ARRL June VHF Contest - 2022
Call: N0URW
Operator(s): N0URW
Station: N0URW
Class: Single Op-Analog HP
QTH: Iowa
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 457 134
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 457 134 Total Score = 61,238
Club:
Comments:
Greetings: I wasn't sure if I should post anything since I completely blew it.
After entering the wrong date for this contest in my calendar way back in
January, I was surprised to find out on the Friday night before that the contest
was this weekend. I like to use this contest as a way to test new antenna
designs and station improvements. This year I was still repairing broken
rotators/antennas for 2/222/432/1296. The only thing I had up and working was 6
meters. I had this tree that grew up into the guy wires for two of my towers.
Until it was gone, I was at a standstill for repairs. I finally got a tree guy
to come over and drop it right where it needed to be dropped. This was on the
Saturday of the contest. The weather was perfect and rain was on it's way, so I
spent most of the day cutting up tree limbs. Once I was exhausted from sawing up
tree parts. I made it to the shack at 00:15 utc to check out the action on 6
meters. My set up for 6 meters this year was my square loop at 28 feet and my 6
element mega yagi at 57 feet. Why do I call it my mega yagi ? Because the boom
it triple wall aluminum tubing. This was needed to support the elements that are
1-1/2 inch diameter. How strong is it? We had 90+ mph winds go through here and
the boom barely wiggled. Plus the larger diameter elements gives me much wider
bandwidth, plus I think it helps bring in the weak ones better. It is also very
directional. This really helps when the band is wide open to many directions all
at the same time. It also has more dB gain than most 7 elements sold by others.
So how was it ? How was 6 meters this time ? I decided to go old school. no
computer to tell me which direction the band was open, no FT8 unless it was a
dead band condition. Location is everything, even moving just a few miles can
really make a big difference. When I turned on the radio connected to the
square loop, I was greeted with a speaker full of FN and DM stations. The band
was full of cw and ssb signals all the way up past 50.200. No reason to use FT8.
I quickly started up my logging computer, (I hate pencil and paper) There was so
many stations coming in, I turned down my receive gain until only 4 stations
were on my waterfall. These were the 4 strongest at the time. W1JAS,K1TEO,WB2VVV
and KB1OIQ. (All FN grids) As I turned up the gain to bring in more KE1LI (FN)
and K1DDN (DM) and W9RM (DM) were the next that had very loud signals. The DN
and DM stations really started coming in good, even a few Texas stations like
K5TR (EM00) were blasting in, but the FN stations were so strong it was just too
much. All of this was on my loop. I decided to switch over to the yagi and point
it at the FM grids. I figured it would still get me some FN and DM/DN. I figured
there were stations in FM grids calling but were getting covered up. It worked
great. Cut the calls I was hearing from all directions way down. I know how this
sounds to you all. Deliberately cutting out potential contacts. But I see it
like this. I tune to a frequency, say 50.145. I hear 5 stations all calling cq
contest on this frequency. Only a couple of them are getting replies. None of
them can hear each other. Then a 6th station comes on and asks if the frequency
is clear. I wait to hear someone say it is, but nothing. Now there are 6
stations all on the same frequency. So here is the rub. If I answer one of them,
complete the contact, then it seems like all of the others can also hear me. Now
I have several of the others calling me. So rather than adding my signal to the
over crowded frequency, I say I'm qsying to a different frequency. Those that
heard me followed. And we completed the contacts. Now with my beam pointing just
a little South of due East I could hear some FM stations. That's when Super
station K2DRH calls me. I'm glad he was running low power and I had my receive
gain turned way down. Once we completed the exchange requirements, we stopped to
chat for a minute about band conditions, my tree cutting down, and other bands.
Once done chatting, (less than one minute) other stations starting calling me
from the FM grids. After completing a couple contacts, all new grids, Bob also
worked a few, then moved on. I continued on running a 100 q's an hour for a
couple hours. I was tired and sore from sawing wood so I called it a night early
with around 150 q's in the log.
Sunday: Clear skies so I went out and cut up more tree limbs. Yes it was a big
tree and I go slow for safety. Taking lots of breaks, I finally finished what I
could as it started to rain here. I got back to the radio around 21:00 utc.
Flipped on the radio and the loop. Wow !!! Northeast (FN) down to Florida, (EL)
over to Texas, (EM) Plus Northwest to North Dakota and Canada (DO grids) now
coming in. I stayed on the loop as long as I could until to many stations were
over lapping each other. Most of the FN stations heard I worked on Saturday.
Switched back to the yagi and pointed it South towards Florida and kept swinging
it over towards Texas. Another couple hours of 100+ q's per hour. I got to the
point where I was just looking for new grids to work. I was really hoping to
work a few California stations on ssb, but the closest I got was Las Vegas.
To sum it up. 6 meters was wide open here both days when I had the time to get
on. I was told it wasn't open the entire time by others, but again, it's all
about location.
My set up this time was the Heil Pro 7 headset, Icom 7300, to a W6PQL HF 2000
amplifier, to either a loop at 28 feet or yagi antenna at 57 feet. I would turn
down the power to 800 watts when on the loop. Back up to legal limit when on the
yagi. Running ssb the entire time the amp never got hot.
When I checked it during a 100+ q hour, there was cool air coming out of the
exhaust vent holes. I guess it really helps when I point my window air
conditioner at the amp. Hope to work you in the CQ VHF contest in July. If I
don't melt in the heat, now that the tree is gone, I should have something up
for 2 meters by then.
Until we meet again, 73, N0URW, EN41, Iowa
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