2018 ARRL September VHF Contest
09/15/2018 |
K2EZ/R
Work conspired once again to interfere with my September effort. I flew home Thursday specifically for the contest but had to be back in Texas by Tuesday. I therefore opted to make another long rove from the northeast to Texas. Having done this before I didn’t expect a great score but expected it to be fun.
I started the contest in Eastern PA. The upgraded antenna system was working well and I worked many grids into new England than I have before. Not even when I started further east. The first five hours of the contest were one of the best I had. QSOs count may not have been the highest but multiplier count was my best ever. Several big multi-ops such as W2LV, N2NT, W2EA and K2LIM were part of this and single ops such as AF1T, K1RZ, K2TUF and others.
Things started to change as I moved into western PA. A big multi-op I was occasionally copying (and worked) further east seemed to have stopped calling on SSB or CW so I wasn’t about to connect with them as I reached the grid corner where I should have worked them on all four bands in each grid.
I did see that multi-op on FT8 and was able to work them there from a couple of the grids, but I only had FT8 on 6m and with FT8 contact I had no way to ask them to QSY to other bands. Normally I would have expected to get another 16 to 20 Qs from this one station alone. I attribute their not being on SSB/CW to the advent of FT8 and MSK144 plus the rules that permit using chat or phone call to arrange a sked. As I didn’t have contact information for this station I didn’t have any options.
The same issue continued as I got into PA. A large multi-op I would have expect to work from 6 to 8 grids didn’t appear on the air. Once again I could only find them on 6m FT8. A big single op was not on the air at all so across Ohio what I expected to be anchor stations that I could count on for Qs just weren’t there or I had no way to get them on a band/mode I could reach them.
If it weren’t for FT8 I would have had a really long dry spell without any Qs and FT8 wasn’t terribly productive in this area at that time of night. As it was I did have 3 hours after midnight with no Qs.
Sunday morning early I was able to stitch together some contacts finding some on FM, some on FT8 and some on SSC or CW. It was drips and drabs thru southern Ohio and across Kentucky.
Things changed for the better when I started to approach Tennessee. Todd N4KWZ was a good anchor station thru this area as I proceeded across Tennessee till I got close to Memphis.
When I got within easy shouting range of Memphis things opened up. 50% of the Qs I made Sunday were in the Memphis area. It was nice seeing such a concentration of VHF operators. The ones I got the most Qs from in the Memphis area were AG4V/R, N2JQQ, K5OMC, WA4HFN, W9RVG and KK4RXU. It was just after leaving Memphis and crossing into Arkansas that I was able to pick up W5VY/R. Between the additional multipliers picked up and large number of Qs I saw my score exiting Memphis almost double from what it was as I approached Memphis.
I finished the rove in Arkansas after activating 22 grids. Unfortunately the couple big multi-ops I didn’t connect with in western PA and Ohio hurt my QSO count significantly and cost me some multipliers. But that is how the breaks crumble.
On the subject of hardware, Friday my car’s starter began to act up. I decided to run the rove anyway. It behaved Saturday, but Sunday it wouldn’t start after a fuel stop. After banging on it with a wrench it decided to work. I picked up a starter after that as a threat to it that if it misbehaved again it would be replaced. The superstition in me felt having one would reduce odds of getting stranded.
RF wise I had some minor problems. One segment of my 6m coax went flakey and I had to swap it for another. I also noticed my vertical dipole and my 70cm directional loops were showing a mismatch, but I noticed all these were better later. I suspect the directional loops issue was a loose coax or maybe an issue with the RF relay. I am pretty sure rain was affecting the vertical dipole as that match returned to good whenever the rain stopped. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time.
This rove was also my first rove as a single op with FT8. I was not sure how practical this would be, but it turned out to be very practical. The color coding of WSJT made it easy to spot people CQing and it was a simple matter of tapping the CQing station and WSJT-X would complete the contact. Answering a CQ worked well enough although some weren’t in contest mode and it would hang up. For me CQing it wasn’t so simple due to the way WSJT-X handles the /R creating ambiguity for the person I was answering. That could be worked around by manually sequencing. Auto sequencing would fight me. This rove I also added band filters and I was often able to call CQ on SSB while operating FT8 on 6m. Not quite as good as a second operator, but it sure helped. There was one station I worked on SSB and just because we both could run FT8 while working, we worked each other on 2m, 1.25m and 70cm while our computers worked on FT8.
I did try some MSK144 but didn’t get any decodes. I didn’t try making any MSK skeds however.
FT8 accounted for approximately 10% of my Qs. Although it has some nice qualities, and I worked quite a few stations I wouldn’t have worked otherwise because they don’t get on SSB or CW, I did work quite a few stations on FT8 that I usually work on SSB and am able to work multiple bands. Working those stations on only one band is disappointing. Especially in the case of the few big stations who seem to have completely given up on calling CQs on either SSB or CW after the first hours of the contest.
I know for the fixed stations it is a bit different than for a rover like me. I change grids every hour or two so always have stations I can work while fixed stations, who do appreciate contacts, find calling CQ unproductive compared to operating digital modes.
