ARRL June VHF Contest - 2023
Call: NV4B/R
Operator(s): NV4B
Station: NV4B/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH: MS
Operating Time (hrs): 26
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 365 156
2: 69 34
222: 25 14
432: 26 13
903: 3 3
1.2: 5 4
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 493 232 Total Score = 129,920
Club:
Comments:
I had spent a year scheming of ways to be more competitive in Limited Rover for
this contest and, by January, had come up with a route that K4CNY/R and I could
run in tandem to generate the maximum number of QSOs and multipliers to boost
our scores. Unfortunately, some last-minute car trouble and a terrible weather
forecast resulted in this plan being scrapped, so I decided to stay closer to
home and bring my new 902 station along as well as 1296 and try my hand at
Unlimited Rover for the first time.
As for a route, I chose to "play the hits" and go to my most frequent
operating locations, Colbert Mountain in EM64dq and Woodall Mountain in EM54vs
on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Weather was an issue only briefly Saturday
night as I was able to operate until near-dark as planned from Colbert, then
drove through a line of thunderstorms as I headed to EM54, 55, and 65 in motion
to round out Saturday night. The weather became slightly more of an issue on
Sunday as another line of thunderstorms approached from the north and west. I
initially tore down at Woodall around 1700Z to head east toward EM74, but I was
soon alerted to a short sporadic-E opening to the southwest on 6 meters, so I
set 6m and 2m back up hurriedly and stayed put at Woodall -- an excellent
decision as 6m was hot from that point until almost the end of the contest.
Around 2100Z, there was a 2m sporadic-E opening. Unfortunately, I was only able
to work WR7AY in DN74, but I also heard KB0ZOM (EN00) and, via double-hop, W7MEM
(DN17).
Weather finally forced me to tear down completely at 2300Z, at which point I
decided to head south and east to outrun the thunderstorms. I had decided I
wanted to activate EM63, but I figured if I was going to EM63, I may as well
make the three-hour drive to the EM52/53/62/63 corner and activate all four
grids. 6m started to dry up around the time I reached EM52, and in the last 30
minutes or so, I could not make a 6m QSO from either EM62 or EM63. Fortunately,
N4OGW saved the day with 2m QSOs from both grids, giving me the activation
multipliers I drove so far to obtain!
Until the last hour, 6m conditions Sunday were reminiscent of last year's
spectacular conditions. The one thing missing this year was the tropo we had on
Sunday morning and evening. This only slightly impacted my 2m totals.
902 and 1296 worked well from Colbert Heights, but Woodall has too much foliage
in the summer to be effective. I am looking forward to operating the 222 and Up
Distance Contest from Colbert.
I spent slightly more time on analog this year. When 6m was open, rates were
good for brief periods. I say this every year, but more people need to move to
analog when the band is open. It seems as if the trend is slightly positive for
more analog activity, though, thanks in part to the analog-only categories.
Technical problems this year were nearly non-existent. One issue I ran into
with the 6-band stop 'n' shoot setup was the 6m antenna physically clashing with
the 432 antenna on another mast. I'm not used to having to make a conscious
effort to keep the antennas separated, but initially, 6m and 432 ended up at
about the same height, and the length of the 6m elements caused the problem --
easily remediable, however. One enhancement I absolutely must make for future
roves is the addition of a switching arrangement for my paddle and headphones.
CW has been mostly an afterthought in recent years, but one station I ran the
bands with was primarily CW and required many trips to the passenger side door
to move the paddle cable among radios.
Band/mode breakdown:
Band Mode QSOs Pts Grd Pt/Q
50 CW 27 27 10 1.0
50 FT4 8 8 2 1.0
50 FT8 290 290 133 1.0
50 USB 40 40 11 1.0
144 CW 4 4 3 1.0
144 FT8 59 59 30 1.0
144 USB 6 6 1 1.0
222 CW 4 8 4 2.0
222 FM 1 2 0 2.0
222 FT8 17 34 9 2.0
222 USB 3 6 1 2.0
420 CW 3 6 3 2.0
420 FT8 16 32 9 2.0
420 USB 7 14 1 2.0
902 CW 3 9 3 3.0
1240 CW 2 6 2 3.0
1240 FT8 2 6 2 3.0
1240 USB 1 3 0 3.0
Total Both 493 560 224 1.1
Claimed multiplier total includes 8 grids activated (EM52, 53, 54, 55, 62, 63,
64, 65).
Equipment:
6m: ICOM IC-7100 at 100W, MFJ 1762 3-element Yagi (stopped), MFJ 1728B
quarterwave whip (in motion)
2m: ICOM IC-9700 at 100W, Diamond A144S10 10-element Yagi (stopped), Efactor
dual-band loop (in motion)
222: Yaesu FT-736R, Mirage C2512G amplifier configured for approx. 75W max,
Directive Systems K1FO 10-element rover Yagi (stopped), M² HO loop (in
motion)
432: ICOM IC-9700 at 75W, Directive Systems K1FO 15-element rover Yagi
(stopped), Efactor dual-band loop (in motion)
902: Yaesu FT-817ND IF radio, Down East Microwave transverter and 50W
amplifier, Directive Systems 19-element loop Yagi
1296: ICOM IC-9700 at 10W, Directive Systems 25-element loop Yagi
QSOs by state:
MS 283
AL 187
TN 23
QSOs by grid:
Grid 50 144 222 420 902 1240 Tot
EM52 3 2 1 6
EM53 30 4 1 1 36
EM54 205 31 10 7 253
EM55 14 2 1 1 18
EM62 1 1
EM63 2 1 3
EM64 107 28 13 16 3 5 172
EM65 4 4
Total 365 69 25 26 3 5 493
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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