[VHFcontesting] Working K5QE in the CQ WW VHF contest.....

[Marshall Williams]

Hello to all our friends in the VHF Contesting world from the K5QE 
contest team....

K5QE will be operating in the CQ WW VHF Contest and would really 
appreciate any contacts that we can make via FSK441 or EME for that 
"rare" grid.  If you are close to us, a tropo contact is FB as well.  
The contest  begins 1800 UTC Saturday and ends 2100 UTC Sunday (July 17- 
18, 2010).  For those of us still on local time, that is 1PM CDST on 
Saturday to 4PM CDST Sunday afternoon.  

For those stations that are outside our normal range, I invite you to 
try to work us on 6M and / or 2M using digital meteor scatter or 2M EME. 
We will be operating FSK441 on 6M beginning at 0200Z Sunday  
morning(=9PM CDST Saturday night) on a frequency of 50.265MHz and we 
will take First sequence whenever we are pointed East or North. We will 
call CQ on 50.260 UP5--but we intend to work stations on 50.265MHz.  If 
we happen to find a station calling CQ, we will answer them on their 
given frequency, but most of the time we will be on 50.265.  This is a 
good opportunity for smaller stations to get a DX contact on 6M, because 
the chances of an Es opening late at night are not very good.  Please 
give us a try on 6M meteor scatter.  We run 1KW output on 6M meteor 
scatter with fairly large antennas.  Please remember that the contest 
requires the exchange of grids, not 26 or 27.  

On 2M, we will start at 0200Z Sunday  morning(=9PM CDST Saturday night) 
with FSK441 meteor scatter on a frequency of 144.142MHz and we will take 
First sequence.  Again, if we find someone calling CQ elsewhere, we will 
work that station on their frequency.  We will call CQ UP2 on 
144.140MHz, but we will be working stations on 144.142MHz.  Again, this 
is a good chance for smaller stations to get some good 2M DX and a 
"rare" grid during the contest.  We get one too...a WIN-WIN situation!!  
We run a stacked pair of 17el M2's at 160ft and 1KW output on 2M FSK.  
Again, be sure to send your grid, not 26 or 27.

The moon rises here at 1800Z on Saturday(=1PM CDST), the same time as 
the contest begins.  This means that we will have to operate 2M EME and 
tropo at the same time.  Please be understanding of this problem.  At 
that time, we will start EME operations using JT65b on a frequency of 
144.142MHz and we will take SECOND sequence.  If we hear a CW caller, we 
will immediately switch to CW.  

If you are EME capable, please try to work us off the moon.  Remember 
that stations with a single long yagi and QRO may be able to work us on 
their rising moon. For stations way East of us, this may not work as the 
moon may be too high before it rises here.  However, for everyone else, 
there is a good chance that we can work.  Stations in the Central US and 
out West get the increased gain from their rising moon, so give us a 
try.  In Jan, we easily worked two stations in CN87 that just had a 
single yagi pointed at the horizon, so it can be done.  We run 8 x 
2M18XXX with the custom EME elements and 1250W output(1500W output if it 
is a rare one.....HI). Pictures of the EME antenna are on my web site.  
It is a really FB antenna and we would love to work you in the 
contest.......all new multipliers gratefully apprecitated.

This year, we have a second moon rise at 1900Z(=2PM) on Sunday.  We will 
be especially looking for 2M EME contacts from 1900Z to 2100Z, the end 
of the contest.  

If / when we work all the EME stations that we can find, we will return 
to 2M FSK441 operation, until 7AM Central(1200Z) on Sunday morning. 
Those times should be good for meteor scatter as meteor scatter is 
usually best in the early morning hours.

We will cease WSJT operations at 7AM CDST(=1200Z) on Sunday morning and 
revert to normal tropo type operations.  If 6M is dead, we will fire up 
on FSK441 in the afternoon.  

Since we are a Multi-Multi station, we will watch Ping-Jockey and the 
N0UK EME-1 reflectors whenever we are operating meteor scatter or EME.  
Please feel free to spot us *AND* our frequency on the appropriate 
logger if you see us--that way, others can find us.  If you are not in 
the CQ contest, you can post to the loggers freely.  So, you can talk to 
us, we just will not talk back. 

Thank you in advance for spending some time to work us in the contest.  

73 Marshall K5QE, EM31cj
www.k5qe.com

East Texas