[AK-VHF] Good contest day

[kl7uw at acsalaska.net]

Brandon,

Every remote contest location is a learning experience as you probably already knew.  Alaska VHF contesting is a different challenge from down in the lower-48.

Speaking of that: we got a late start at 1915 utc (1315 local) due to breakfast and shopping to Wallmart in morning.  Took 3-hours for setting up the antenna and station so did not leave for breakfast until 9:30am local.  Contest began at 12-noon local time.

I worked from 1915 to 2241 utc on 6m-SSB 29 stations in 24 grids for a score of 696.  Not anything special.  But most western station was K7CW CN87 (WA) and most eastern W1XX FN41 (RI); most northern W7MEM DN17 (ID) and most southern K5QE EM31 (TX).  A lot of EN, EM grids in middle USA.  I guess you could say whole country (lower-48) was open on 6m for four hours!  Helps when you are in the middle.

I ran 150w using a SB200 into a Moxon antenna.  Radio was KX3 driving KXPA100 to 65w to drive the heathkit amp.  Next morning I got in excess of 250w (guessing 350w) with Trailer air-cond turned off.  So guessing 120vac current limited with both amp and a/c running.  But outside temp was 97F so a/c was not "optional".  150w got me a lot of strong signal reports so was sufficient.

Line noise and freeway noise (only 1/4 mile away) had s-meter at S7 (lowered to S5 with NB) which probably limited my hearing to strongest stations.

I called a bit early Sunday morning with no contacts.  Tore down station as we planned driving into front range of the Rockies including Rocky Mountain NP (Estes Park, CO).  Contest ended 1500 local time while we were in the mountains.  We did not enter a different grid so could not claim rover status so did not try operating from the truck.  Actually curvy roads took full attention.

73, Ed - KL7UW/0 DN70
tomorrow we head east on I-70 toward KS and Central States VHF Conference July 26-28 in Wichita.


On Sun, 22 Jul 2018 09:29:19 -0800, Brandon Clark  wrote:

Hello group,

The contest yesterday went great. I didn't make a ton of contacts, but
considering that we didn't have time to do a lot of push to get the word
out I was really happy with the day.

Contacts from the eagle River mountains out to Anchorage were full quieting
with only whip antennas (no surprise there), but the spot I picked was
actually blocked to the north, preventing some valley contacts. I'll have
to do a different peak next year.

One thing we might think about is a way to entice more operators to set up
6 M capability. During both the June contest and this one the 6 M contacts
were as rare as hen's teeth. Very few people had an antenna to run 6 M.
That's unfortunate, since it's a great band. In my experience it gives a
better "fill in" around obstructions than 2 m does, but antennas are still
just small enough to set up portable or mount on a mobile.

Something like a 2 M - 6 M digital net might help stir up activity. We
could run keyboard modes like psk31 and MFSK16 - the same modes ARRL uses
on field day. We could use FM, so it wouldn't require any extra gear. Food
for thought.
73,
Brandon
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