06/10/2002 | AA1YN For the June VHF contest, I decided to make it up to 1296, so starting in November 2001, I built a DSP-10 transceiver and bought a 1296 transverter from DEMI along with a 55-ele loop yagi from Directive Systems. Finally, 2 weeks prior to the contest, I was able to make my first 1296 contact with 3 watts to keep the minimum 1 improvement per VHF contest going. I also managed to build a station controller for my transverters to aid in switching bands rapidly. All seems set until the week prior, a thunderstorm moves through the area and decides to re-adjust my 432 antenna's azimuth by 20 degrees. The problem is, it's the top antenna on a 16' mast! With a little ingenuity and lots of safety in mind, the problem gets fixed 3 days prior to the contest. The cause - loose bolts holding the antenna to the mast. In fact, many bolts had loosened during the past 6 months so I tightened all bolts on all antennas and will plan to check them again next year.

I created an Excel data file with a compilation of all the VHF stations I've worked along with all the northeast stations who submitted results in the past 5 VHF contests with a list of their station capabilities and 6 digit grid location and calculated their bearing/reverse bearing and distance. I prep'd the TacLog program for my five bands (ABCDE) and practiced log entries. I've been practicing Morse Code to be able to copy though I'll admit it is very difficult for me but I'm going to try. It's now Friday and the 24-hour countdown has begun. Am looking forward to the event. I did a respectable showing in the Sept contest (my first) with a score of 10,860 and don't think I did too bad in the January contest with a score of around 13K and have set a goal of a minimum 20K points for the June contest. I am already making plans for adding 902 for the Sept, 2002 contest but will wait and see.

Other Preparations:
I re-arranged the station with a new desk, lamp, chair, and a computer stand for the DSP-10's computer. New Pencils/pens and printed some log files for hand logs just incase I get into a pile-up - one would hope! A sufficient quantity of assorted life sustaining junk food and coffee has been stockpiled in anticipation of the event. Throat lozenges procured and physical training with the PTT switch has been ongoing for a week now.

Post Contest:
After all the preparations, the equipment worked flawlessly except for the Network Interface card on my laptop. The hardest part of the contest was getting the multi-operators to work up the bands and I missed a few contacts as a result. The standard reply "We're on 1296.120 so give us a call" just doesn't seem to work. The short openings on 6 were a God send and gave me 10 additional multipliers and the bands seemed to open up a little on the higher bands for short periods. All in all, I feel I did well and fell just short of my overall goal of 20K points. While I haven't checked the logs thoroughly for wrong calls or bad contacts yet, it looks like my final score is 19,136 unless I missed a couple of multipliers. I even made 10 CW contacts! Looks like I have to add 902 for Sept. Maybe I could have passed 20K but the last hour of the contest was too much for me. One suggestion for everyone who works above 2 meters, KNOW YOUR 6 DIGIT GRID. -- AA1YN