2004 ARRL June VHF Contest
07/10/2004 |
K2DRH
This year was a tough one to get ready for at K2DRH. Routine tower maintenance took a couple of weekends and many hours hanging from my safety belt. I added 2304 and this proved to be no trivial task either. Just scrounging up all the stuff I needed from the vendors, the ham community and the internet to put together a first class installation took more hours than the contest itself did. And it took twice that long to design and fabricate the tower brackets for the antennas, mount the pair of 76 el loopers in between all the other stuff, hang the 1-5/8 inch coax, install the 1/2 inch super flex rotor loop, roll my own mast mounted preamp box with surplus 28V relays, design and build a switching box/sequencer ... the task list seemed to go on and on.
But it finally all came together the week before the contest, only to blow up the transverter receiver during my test QSO with K3SIW. It was just amazing how fast Steve and Sandra at DEMI turned it around so I could have it in time for the contest, only for me to blow it up again! This time I was able to cobble in an external receiver bypass. It was good enough for a few QSOs, but was noticeably down on receive. Aside from K3SIW, who is really loud here, nobody else moved the S meter!
I started the contest with a 6 band sweep with K0PG/K9ILT rover. Tim and Pat provided me with 9 grids on 6 bands during the contest, quite a lot of QSO's! I was able to find and work W0AMT/R on 7 bands in a few grids on Saturday too, but never heard them at all on Sunday. 6M was spotty at best, alternating between Texas and Florida with very short openings. I was thrilled when I found ZF1DC on 50.125, and Ron W4WA told me it was him at the mic. I kept hoping for a good run like last year, but none ever materialized. 2M was in reasonable shape, and things seemed enhanced on 432 and above so I proceeded to work it more like a January contest. One QSO at a time.
WSJT was really good and I managed to work most of my skeds. I missed completing with W2FU on 2M when we ran over into the next time slot and K9NS started up a schedule on the exact same frequency we were already on. It's getting so popular there's QRM! Despite what I've said before, I tried FSK 441a again on 222 with W2SZ and never heard a ping. Low percentage 222 skeds are just not a good option for SOLP stations! W1TEO on 6M was in several times every sequence and we completed in less than 2 minutes on 6 using 15 second sequences, then again a few minutes later on 2M. Likewise W3CCX and K7BV/1 were a breeze with several good bursts every sequence. I worked W2SZ on 144.170 and unfortunately that was also K0PG/R & K9ILT/R's com frequency, but they were kind enough to QSY for a while. Need to schedule those WSJT QSOs lower in the band or I can't accept them anymore! I don't know how they survive in the crowded NE corridor.
6M was open even less on Sunday, and the openings were to pretty much the same places and were even shorter. I concentrated on 2M and moving everyone I could around the bands. Seemed like there was fairly weak, but really nice tropo enhancement 2M in the afternoon. I was really happy when K4XR in EM64 AL came back to my CW CQ. He was really light and I had ask for his call a few times to make sure it wasn't KY5R in EM64 whom I also worked! Of course Goose K1LH in EM76 TN was there on 2M , 6M and even on 432! Wish more of y'all had your antennas pointed up my way!
The last hours of the contest ended with the usual flurry of local stations on 144.200, many of whom I'd not yet worked. Yet calling CQ on 144.197 usually yielded only receiver noise in return! Only by getting right on the call could I get anyone's attention. I wish more stations would tune around a bit rather than just listening on the call. Repeated scans of 6M for a last minute Es burst were likewise disappointing but I did find a lot of local stations there too. In the end I worked a lot less QSOs than last year, especially on 6M, but was able to bring up the score with a good showing on the higher bands. It was more work than most June VHF contests, but I'm very happy with the final result.
73 de Bob K2DRH EN41vr Illinois -- K2DRH
But it finally all came together the week before the contest, only to blow up the transverter receiver during my test QSO with K3SIW. It was just amazing how fast Steve and Sandra at DEMI turned it around so I could have it in time for the contest, only for me to blow it up again! This time I was able to cobble in an external receiver bypass. It was good enough for a few QSOs, but was noticeably down on receive. Aside from K3SIW, who is really loud here, nobody else moved the S meter!
I started the contest with a 6 band sweep with K0PG/K9ILT rover. Tim and Pat provided me with 9 grids on 6 bands during the contest, quite a lot of QSO's! I was able to find and work W0AMT/R on 7 bands in a few grids on Saturday too, but never heard them at all on Sunday. 6M was spotty at best, alternating between Texas and Florida with very short openings. I was thrilled when I found ZF1DC on 50.125, and Ron W4WA told me it was him at the mic. I kept hoping for a good run like last year, but none ever materialized. 2M was in reasonable shape, and things seemed enhanced on 432 and above so I proceeded to work it more like a January contest. One QSO at a time.
WSJT was really good and I managed to work most of my skeds. I missed completing with W2FU on 2M when we ran over into the next time slot and K9NS started up a schedule on the exact same frequency we were already on. It's getting so popular there's QRM! Despite what I've said before, I tried FSK 441a again on 222 with W2SZ and never heard a ping. Low percentage 222 skeds are just not a good option for SOLP stations! W1TEO on 6M was in several times every sequence and we completed in less than 2 minutes on 6 using 15 second sequences, then again a few minutes later on 2M. Likewise W3CCX and K7BV/1 were a breeze with several good bursts every sequence. I worked W2SZ on 144.170 and unfortunately that was also K0PG/R & K9ILT/R's com frequency, but they were kind enough to QSY for a while. Need to schedule those WSJT QSOs lower in the band or I can't accept them anymore! I don't know how they survive in the crowded NE corridor.
6M was open even less on Sunday, and the openings were to pretty much the same places and were even shorter. I concentrated on 2M and moving everyone I could around the bands. Seemed like there was fairly weak, but really nice tropo enhancement 2M in the afternoon. I was really happy when K4XR in EM64 AL came back to my CW CQ. He was really light and I had ask for his call a few times to make sure it wasn't KY5R in EM64 whom I also worked! Of course Goose K1LH in EM76 TN was there on 2M , 6M and even on 432! Wish more of y'all had your antennas pointed up my way!
The last hours of the contest ended with the usual flurry of local stations on 144.200, many of whom I'd not yet worked. Yet calling CQ on 144.197 usually yielded only receiver noise in return! Only by getting right on the call could I get anyone's attention. I wish more stations would tune around a bit rather than just listening on the call. Repeated scans of 6M for a last minute Es burst were likewise disappointing but I did find a lot of local stations there too. In the end I worked a lot less QSOs than last year, especially on 6M, but was able to bring up the score with a good showing on the higher bands. It was more work than most June VHF contests, but I'm very happy with the final result.
73 de Bob K2DRH EN41vr Illinois -- K2DRH
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