anyone participate in ARRL January VHF Contest?

hey folks,

Did anyone participate in ARRL January VHF Contest?

Saturday was a gorgeous day on CM97, so we went to the park at the top of the hill with my DJ-G7 and DJ-G29, my girlfriend brought her Yaesu FT-4X.

We made 6 QSOs in 2 hours. Chatting with the OPs, they confirmed a very low rate all day.

Today (Sunday) I tried again for an hour or so - nothing.

Wishing there was a class for Portable, QRP, and to be honest it would have to be Multiop. A lady's voice is +10dB.

 

A buddy and I did a strictly VHF-based SOTA activation and "handed out points" to contesters as we trudged up the mountain. While up there, we worked with contesters to give them their points while they gave us our exchanges to qualify for SOTA (they needed a grid square, we needed a signal report).

Our work was strictly HT-based and we covered 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 6m. Antennas were either the rubber ducks on the HTs (2m, 1.25m, and 70cm), halfwave extendable whips (2m), and a really long j-pole way up in a tree (6m).

Between the two of us, we worked 11 stations in less than an hour. It was busy, but I would have liked to see more 6m activity. All of it was contesters who QSYed from 2m for the points (and whom I followed). I really wanted to get a "virgin" reply to me calling CQ on 52.525.

There was one guy operating as a rover, @KM4KMU, who was active well into the evening. We worked him on the bands mentioned above while climbing the mountain and on-summit. I could still hear him clearly via an HT from my house over an hour away from the summit as the contest ended last night (I'm in NoVA, the summit is in the Shenandoah Valley, KM4KMU was somewhere in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns). Dude had a crazy strong signal.

BTW, if your operating location isn't too noisy RF-wise, a j-pole high up in a tree (slingshots, fishing weights, and lightweight line are good for facilitating this) will significantly increase your range. I've made contacts upwards of 65 miles away while on a summit and with an antenna up in the air. Also, Bob Witte, K0NR, recommends this antenna for portable ops. We used it on the summit and was able to make contacts pretty far out without having to hang a j-pole. Maybe just that antenna with your HTs will extend your range enough to have better results. The link above is to the BNC version, but they're available in SMA Male and probably SMA Female.

Here is his write-up of it: A Better Antenna for Dualband Handhelds - The KØNR Radio Site (k0nr.com)

Chris

 

I did
I worked 5 grids in Washington CN87 and ,CN88 ,CN97,CN98 and CN 86

 

I did a token amount of 18 qso's on 6m and 2m.

 

Hey that's good, more than I got (6). I suspect if I had used Real Antennas instead of the stock rubber ducks, might have had a couple more. And, get on the air right at 11am, not lazy at 2pm.


It's always fun to have a day in the sun and a little picnic.

And,the total score of 27 with mults is encouraging over just plain "6".

 

Woke up had breakfast then started checking the bands. Started 6 meters and heard a bunch of signals, so I checked the contest calendar, and I found out this was the VHF contest. So I answered a CQ, then I was really popular for about 15 minutes! I am located in the rare grid of CN87 (not really), so I listened around or about 2 hours (FT8) and ended up with about 21 contacts. All I can hope everyone I had a QSL with did good.
It was fun to see at least 6 meters being used. Only had 1 2 meter contact.

 

You're on the wrong side of the country. I've been trying to use 6m FM for SOTA and POTA lately. So far, the only contact I've managed to get were folks I worked during the VHF contest while up on a summit. Worked them on 2m, then we QSYed to 6m. I'm not having any luck getting "virgin" contacts on 6m, unsurprisingly.

Chris

 

I did participate to hand out points. I made about 25 contacts.
I put a new tower up late last fall with 2m and a 6m yagi on it.

I didn't have that "Ahha moment" where I worked someone terrestrially on 2m SSB that was more the the usual 50 miles away.

I suspect that there were few people aiming their yagis toward my QTH in central NH when they could work more stations southward near Boston.

The 2m yagi may not make the cut for space in the spring

 

Chris,

That was me, KM4KMU. I worked 27 of the 33hrs. Had a blast and set what appears to be not only a first place score in FM but an all time national record high score in FM. There were a couple hundred hams on the air in the Northern Virginia area over the weekend. I would love to get more SOTA's on the air for each of the 3 VHF UHF contests. FM activity on contest weekends is on the upswing. I talked to 150+ stations for 380+ separate QSO's after QSY. Being busy is fun and the SOTA operators work darn hard to get up on those peaks where they have a lot of range.

I email about 400 hams (previous contacts from VA summits I contest from) before each event. I you want to I can include a list of SOTA stations in my email blast for June (contest is 12-13 June). The key to activity is coordination, at least on FM.

73
John
KM4KMU