WB2VVV was QRV for the June ARRL VHF Contest in the Single Op Unassisted Low Power Category.
Log as submitted:
MHZ Grids QSOs ___________________ 50 81 174 144 14 30 222 8 12 432 7 9 903 4 4 1296 3 3 ___________________ Total 118 233 Score: 31,239
Thanks to those members whose QSOs made it into my log! It was certainly nice to see 6 meters open to the West and South on Sunday with varying Sporadic E Skip. I was also pleased to be able able to hear 2 stations clearly on 2304 MHz but just didn’t have enough transmitter to be heard with only 5 Watts of the allowed 50 Watts.
73, Chris WB2VVV
2018 ARRL June VHF Contest Call: W1AN Class: Single Op HP QTH: CT Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 6: 332 122 2: 33 15 222: 15 8 432: 14 6 1.2: 7 3 ------------------- Total: 401 154 Total Score = 68,376 Club: CT RI Contest GroupI didn’t expect much activity after the poorly attended January contest, but all picked up with the 6M openings. Enjoyed the last hour when everyone was trying to catch up on the 2, 432 and 1296 bands which were nearly vacant during much of the contest.. I did notice some enhancement on 1296 at the close. Signals were louder than expected. Worked WB2VVV W1CTN, but didn’t hear any other CTRIers.
Equipment:
AM6155s and single yagis: 19el 2M @78′, 17el 220 @118′ and 25el 432 @114′.
10W and 24 Loop yagi on 1296 @116′
King SB220 on 6M with HB 5 element on 18 foot boom @75′
73, John W1AN
76 x 44 raw = 3344
35 cw, 17 ssb, 24 FT8
6m only
10 watts to 3 el at 20′.
No QRP category for this. So it’s a non-competitive SO LP entry. (CQ VHF allows 10w QRP).
I would not have put in as much time as i did except i came down with a bad cold so other stuff got cancelled and I was good for watching screens and pushing buttons.
So this was the 1st vhf contest with our radio video game, FT8, and widespread propagation to use it on. For me, I was happy CW still produced the most. After all, I like contesting because of the action right? Watching the waterfall is kind of absorbing in its own way, but … Now I will vent. Lots of ops definitely wanted FT8 to work. I saw 20 decodes some cycles with many multihop on Sun. afternoon. I was exasperated how hard it was to finish a QSO though. If I answer a CQ I’ve got his grid…if he sends either R or a report he’s got mine…for cw or ssb that’s fine but I kept getting repeats of RRR RRR RRR from ops who seemed to want “73”. I logged them, but will I get NIL’d now? VHF Contest mode just added confusion… Sunday it was more in use, but several Q’s got made both ways! My best distance was a reply from DM65, but was it a qso? Nor did ft8 enable more local Q’s. Noise & flutter rule I guess. Anyhow there was plenty to chase although XE was the only DX I “heard”. There seemed to be a private path for me to XE3ARV on cw Saturday afternoon for about 10 mins, but no luck, tho I did not hear him work anyone else either.
Sorry fellow club members but W1AN and WB2VVV couldn’t hear me, being in an odd direction from most of New England, and I got too busy chasing other grids to give KS1J a call tho Jim was very loud.