Well…The antennas are back up! Ice and trees took a toll on them and the second day of the VHF contest was null…Thanks Mother Nature..any way..ready to go for the 160 contest at 5 watts. Hope to work some of the group…Thanks Bob W1IG
7 comments on “VHF Contest & CQ 160”
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Will look for you Bob. Sorry to jump the qrp ship, but I am hoping to deploy 100 watts in a contest for the first time in years here. I built a Chinese amp kit from Ebay and it appears to work and, with a filter, seems to meet the harmonic regs altho it’s hard to be sure of the measurements. We will see!
I did a bit of the VHF contest also and it looks like goodbye to CW and SSB for 6 meter contesting. I had 3 on CW, 4 SSB and 23 FT8. There was a decent opening to FL Sunday afternoon, but even cw die hards like N4TB and AC4TO were up on 50.313.– Dave K1SX
My 2019 CQWW 160m CW Contest entry info below… Had fun putting new Icom IC-7300 through the ringer on Topband! Filters worked very well – barely ever had to move my run frequency even when a kilowatt+ station moved in alongside. Pretty much just one night of operating for me. Many thanks to my nearby neighbor W1MBF and his human size slingshot getting temporary inverted L up over a tree top; it’s a compromise aerial but worked pretty well domestically. Quiet conditions (little to no QRN) but long haul propagation was weak, certainly towards Eu. Nothing like 2009 (THE year!), or early 2010’s with big DX sigs in previous sunspot minima during CQWW 160m contests. Still a good time though. LOTS of RI low-banders were active… good to see!
73, Bill W1WBB
Trustee for AI1TT [Aquidneck Island Transmitting Team]
Call: AI1TT
Operator(s): W1WBB
Station: W1WBB
Class: Single Op Assisted LP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs):
Location: USA
Summary: Compare Scores
Total: QSOs 440 State/Prov 50 Countries 15 Total Score 72,605
Club: CT RI Contest Group
Comments: [email] 2019-01-28 04:12:02
New club call, new radio (Icom IC-7300, love it!), new temporary (??!) replacement inverted L (~170′, vert section up less than 40′ over tree top) connected to old ground radial system. Fortunately, the just raised Inverted L antenna survived sustained broadside wind gusts near 60 mph late this week!
Only put in 75 minutes at the contest’s start (2200-2315Z) on Friday eve, due to other plans. Bigger effort Saturday night, began before sunset, on alot until 07Z. Took 3.5 hr nap then caught Sun morn S/R… great to get KH7 mult 25 min before sunrise and then have VE7NY call *me* for new one. Not avail for final hour plus of operating at very end of contest this year.
Only 12 ten-point QSOs…working DX was a struggle! Nice call-in by CN2 while I was running.
Had 47 five point QSOs (42 VE[!] + C6A, CO, KP2 (2), KP4). All states but AK and NE were heard. Unable to get SD, LA, WY, NV, OR and WA in the log. Usually don’t miss VO1 or VY2 but did this time (apparently VY2 was MIA this year).
Well…still need to get the antenna up..as in height. The 140′ wire was at a whopping 12 feet off the ground. Heard the DX but just didn’t quite get it. Anyway…here is the summary…
CALLSIGN: W1IG
CLUB: CTRI Contest Group
CONTEST: CQ-160-CW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: NON-ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: 160M
CATEGORY-MODE: CW
CATEGORY-POWER: QRP
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CLAIMED-SCORE: 2839
70 Q’s…
Bob W1IG
Call/Op/Station: W1XX
Class: Single Op Unassisted HP
QTH: RI
Op Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
QSOs = 952 S/P = 56 DXCC = 52 Score = 341,604
Club: CTRI Contest Group
Comments: One of my favorite contests and have no complaints. Not as good as last year, but condx the first night as everyone has mentioned not very good. EU almost not there at all. 2nd nite different story. At about 10:30 PM local I went all the way up to 1883.5 to get away from the QRM. Then all hell broke loose. EU stations came back one after another. Great fun! Random comments: Does everyone live in VA? Never worked so many VE7s. Worked two KH6s after drawing a blank in the ARRL 160. What happened to ND, SD, and VE4? The last hour on Sunday afternoon is always good for about 10 Qs with endless CQing. By 4:30 PM and still light out, and 12 local QSOs, LX7I opened up on my frequency. Great… new mult. Called him for the last 1/2 hour of the contest with his signal getting louder and louder as dark set in. No respondo. Never heard me. Go figure. SS here just not as good as EU SR around midnight here. Next stop: CQ 160 SSB in February.
Dave K1SX: Your comments on 6M in the VHF contest are very telling. As one who once made 1000 six-meter Qs in a VHF contest, I find the situation disturbing. — John, W1XX
K1SX SO LP
220–40–10 = 30,750
7 hrs. op time
Genesis G11 + 100w brick + inv. L 65/65′ 16 radials
Maybe running more like 70-80 watts, still figuring the thing out.
I think this was respectable for doing LP for the first time. I could have run more but my qrp mindset kept me hunting for weak mults “just to see.” The comments suggest that Sat. was better to Europe but I harldy heard any Eu either night. Only TK0C and EI0R got in the log. I did take a brief look at 0630z Sun. and when I switched on, there was D4C right on frequency and quickly worked which was cool. To the west I heard hardly any beyond TX and the longest q. west was NA7TB. Also VE6RST stuck with me. And I did get ND (K0IDX). I was just getting going on calls to KH7B Sun. morning when he disappeared. Should I have been there for 0500? My takeaway is, I really don’t understand 160 too well! and maybe a receiving antenna is the next move. Wed. night testing the amp I had SV on FT8 with a -07 report i.e. 12db above noise floor. But by Fri. apparently it went downhill.
Nice scores all! Now I see who AI1TT was–heard you in there Bill. AN, XX and AB1BX were worked here.
2109 CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW – 2019
Call: W1AN
Operator(s): W1AN
Station: W1AN
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 6.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 331 State/Prov = 51 Countries = 26 Total Score = 75,152
Club: CT RI Contest Group
Too many other activities. Limited time. Gave out a few points.
Good to hear a new call, AI1TT. As it was a little odd, it threw me a bit. Had to look it up. Now I know it was Bill.
How about WPX RTTY in two weeks. Anybody?