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