[VHFcontesting] FW: ARRL Jan VHF N8RA Single Op-All Modes LP

[chetsubaccount at snet.net]

-----Original Message-----
From: webform at b4h.net <webform at b4h.net> 
           ARRL January VHF Contest - 2023

Operator(s): N8RA
Station: N8RA

Class: Single Op-All Modes LP
QTH: FN31 in CT
Operating Time (hrs): 12?
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  129    20
    2:   99    22
  222:   17    10
  432:   37    13
  -------------------
Total:  282    65  Total Score = 21,645

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Again, a fun contest for me. I operated the first two hours on SSB with dueling CQing and when that slowed down, I moved to FT-8 for the rest of Saturday. On Sunday I took a few hours off late morning for a shower, church service, and lunch. Was there a big 6M opening while I was off? Then on and off FT-8 and SSB the rest of the day until I tired out in the evening and pulled the plug early.

There continues to be a lot of activity and new stations on FT-8, and their skill in handling this mode seemed very good. But here, Mr. Dodo Op started on 2M with its line-out audio coming from the wrong radio so I may have clobbered someone when I started up on 2M. Arghh! My sincere apologies if I did that to you. Also had some strange computer and software puzzles, but nothing too serious. 

The ARRL VHF contests are unusual in allowing a single op to transmit more than one signal at a time if they are on different bands. When FT-8 came along as a popular and productive mode on VHF, I rewired the shack to make the “money” bands (6M and 2M) equipment independent, and it is fun having them both running FT-8 without concern of keeping them on separate sequences. A complication for me is that some bands have more than one antenna, and some share a rotor, so choosing which one is better for which QSO requires watching closely every 15 seconds choosing antennas as needed, switching them when I am not transmitting, monitoring the QSO and other decode progress, and then resetting antennas again for CQing or S&Ping next. Running FT-8 here is not a walk in the park as some think.

Contesting for me is always more fun when there is something new to try out. So, this year I thought about doing SO3R. Why not? Contacts are worth more on the higher V/UHF bands, but it is cumbersome to pause running and move there with another station, so my Q’s and mults on those bands have suffered in the past. Could I get an independent setup going on 432 this year? I do have a seldom used 20-year-old Yaesu FT-897 and an old laptop… hmmm…  A test of its frequency stability on 432 showed it to be quite good after a 20-minute warmup, so I got it wired and gave it a try. Sometimes I had 3 QSOs of FT-8 going, making for even more 15 second head spinning. A boy and his toys turned out to be a lot of fun. And, when not CQing on the 3rd radio it served to monitor activity there. (I do not use chat rooms or cellphones here for arranging QSO marriages.)This year my 432 Q’s and mults were higher than ever. 

Thanks for the Q’s and to the N1MM+ and WSJT-X teams.

73,
Chet, N8RA


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