[VHFcontesting] WSJT in June contest

[Joe Taylor]

Several people have asked me for some statistics on usage of WSJT
in the June VHF QSO Party.  I have collected no data on usage by
other stations, but I can report that W3CCX, the club station of
the Mt Airy VHF Radio Club ("The PackRats") used the FSK441 mode
for meteor scatter on 2 meters between 0100 to 0740 EDT and on
222 MHz from 0400 to 0700 EDT.

On 2 meters we had made 17 skeds, and we completed 12 QSOs for 11
new grid multiplers.  Four of the remaining stations had to
cancel for one reason or another, and one station was simply not
heard.  The 2-meter QSOs took from 2 to 25 minutes, with a median
duration of 13 minutes.  All but one of the stations worked were
at distances of 600 to 1200 miles.

On 222 Mhz we had 3 skeds and completed 1 QSO for one new
multiplier.  I don't yet know what caused the other two skeds to
fail.  Our one 222 MHz QSO was completed in an hour, over a 1000
mile path.  With better frequency calibration of the radios at
both ends, we could have completed the QSO in about half the
time.

As a rough estimate, the WSJT/FSK441 QSOs added about 36,000
points to the W3CCX total.

Although the JT44 mode in WSJT should also be very useful for VHF/
UHF contesting -- particularly over long troposcatter or EME
paths -- we did not use it at W3CCX in this event.

			-- 73, Joe, K1JT