In any case I had a good time even if I set myself up to be a bit less completive this rove. I would like to thank all the stations that got out for the contest and particularly those who reached out to me in advance. -- K2EZ
Work conspired once again to interfere with my September effort. I flew home Thursday specifically for the contest but had to be back in Texas by Tuesday. I therefore opted to make another long rove from the northeast to Texas. Having done this before I didn’t expect a great score but expected it to be fun.
I started the contest in Eastern PA. The upgraded antenna system was working well and I worked many grids into new England than I have before. Not even when I started further east. The first five hours of the contest were one of the best I had. QSOs count may not have been the highest but multiplier count was my best ever. Several big multi-ops such as W2LV, N2NT, W2EA and K2LIM were part of this and single ops such as AF1T, K1RZ, K2TUF and others.
Things started to change as I moved into western PA. A big multi-op I was occasionally copying (and worked) further east seemed to have stopped calling on SSB or CW so I wasn’t about to connect with them as I reached the grid corner where I should have worked them on all four bands in each grid.
I did see that multi-op on FT8 and was able to work them there from a couple of the grids, but I only had FT8 on 6m and with FT8 contact I had no way to ask them to QSY to other bands. Normally I would have expected to get another 16 to 20 Qs from this one station alone. I attribute their not being on SSB/CW to the advent of FT8 and MSK144 plus the rules that permit using chat or phone call to arrange a sked. As I didn’t have contact information for this station I didn’t have any options.
The same issue continued as I got into PA. A large multi-op I would have expect to work from 6 to 8 grids didn’t appear on the air. Once again I could only find them on 6m FT8. A big single op was not on the air at all so across Ohio what I expected to be anchor stations that I could count on for Qs just weren’t there or I had no way to get them on a band/mode I could reach them.
If it weren’t for FT8 I would have had a really long dry spell without any Qs and FT8 wasn’t terribly productive in this area at that time of night. As it was I did have 3 hours after midnight with no Qs.
Sunday morning early I was able to stitch together some contacts finding some on FM, some on FT8 and some on SSC or CW. It was drips and drabs thru southern Ohio and across Kentucky.
Things changed for the better when I started to approach Tennessee. Todd N4KWZ was a good anchor station thru this area as I proceeded across Tennessee till I got close to Memphis.
When I got within easy shouting range of Memphis things opened up. 50% of the Qs I made Sunday were in the Memphis area. It was nice seeing such a concentration of VHF operators. The ones I got the most Qs from in the Memphis area were AG4V/R, N2JQQ, K5OMC, WA4HFN, W9RVG and KK4RXU. It was just after leaving Memphis and crossing into Arkansas that I was able to pick up W5VY/R. Between the additional multipliers picked up and large number of Qs I saw my score exiting Memphis almost double from what it was as I approached Memphis.
I finished the rove in Arkansas after activating 22 grids. Unfortunately the couple big multi-ops I didn’t connect with in western PA and Ohio hurt my QSO count significantly and cost me some multipliers. But that is how the breaks crumble.
On the subject of hardware, Friday my car’s starter began to act up. I decided to run the rove anyway. It behaved Saturday, but Sunday it wouldn’t start after a fuel stop. After banging on it with a wrench it decided to work. I picked up a starter after that as a threat to it that if it misbehaved again it would be replaced. The superstition in me felt having one would reduce odds of getting stranded.
RF wise I had some minor problems. One segment of my 6m coax went flakey and I had to swap it for another. I also noticed my vertical dipole and my 70cm directional loops were showing a mismatch, but I noticed all these were better later. I suspect the directional loops issue was a loose coax or maybe an issue with the RF relay. I am pretty sure rain was affecting the vertical dipole as that match returned to good whenever the rain stopped. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time.
This rove was also my first rove as a single op with FT8. I was not sure how practical this would be, but it turned out to be very practical. The color coding of WSJT made it easy to spot people CQing and it was a simple matter of tapping the CQing station and WSJT-X would complete the contact. Answering a CQ worked well enough although some weren’t in contest mode and it would hang up. For me CQing it wasn’t so simple due to the way WSJT-X handles the /R creating ambiguity for the person I was answering. That could be worked around by manually sequencing. Auto sequencing would fight me. This rove I also added band filters and I was often able to call CQ on SSB while operating FT8 on 6m. Not quite as good as a second operator, but it sure helped. There was one station I worked on SSB and just because we both could run FT8 while working, we worked each other on 2m, 1.25m and 70cm while our computers worked on FT8.
I did try some MSK144 but didn’t get any decodes. I didn’t try making any MSK skeds however.
FT8 accounted for approximately 10% of my Qs. Although it has some nice qualities, and I worked quite a few stations I wouldn’t have worked otherwise because they don’t get on SSB or CW, I did work quite a few stations on FT8 that I usually work on SSB and am able to work multiple bands. Working those stations on only one band is disappointing. Especially in the case of the few big stations who seem to have completely given up on calling CQs on either SSB or CW after the first hours of the contest.
I know for the fixed stations it is a bit different than for a rover like me. I change grids every hour or two so always have stations I can work while fixed stations, who do appreciate contacts, find calling CQ unproductive compared to operating digital modes.
In any case I had a good time even if I set myself up to be a bit less completive this rove. I would like to thank all the stations that got out for the contest and particularly those who reached out to me in advance. -- K2EZ
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