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Junes 'test was the most fun and the most demanding of all of my roves. I was in Minnesota on Saturday and did not operate due to a wedding but left for home (WV) on Sunday morning around 10 am local. I started west of the twin cities and drove to Indy before I called it quits. Around 700 miles driving. My best score to date in any vhf contest. I met lots of rovers along the way and had some unbelievable qso's on 432. The flat terrain really helps.
WB2FKO/R in DM84 with the 2-meter beam pointed at Oklahoma. Where were you guys? |
Brrrrrrrr! Got snowed off the Butte early Sunday morning. High winds driving snow at 6000' in DN14, 6 meter propagation was non-existant!
OUR OPERATING LOCATION |
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73
Greg
I really do operate from a "Shack!" |
The Hudson Watershed VHF Society operated in the June 2002 VHF QSO Party as N3EMF in FM19 from WA1HHN’s new site on South Mountain near Shippensburg, PA.
This was a very exciting contest for us! The combination of an awesome site, an amazing antenna farm, state of the art equipment, and a great team of operators resulted in a score which was more than twice that of any in our group's ten year history.
Many thanks to Walt, WA1HHN, and to everyone who worked us and contributed to our success.
For more pictures of Walt’s site visit: http://www.geocities.com/southmountainproject
Walt, WA1HHN's, site |
The 49.5', nine element 6 Meter Beam and FM Vertical on their 80' tower |
The June Watershead Contest Team: Front Row, JP, W2XX, Bob-N2GDY, Frank-W2IX, Bob-N2DVQ, Russ-N3EMF Second row: Bob-WB2NVR, TOM-WB2NHC, Frank-WB2BTJ, Dwight-N2FMC, Joe-N2GCZ, Norm-N2GKM, Adam-N2DHH |
The Main Operating Room w/ 432, 2M and 222 Stations in action. |
Here is my rover setup ready to go on Saturday morning.
A few hours drive to the corner of EN47,46,37,36.
A telescoping mast has brought the setup time down to about 15 minutes,at each location.
The second picture is of the mast fully extended with antenna's
From the top down, 2m vertical, 1296 22 el. Yagi M2, 432 719B 24 el. Yagi Cushcraft, 2m 13B2 13el. Yagi Cushcraft, 222 Yagi Cushcraft, 6m 3el. Yagi Cushcraft.
Enjoyed the contest.
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N9RLA/R After Action Report 2002 ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Well I finally got the log finished up and ready to submit. I log all of my FM QSO's while in motion on a tape recorder. This works well, but is a real pain after the contest. This time out I made a couple of dozen FM QSO's, which really made a significant difference to my score:-)
In the 2001 June contest I had my best score ever, so my goal for this years contest was to top that score. To help achieve that goal I added an extra band [432] and planned to activate two more grids [10 in all].
I started out Saturday deep in the heart of Kentucky in EM88cd. Thanks to Bob Burns, K4RXR, for locating a very good site at the Bath County High School parking lot. Running behind as usual, we managed to get on the air just in time for my 1830z sked. Unfortunately, band conditions were pretty flat, and we didn't make near as many contacts as I had hoped. All the equipment seemed to be working well, except for my 2 meter yagi which mysteriously developed an SWR of about 2.5:1. One pleasant surprise was my "new" DEM 432 transverter which, even with low power, netted me a bunch of QSO's. One mistake that I have a habit of making is staying in a grid too long, and I did it again here. This was a very good site, but the QSO's were coming really slow. But I stayed for a few hours hoping for better conditions that just didn't happen.
When we finally gave up on EM88, Bob and I made a quick trip over to another good site he had found in EM87ew, a hilltop cemetery just outside of Frenchburg, KY. This was a very peaceful site, and none of the tenants complained, so we stayed here for a few hours as well:-) I still had trouble with the 2 meter yagi, so I had to run with reduced power. As in EM88, QSO's were hard to come by. What happened to all of the folks that were supposed to be on down in Tennessee? After spending too much time in this grid as well, we picked up and headed for EM77.
After a quick trip that crossed back through the corners of EM88 and EM78, we stopped in EM77vx in Winchester, KY. It was getting pretty late in the evening by this time, so we were going to have to make this a quick grid. Instead of finding a better site, we chose to setup in the parking lot of a nearly empty shopping center. This turned out to be a pretty poor site mainly due to a tremendous noise level on 2 meters, but we did manage to pick up a few QSO's. Just at the edge of dark we started getting a little 6 meter eskip. It was pretty weak, and several stations were in just long enough for me to get "The rover station, again ple......ssssss", but I did manage to snag a few good mults. After all of this the eskip was gone, it was well after dark, I was about 3 hours away from home, and I was more than ready to call it a day. So due to time restraints, I skipped EM67 all together and headed home. By my original schedule, I planned to operate in EM78 for a few hours but as it was nearly midnight I decided to go to bed and pick up EM78 at the end of the contest.
