[Fourlanders] W4NH 2026 ARRL VHF Contest summary report complete now

[w4zst at windstream.net]

An incomplete version was accidentally sent earlier. This is the official one I meant to send. Bob 

Summary report for the Fourlanders W4NH contest operation in the January 2026 ARRL VHF Contest at the W4ZST station QTH in Dahlonega. 

We had 9 operators for this contest: Kim Hensley WG8S, Bill Pence KI4US, Ron Rogers WW8RR, Brad Bitzkkowski KM4QHI, Jim Worsham W4KXY, Brian McCarthy NX9O, Dennis 'Kos' Kosmetatos N4SDK, Jerry Long W5TDY and Bob Lear W4ZST. 

We had many visitors starting at our usual Lunch Bunch at Roosters before the contest start: Robert Sullivan KQ4CLM and Stephanie came from Murphy NC, Mike Stipick KC4RI, Duane Olson K4KAN, Kos, Kim, Bill, Brad, Brian and me. A good group there at Roosters and the food was excellent. Beside this group we also had Ed Woodrick WA4YIH visiting during the contest. Always happy to have visitors for our contests and hope they all had a good visit. 

Brian stayed 6 nights and had come on Tuesday to help with set up and to catch up and work on some of his EME rover projects. Bill stayed three nights and came on Friday to do all the computer updates, network checking as he usually does. Kim stayed 3 nights, Jim two nights, Kos and Ron one night. Robert and Stephanie stayed one night in their camper. Brad, Jerry and Ed commuted. 
Microwave activity: I got the two 10 GHz stations on for one Q, one 5GHz Q from my station with Ed and his 905 and one on 24 GHz although I had spent much time trying to get four 24 GHz stations working. The one I accidentally snatched off a 4' high table onto concrete in the driveway thankfully was one that still worked. Actually my very first QSO on 5 GHz even though I'd had the station for years. Not a lot of activity around on that band or the other microwave bands either. The moon was very far South declination and Sunday was new moon so there was likely very little EME activity and we did not try this time. 

Jerry W5TDY was again with us for this contest and made us an excellent dinner Saturday night. We had Bourbon Chicken with Rice, Red Beans and Rice, Cole Slaw and Texas Toast. Sunday morning breakfast with Cheese/Egg Omelets, Pancakes, Sausage Links and Bacon. Sunday lunch was fresh grilled Smash Burgers with Cheese and all the fixin's, two kinds of Potato Salad and Cole slaw. Those of us left Sunday evening had plenty of leftovers. We ate very well in the Fourlanders tradition. Thanks Robert and Stephanie for the veggie/dip tray and apple pie. The operators brought many snacks and cookies too. I have been on a diet and doing quite well. I sure thought that our usual Fourlanders amounts of food would make me backslide but on Monday I hadn't gained any weight or increased blood sugar so I was well behaved! Thanks again to Jerry for his great meals provided for the contest. We really do appreciate it. 


Here is the N1MM score summary. Our contest entry will be reviewed sent in to ARRL. This started out very slow on Saturday for us and I was thinking then that we might end up with a pretty low score. Ron stayed up early Sunday morning and got a good number of 6m Meteor Scatter contacts for some new distant grid multipliers. I really appreciate his willingness to do that. I know in earlier contests I've tried to stay up too but it's getting pretty hard on me. I did get enough good sleep this time so I didn't have to have a couple of days to recover! So things picked up nicely on Sunday with good activity in the morning mostly. Less in the afternoon and evening. We ended up with almost 300 Q's total and Six was dominant as usual. It turned out to be our third best January score for the 18 years we have been doing the January contest. I will also post our score on 3830 scores as usual. 




No major equipment problems during this contest other than having to reboot computers a time or two but the N1MM networking was rock solid and all the radios worked fine. The only real change in radios was using a Hermes Lite 2 SDR on the 432 station instead of the Flex 1500 and it worked fine the entire contest. 

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 with DEMI transverters and amps 50W on 902, 200W on 1296 and 15W on 2304. The 5, 10 and 24 GHz stations were assorted transverters and mostly FT-817's as IF rigs for them. 

We had our annual Fourlanders Club meeting Sunday afternoon and many paid their dues for 2026. There was discussion about the plans to go portable operating again for this June's VHF contest and going to MontEagle Mountain in TN for a limited multi-op operation. Keep that in mind if you are interested in going portable again. No camping or cooking involved. A motel and restaurants adjacent to the proposed operating site. Some of the guys went up last summer to check the spot out and operated in the CQ WW VHF digital contest. Band captains, stations, antennas, generator and trailer needs were discussed for the venture. 

Thanks to all our operators, visitors and stations we worked. Note the next contest is the June 13 -15 contest . Put that on your calendars. W4NH planning for the TN trip and I will be here at home with a limited number of ops using my call for the contest. 

73, Bob W4ZST 

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