[VHFcontesting] Dabbling at the VHF Contest -- Results

[k3sk at buckwalter.co]

Let me preface this by saying that I can hardly get enthusiastic about VHF contesting while my VHF/UHF tower and antennas are still piled in the back yard.    I took everything down 5 years ago to move to my retirement location and still don't have the serious VHF/UHF stuff back up in the air.    Hopefully it will be up for be June contest.

But I do have the 50MHz 6 element yagi up as well as a dual-band 440/2m 5 element vertical for repeater work and a 222 omni 15 feet off the ground.  So, I "dabbled" with the contest off and on during the weekend operating SSB, CW and yes, FT8.  I spent most of my effort on 2 meters, where, even with my "wrong polarization" propagation seemed to be pretty good.   I managed 42 QSOs, mostly FT8 (2 SSB).   I worked 27 Grids in 9 states.   This even amazed me!.   On 6 meters I had 15 QSOs. Five (5) were SSB.   222MHz with 25 watts and my omni I made only 1 SSB QSO.   432MHz was a bust.  I had a partial CW contact.    I could hear the other station but he told me via 2 meters that he could only hear my signal every few dits and dahs.

Although this was not my type of contesting, I did have fun and it gave me a chance to exercise some of the equipment and discover new issues with my 30-year-old rigs (TS-790A & IC-375A) that need some attention.  It might even be time to think seriously about replacing the TS-790A with a shiny new Icom IC-9700.   However, I'll need to do some investigation on the IC-375A since there are no new 222 multi-mode options except transverters.   And, although at one time I used transverters on most bands and still have one on 903MHz, transverters are not favorite hardware solution. 

Look for me in June ....... maybe. 

de K3SK
FM07th