01/25/2008 | KI4SNY The Fancy Gap Contest Club, KI4SNY, operated from the Blue Ridge Parkway at an elevation of apprx. 3015' in grid square EM96. The site is located in Carroll County, Virginia, near Fancy Gap. We operated on four bands; 50, 144, 220, and 432 mhz.

I want to thank all who made this year a big success. Tony KI4PKW, Bill KF4PCT and girlfriend Melissa (who was a big help and provided a pinto bean and cornbread meal Sat. night), and myself John KU4JZ accomplished setup Friday and carried out operation thru the contest period. (Melissa did not operate) Equipment was provided by Tony (couldn't do it without him), Bill, James KG4YVA, Bob KG4YOU, and myself. James was not able to attend, but he gave us points by working the junction of the "4 corners" near High Point, NC. Bob and Dana KI4FKI attempted to make it to the site Saturday, but road conditions prevented that, so later on, each roved and gave us points from the 4 corners too. Peyton KE4VCS assisted by conducting some pre-contest computer checks on Bill's computer which sadly has failed. Thanks also to Lee KD4GCF who made a valiant effort to find us some additional laptops, which also proved fruitless.

Weather recap: Friday; blue skies, roads fine, setup accomplished in shirt sleeves til dark. Friday night: very windy, overcast, 8 degrees. Saturday: overcast, cold, not as windy, never got above freezing, dusting of snow early pm. Saturday night: overcast with clearing skies later, 6 degrees. Sunday: bright blue skies, cold, never above freezing. Monday: about the same as Sunday, 23 degrees when break down completed. Note: Blue Ridge Parkway closed the entire time, but access was accomplished via State Raod 608 (totally clear upon leaving Monday early pm)

Ran Limited Multi-Op, 4 bands:
2m: FM; Icom IC-V8000, 10 element yagi, mast.
SSB: Icom IC-746PRO, 9 element yagi, mast.
6m: Yaesu FT-920, FT-897, 5 element yagi on tower,
stacked KB6KQ loops on mast.
220: Yaesu FT-736R, 7 wavelength boomer yagi on tower.
432: Kenwood TS-2000, 9 wavelength boomer yagi on mast.
HF: 5 band fan dipole (not counted,just to play around with)

Unfortunately band conditions and participation was way down, probably due to weather and football games. Fortunately our score was UP over last January. Preliminary contest results indicate a total score of 13,209 points...not too shabby. Breakdown by bands: 2m; 65 QSO's - 15 Grids; 6m, 88 QSO's - 22 Grids; 220, 15 QSO's - 6 Grids; 432, 38 QSO's - 8 Grids. QSO's on 2m and 6m were down from last year, but Q's on 220 and 432 were up, probably due to improved equipment.

Challenges met and overcome: We did not experience any equipment glitches this year; however, lack of operators and only having two laptops were chalenges met and dealt with. We discovered that having one op at the 2m/432 table, and a second op at the 6m/220 table, each logging by manually switching back and forth between bands to log entries worked best...not perfect, but best. Four laptops next time would be great. I think we operated about 23-24 hours total.

Overall, it was alot of fun and definitely a success. I do hope that next contest will be attended by more folks. Speaking of folks, our fledgling club is always looking to welcome new members to our group. Most of our group hails from Northern Central NC, but we have members from the Sandhills of NC, and Upstate SC. If you're reading this and want to join in, we sure could use your
knowledge and expertise, as well as forging new friendships. After all, our club's motto is "Fun foremost, the scores will take care of themselves."

Until next time, stay warm and enjoy our wonderful advocation!

73 from the Fancy Gap Contest Club
John W. Taylor, KU4JZ
Trustee of KI4SNY -- KU4JZ