K7WA June VHF Contest
James Hadlock
for several months - an exploratory trip in March resulted in reserving a pair
of cabins (one for radios and one for the xyl and me), and preparations were
made for a Single-Op effort in the June VHF Contest. When Ward N0AX asked
about joining in it was an added bonus! One of the highlights of our weekend
was the support from the local Pacific County Amateur Radio Club - the locals
kept our 2 meter FM transceiver hopping and provided many contacts and a few
visitors. Weather on the coast cooperated and we had a great weekend - could
have used a little more sporadic E, but we had a blast! Thanks to the Rovers
and other Portables who provided us with QSOs and Grids!
6 meters: K3, 5 element Cushcraft at 17 ft
2 meters: IC-706MkIIG, 10 element Cushcraft at 19 ft
222 mHz: K3 and Elecraft XV-222, 6 element WA5VJB "Cheap Yagi" at 20 ft
432 mHz: IC-706MkIIG, 8 element N6NB Quagi at 22 ft
222 mHz: 4 QSO - 4 grids
Got up this morning (Monday) and the sun was out, the sky was blue, and it was a perfect day at the beach!
Clay W7CE
times here and there, but for the most part, I kept pretty busy. I did
better on all bands than in previous years.
I picked up 35 new grids on 6M and 2 new ones on 2M. Highlights include
working K6NGN in CN81 on both 6 and 2 meters, W7EME in CN72 on 6, 2, 222 and
432 (Jeremy was loud whenever I heard him), and W7NBH in CN96 on 1296. I
want to give special thanks to the rover stations who always make the
contest more interesting for me. Trying to track them and catch them on all
bands in each grid is always fun. Thanks to the separate efforts of
WA7BBJ/R and N7EPD/R I was able to work CN77 and CN78 on 6 through 432.
CN77 was a new one for me on all bands. I even worked a rover station in
FN22 which was a new grid. N7CW provided rare grid DN37 (and DN38 for VUCC)
on 6M and other rare 6M grids worked were DM18, DM31, DM36, and DN43.
I stayed up way too late on Saturday (Sunday morning actually) and worked
K5QE (EM31) on 2M EME. After about 4 hours sleep, I got up at 6AM and made
four 6M FSK441 contacts. Next year if moonrise is after midnight, I may
have to miss it.
Station improvements this year include using a Flex 5000A on 6M (replacing
my 756ProIII), upgrading from a 6M7JHV to a 6M9KHW 9 element 6M yagi,
increasing the height of the 6M through 432 antennas by about 10 feet, and
reducing the 1296 feedline loss by 1.4 dB while increasing transmit power
from 10 watts to 150 watts. I had also planned on a mast mounted preamp for
1296, but it arrived DOA. Hopefully, I'll have that working in a couple of
weeks. Moving all the antennas 10 feet higher doesn't sound like much, but
now I can hear stations to the north of me that were in the noise before.
In years past I could only copy a couple of the larger VE7 stations. This
year if I missed anyone up north it was because we weren't in the same place
at the same time, not because I couldn't hear them.
Here's the band by band summary:
QSOs Grids
6M: 383 134
2M: 76 20
222: 21 10
432: 35 12
1.2G: 14 6
--------------------
Total: 529 182
Claimed Score: 111,566
I'm already looking forward to the CQ WW VHF contest in July. I have one
major antenna improvement planned between now and then. Also, I hope that
the power company will have fixed the four identified power line noise
sources which always seem to know when 6M is open. As soon as they fix
those, I'll work with Jack Talmadge of RFI Tech in Vancouver to locate the
next tier and get them fixed as well. I'm pretty sure that I'll be out
looking for power line noise sources for the rest of my life. I've been at
it for three years now and it's getting better, but every year new ones pop
up.
73,
Clay W7CE