[NLRS] [MWA] N7T Multi-Op June VHF

[Jack Parker]

Thanks for the CW Q and LOTW confirmation. As for so many that was a new 
grid for me.

73,

Jack, K0JP/VA4JP

On 6/20/2022 5:10 PM, W. S. Mitchell wrote:
> ARRL June VHF Contest - 2022
>
> Call: N7T
> Operator(s): AE0EE K0BBC
> Station: N7T
>
> Class: Multi-Op LP
> QTH: DN78wo
> Operating Time (hrs): 24
>
> Summary:
>  Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>     6:  262   130
>     2:
>   222:
>   432:
>   903:
>   1.2:
>   2.3:
>   3.4:
>   5.7:
>   10G:
>   24G:
> -------------------
> Total:  262   130  Total Score = 34,060
>
> Club: Northern Lights Radio Society
>
> Comments:
>
> 100 W, 3-el Buddipole Yagi up 20' at Brush Lake State Park, Montana, 
> DN78wo.
> Tent accommodations.
>
> Although the general plan for this operation had been in progress for 
> a few
> months, most of the details came together within the two weeks before the
> contest.  Some of the logistics didn't get settled until about 52 
> hours before
> contest start.
>
> We decided to forego our usual rover operation in favor of a longer, fixed
> operation from one of the most wanted Fred Fish Memorial Award grids 
> to help a
> few folks get it in the log.  Instead of a three-day weekend 
> Friday-Sunday, we
> took a five-day weekend Thursday-Monday.
>
> Our campsite in Montana had 50A electrical service, with both 110 and 
> 240 V
> outlets.  Come contest time, we were ready on all modes with 100 W, 3 
> elements
> at 20', and an Armstrong rotator.  Internet connectivity was, as might be
> expected for the middle of the prairie, quite sparse.  We had some 
> roaming data
> access, but it was not fast and we tried not to use much. Many thanks 
> to the
> stations who helped relay our info to the various chat rooms, Discord 
> servers,
> and Slack workspaces.
>
> Conditions were better than we generally remember in that area, and it 
> was great
> to get so many stations in the log.  Being in a rare grid, we had 
> alerted the
> FFMA Rare Grids chasers to our presence, which helped keep the pileup 
> going.  We
> added "N7T to SSB" and "N7T to CW" messages to our FT8
> macros, so that we could help encourage folks to look for us on faster 
> modes.
>
> Many stations seemed to come find us on analog modes, and the spectrum 
> display
> on the radio helped us see whether there were beacons or other analog 
> stations
> being received, indicative of band opening and diminished pileup, as 
> opposed to
> a full band closure.
>
> Sunday morning was a bit frustrating.  We got on early for meteor 
> scatter and
> had some success, logging 7 contacts, each for new grids. However, 
> being pretty
> low power for meteor scatter made it a bit tough.  We were generally 
> decoding
> one or more of the big guns each sequence, but occasionally it would 
> go quiet
> for a few minutes.  When it did, we went to FT8 and watched as FT8 
> came in via
> meteor pings, obviously not stable enough for us to work.
>
> Around noon local on Sunday, propagation finally opened up to us, and 
> we started
> making progress again.  As we did on Saturday, we moved to analog 
> modes once
> things really got strong on FT8 and enjoyed good rate increases for 
> it.  There
> were also fewer dupes, as stations seemed to be more confident in having
> completed via analog modes than via FT8.
>
> One very convenient thing we noticed about the propagation was that 
> over the
> course of the weekend, it opened pretty well to most of the regions of 
> the US.
> The Northeast and the Atlantic coast were a bit hard to come by, but 
> we managed
> to work about 25% of the FFMA grids.  At one point Sunday morning, it 
> had been
> looking doubtful that we would achieve VUCC during the weekend, but the
> afternoon's openings came through with a bunch of new grids.
>
> We pulled the plug around 5:30 PM local on Sunday, packed up, and 
> drove in to
> Williston, ND, for a hot meal (though some of the meals at the 
> campground were
> relatively warm) and to get a good night's sleep before a long drive 
> across both
> