reboot computers a time 
or two but the N1MM networking was rock solid.

We ran the FT DX 3000 on 6m with the Beko and stacked 5 el beams. The 
usual 2m station: Flex 1500, DEMI  transverter, LL amp and 2 x 12 
stacked beams.  Same for 222 but 2 x 15 beams and 432 with 2 x 25 el 
beams.  902 had 2 x 33 el loop yagis and 1296 is 2x 45 el loopers and 
2304 is a 76 el blowtorch loop yagi.  Flex 1500 i.f. on 1296, 902 and 
2304.  45W on 902, 150W on 1296 and 18W on 2304.

Thanks to all our operators, visitors and stations we worked. Note the 
next contest is September 13-15. Put that on your calendars.  I'm also 
planning to do the EME contest weekends again this fall.

73, Bob W4ZST
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