Here’s a fine example of the fun and accomplishment harvested by one of our local VHF enthusiasts (KK4OSG, Ryan) when he again entered the ARRL June VHF contest running in just the “FM Only” class.

Ron

WW8RR

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From: sawneeradio@googlegroups.com [mailto:sawneeradio@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Kovacs
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 10:08 PM
To: Sawnee Amateur Radio Association
Subject: [Sawnee Radio] VHF FM contest results

Another June VHF contest came and went. I decided that this would be my last year doing it from Blood Mountain at 4460’ because it is too far to hike. I am looking to team up next year with some friends and find a more comfortable location we can drive to.

I had several goals to accomplish for this year: Make more contacts, especially on 6m; to spend the entire contest on the mountain; reduce my pack weight to less than 50Lbs from about 70Lbs last year; and get a better antenna for 6m.

I did all of these things except I ended up packing up right after lunch on Sunday due to the pop-up thunder storms. Something about being the highest thing in the area with a metal pole 25 feet in the air next to me didn’t make me feel all that comfortable.

The first 3 hours of the contest I kept pretty busy working people and switching between bands to work each contact on the 4 bands I could for FM (6m, 2m, 220Mhz, 440Mhz). After that it started to slow down a bit and I was able to take a break for dinner. Dinner was a pouch of soup warmed up on nearby rocks and rice. After dinner the QSO rate slowed down to about 10 per hour. Just before bed I made contact with the contest group of AA4ZZ in Boone, NC - EM96, a new grid for me on 2m so I was happy to get that extra multiplier before bed.

Last year when I woke up Sunday morning there was some great tropo ducting down to the South on 2m and I was able to work into Florida. This year I did not have anything when I checked the aprs maps. I did seem to have some enhancement but not anything stellar. Then Bryan, W3CP told me around 8am to look east. Slowly some enhancement started to show up. Before long I was working contacts much further east of me into the Myrtle Beach area. That ended up lasting about an hour or so then dissipated. About that time I was turning my beam by hand up toward the NE and heard someone announce a 5 call sign and said Boston on 6FM… I thought did I hear that right? KD5JR answered my call and confirmed he was NW of Boston just as clear as if I was talking to my friend across town. Wow.

We talked for a minute or two then I decided to see who else was out there. In the next 45 minutes I worked stations in FN42, FN33, FN31 and FN24. All about 900 mile contacts on 6 meter FM! This was also my first time I have talked that far on 6m FM so it was a real high note to end the morning on.

Overall I was very pleased with how long my batteries lasted, the performance of the antennas and the radios. I put a lot of planning into the trip and it was easier this time to make the hike up the mountain with less weight.

Here are my abbreviated results

 Total Contacts = 179

 Total Points = 7,326

Total Contacts by Band and Mode

 Band    CW   Phone  Dig   Total     %

 ----        --   -----     ---   -----     ---

    6         0      34       0      34      19

    2         0     102      0     102     57

 1.25       0       9       0       9         5

   70        0      34      0      34      19

               --   -----     ---   -----     ---

 Total      0     179       0     179     100

Total Contacts by Grid:

 Grid        Total     %

 ---------   -----   ---

 EM74           68    38

 EM84           49    27

 EM73           22    12

 EM75           11     6

 EM85            8     4

 EM83            6     3

 EM93            2     1

 FM04            2     1

 FN42            2     1

 EM65            1     1

 EM76            1     1

 EM82            1     1

 EM94            1     1

 EM95            1     1

 EM96            1     1

 FN24            1     1

 FN31            1     1

 FN33            1     1

 Total = 18

If you are interested in photos of this year, you can find them here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskBUvfFD

Ryan

KK4OSG

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