After a little more sleep than I had intended, I was getting a late start again. Before leaving Sunday morning I decided that I needed to switch to the backup 2 meter antenna. My little 4 element CushCraft yagi isn't great as far as gain goes, but it is a veteran of many Rover trips and always works well. While changing out the 2 meter antenna I discovered my 6 meter Moxon rectangle had sustained quite a bit of damage so I decided to go to the backup antenna on 6 as well, my little square loop ala K0FF, another Rover veteran antenna. With antenna problems solved, I get started Sunday morning several hours behind from my original plan. So instead of heading straight up to EM69, I decided to hit the closer grid of EM68 for a few hours first.
EM68 went rather well. Band conditions were still nothing to brag about, but activity seemed to have increased and I made quite a few QSO's from my spot near Salem IN. Kicking myself now for staying so long in the first couple of grids, I didn't stay very long here and soon headed up to one of my favorite spots in EM69.
By the time I reached EM69 in Brown County State Park near Nashville, IN, band conditions were getting pretty bad. I had a rough time working even the big guns like K8GP, KG4BMH, or AA4ZZ. And many of the small stations had either given up, or I just couldn't hear them at all. With band conditions as poor as they were, I didn't stay long in EM69 and headed for EN70.
In EN70 I setup in the parking lot of a shopping center on the east side of Noblesville, IN. This is an OK spot, as the land in this area is pretty darn flat, so have decent range from here. I stopped long enough to work several of the big guns. It's getting pretty late in the afternoon by this time and activity is really dropping so I pick up soon and head for EN60.
Just accross the grid border in EN60 I found another shopping center parking lot. Again I work most of the big stations, but I had a HUGE noise level on 6, so that cost me several QSO's. One highlight from EN60 was finding K4TO down in EM77 and working him on 2 and 432! Not bad for 11 elements at 30' with 10 watts out:-) K4TO has a huge signal. I had to work him with the attenuators on while I was down in KY. After a little while in EN60 it was starting to get dark, and I was nearly exhausted, so I took everything down and pointed the Rover Ranger back to the south.
I had intended to make a couple more quick stops while passing through EM79 and EM78, but by the time I reached the EM79 area, I was so tired that I stopped just long enough to work some of the locals on 6 and 2 FM. And did the same when I passed into EM78. I appologize if anyone was looking for me in those grids, but I was just too tired to raise the antennas:-)
So that's it. I just finished putting all of the FM QSO's in the log. I also discovered I had forgotten to set the date and time on the laptop, so I had to correct that as well, yuch... So here is the bottom line:
³ 50 MHz ³ 58 ³ 1 ³ 58 ³ 17 ³ 986 ³ ³ 144 MHz ³ 68 ³ 1 ³ 68 ³ 15 ³ 1020 ³ ³ 222 MHz ³ 0 ³ 2 ³ 0 ³ 0 ³ 0 ³ 432MHz 25 ³ 2 ³ 50 ³ 9 ³ 450 ³Grids Activated--Rovers Only ³ 9 ³ ³ ³ TOTAL ³ 151 ³°°°°°°³ 176 ³ 50 ³ 8800 ³Claimed score
In 700 miles, that is about 12.57 pts/mile. Anyone care for a pts/mile competition??:-)
Not great, but not bad. Considering small antennas, low power on 432, and not much in the way of propagation. Plus, I beat my former personal best score by about 1000 points, so I made my goal. Next time, 5 digits:-)
I have a whole list of station improvements that need made. The biggest of which is better antennas. I've got some ideas for 6, but instead of homebrew for 2 I think I will likely try to find something like a 2m9ssb.
I also want to look into finding some better operating spots in EM77, EM67, EN60, and may look into heading on up to EN61 and EN71....
And next time, I will stick to my schedule. I will stick to my schedule. I will stick to my schedule. I will stick to my schedule. I will stick to my schedule.
73 all, and I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Dan
This ARRL VHF contest was something like my 83rd consecutive. June contests always offer a hope for E skip which can be a contest neutralizer to all the population other parts of the country have. Not much Es this year however. This years June contest was about one week or more to early for best conditions. The weekend this year was a windy and dry one so the noise level was a challange. Thanks to N0DQS/R and KB0QGT/R and others for their extra efforts.
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