[VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] WZ1V ARRL January VHF SS

[David Olean]

Hi GB Ron

I did not have much time to spend on the contest. By not having a major 
radio effort, and people showing up,  my social director scheduled a few 
events over the January weekend, so Saturday was taken up with 
grandkids. Sunday evening was dinner out and bluegrass music at a golf 
club nearby. The band was "Chicken Shack" see:

https://www.facebook.com/ChickenshackBluegrass/

I always get a seat up front so I don't have to overly strain my arm 
while throwing past sell date vegetables toward the stage. Actually, the 
band is quite good, with several instrument virtuosos in the line up.  
anyway, after the grandkids left on Saturday, I spent a much time 
napping, and then looking for KA6U and his 222 MHz EME DXpedition in the 
middle of the night. That did not turn out well as he was kicked off the 
first location by local gendarmes, and then developed a cold and had to 
QRT at stops 2 and 3.  I did get an hour in on 1296 EME Saturday night, 
and then a few hours starting at noon on Sunday only on 222 MHz. That 
time was rather frustrating as I had no 144 stuff so I could make 
contacts and run the bands. On 222 MHz, I was greeted by fleeting voices 
on 222.100 or 222.105. Someone would show up, then send a grid and then 
say which band was next!! Unless they were very close by, I could not 
attract their attention. I resorted to camping out on a chat page, while 
calling CQ on 222.110. Neither methods were very productive.  It was 
actually quite boring.

I had hoped to have a 144 system running for January, but the second and 
brand new Rohn 45 tower that just went up in late summer, is now also 
laying horizontal in the trees as the rock anchor failed and pulled out 
of the bedrock hole that I had drilled. After a few hours of very few 
contacts on 222, I had enough and went home for some lunch. At 3PM I got 
a phone call from Jeff W2FU. I was repairing the storm door on the house 
at the time, but quickly dropped that plan and went back up the hill and 
worked Jeff plus a few others on 222.  By then it was 4 PM and I had to 
get ready for the Chicken Shack Bluegrass band!! I am not sure of my 
score, as I left the logfile up there, and now we have a bunch of snow 
and high winds, which makes getting the log somewhat difficult.  I did 
make seven contacts on 1296 in one hour. One of those contacts was W1FKF 
in FN43, so I worked my own grid!!   On 222 MHz I worked very few but 
nabbed almost everyone I tried with except N8LRG. The rig was working 
well. VE3ZV in EN92 was great copy at S6 or S7 on SSB! I probably worked 
20 stations at most. Very disappointing.

One of these days I will get my stuff in order.

73

Dave K1WHS

On 1/20/2025 2:42 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
> ARRL January VHF Contest 2025
>
> Call: WZ1V
> Operator(s): WZ1V
> Station: WZ1V
> Class: Single Op-Analog HP
> QTH: CT
> Operating Time (hrs): 18
> Summary:   Compare Scores
> Band	QSOs	Mults
> 6:	102	26
> 2:	95	25
> 222:	54	18
> 432:	58	18
> 902:		
> 1.2:	23	11
> 2.3:		
> 3.4:		
> 5.7:		
> 10G:		
> 24G:		
> Total:	332	98	Total Score	50,274
>
> Club: North East Weak Signal Group
>
> Comments:
> Weather dampened activity and depressed conditions.
> Sunday night especially poor with snow and some ice.
> No Es observed on SSB-CW the entire weekend.
> Did not see any increased activity 2 - 5 on Sunday,
> the new "activity hours" were activity-less up here.
> Surprisingly, score was down only 5 percent from last year.
> Nice to work out to FN12 and up to FN34 on 1296.
> Out of my total Q's, 87 percent SSB, the rest CW, and 2 FM.
>
> Congrats to Jeff W2FU making all those microwave band QSO's,
> without FT8 and operating remote nonetheless.
>
> I only have one microwave band, 1296, to compare but looked back
> over the past few years and see no noticeable decrease in activity.
> If anything, activity is up a bit on 432, especially on 222.
> So much for all the email static claiming FT8 and ARRL rules
> have killed analog and upper band activity. At least not around here.
> If half the people complaining there's no activity because
> they give up after a few hours would spend more time on the air
> putting in an earnest effort, we'd all be ahead of the game.
> If we're to move forward, we can't dwell on the past - it's gone.
>
> Also just because I enjoy operating mostly SSB and CW
> doesn't imply I think less of those who prefer FT8 and MSK.
> Everyone should be able to enjoy what they like to do
> without being chastised by people who don't even try.
> Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
>
> 73 Ron WZ1V
>
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