[VHFcontesting] Setting up new station

Sun Nov 13 16:04:37 EST 2016

John,
That's a pretty good idea. I was trying to think what I would tell a new
contester with only FM gear. As a primarily sideband station we run all
h-pol, and it doesn't make sense to change that on our end. Running your FM
beams at 45 degrees if that's all you got, if possible, is likely the best
of both worlds. Canting a vertical might work if they are broadside to the
cant as well, though you're likely to add too many other variables in that.

I thought I sent this email forever ago, and apparently it was just sitting
in my drafts. Oops.

Sean WA1TE

On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 5:00 PM John Young via VHFcontesting <
vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:

Sean & Zack,

For September I was at 4400 ft ASL.  I ran VV on Saturday and then set the
beams at 45 degrees for Sunday.  At 45 degrees you lose 3dB against a VV
and HH station.  The idea was that an SSB HH station (stacked beams and
amps) might just see me on the band scope and flip to FM (seeing my freq
was 146.520) and try for a QSO.  Multipliers are hard to come by on FM.  I
didnt get any "big stations" running HH.  K8GP/R was my only "high end"
station and they did run VV for FM.  Honestly I did not notice the 3dB loss
and set at 45 degrees I got my longest range FM QSO at 187 miles, clear as
a bell and I was working the side of his beam.

73
John
KM4KMU

-----Original Message-----
From: Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com>
To: VHF Contesting Reflector <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2016 9:42 pm
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Setting up new station

There is about a 20 dB difference between horizontal and vertical
polarizations with one station using the opposite of the other. I generally
don't run FM in the VHF contests because I usually operate from hills that
are far away from populated areas, and I usually enter QRP. CW and SSB get
a lot farther on 10 watts or less. I use horizontally polarized antennas on
all bands.

I can typically work 200-250 miles with 10 watts under average conditions
on 144 MHz and up, but I do have the height advantage of the hill.

I might take along a beam to use with vertical polarization some time to
see who I can work on FM.

73, Zack W9SZ

On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 8:05 PM, Sean Waite <waisean at gmail.com> wrote:

> Are you guys running your beams horizontal or vertical for FM only? The
> penalty for cross polarization is pretty nasty, but I guess most of the
> sideband stations are running higher power and big enough beams to make up
> for that. Just curious, we don't have dedicated FM antennas at the moment
> but occasionally flip over to see who is out there.
>
> Sean WA1TE
>
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2016, 20:50 John Young via VHFcontesting <
> vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:
>
> > Micheal,
> >
> >
> > I do FM Only.  The folks on the contesting reflector are super helpful.
> > Do a search on the reflector under "VHF contesting KM4KMU" on google or
> > using the reflector search tool under my call KM4KMU.  Lots of great
> > information from the contesters here.
> >
> >
> > My QRZ page may be of some help too.  Last night I gave a 45 slide one
> > hour presentation on my FM station build and contesting experience,
good,
> > bad, lessons learned from last January and this past September.  If you
> > send me your email address (send to nosigma at aol.com) I will post the
> > presentation to Drop Box and pass a link for you to down load the
> > presentation if your interested.
> >
> >
> > I am adding 6m FM to my station for January.  I have been torn between
> > building a custom beam (mountain top mobile via Jeep) or getting the
> > Dominator omni and setting up a second mast. I am probably going to go
> with
> > the beam since the 6M rig is all about the multipliers.
> >
> >
> > I love my M2 220-10 EZ and 440-18 beams.  The 220 antenna was perfect at
> > factory settings out of the box. the 440 was a bit more challenging to
> get
> > dialed in perfectly, it took a couple hours with network analyzer to get
> it
> > spot on perfect, but I tend to be a little uncompromising.
> >
> >
> > I run the CX-333.  Its a great antenna.  I use it for close in work,
> under
> > 60 miles and the beams for reaching out and grabbing
> grids/multipliers,187
> > miles is the best so far.   Beyond that one condition I find that the
> omni
> > is pretty worthless. I exhaust the close in contacts after about 10
> minutes
> > at the top of each hour and after that its all about the beams.  My
> > location is unique, your results may vary. FM can be a bit of a desert
so
> > BIC is key.
> >
> >
> > 73
> > John Young
> > KM4KMU
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Murphy <michael at k5mbm.com>
> > To: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
> > Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2016 1:01 pm
> > Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Setting up new station
> >
> > Thank you all who responded.  You've all given me something to think
> about.
> >
> > Following on some of the advice given, I am going to shoot for FM only
> > in the January contest.  I will not have moved to the new location yet
> > so it won't be optimum, but it will be a start.  All I really need to do
> > is get a 6 meter FM antenna up.  I already have a Comet CX-333 for 2,
> > 1.25 and 70cm.  I am thinking of getting a Dominator 6M antenna from
> > Norwalk Electronics.  It will handle 1500 watts and is highly rated.
> >
> > Right now my antennas are mounted on 20' poles attached to the eave of
> > the house.  I have 10 segments of Rohn 25g to put up at the new
> > location, but I am thinking of a temporary 30' setup with the 6M antenna
> > attached to the top.  Along with setting up the logging software, I
> > should be able to get it all done by the January contest.
> >
> > As somebody said, this will give me experience in the process from
> > beginning to end and afterwards I can evaluate what needs to be
improved.
> >
> > Again Thanks,
> >
> > Michael Murphy
> > K5MBM
> > EM20
> >
> > On 10/29/2016 11:13 PM, Michael Murphy wrote:
> > > This is an opinion question, so tell me your opinion and why you feel
> > the way you do.  I have been wanting to get into vhf contests, but
> haven't
> > got it all together yet.  I currently have a Yaesu 450D and 100D.  Also
> > have 3 Tyt 9000 (2m, 1.25m and 70cm FM).  I will be moving in a few
> months
> > and have been thinking about the new shack and thinking of upgrading the
> > equipment.  So if you were to start from scratch to build a decent
single
> > operator station primarily for Vhf contest (I've be doing HF just fine
> with
> > what I've got now), what equipment would you use?  I like that the
> Elecraft
> > K3 has support for multiple transverters.  I also like the Icom IC-9100
> for
> > its 2m and 70cm capability, but no transverter support.  When it comes
to
> > tranverters, I like the way the Elecraft transverters work with the K3,
> but
> > Demi has more band choices.  As far as antennas go, I've only got a
> triband
> > vertical for the FMs.  So any thoughts and comments are welcome.
> > >
> > >
> > > Sent from my iPad
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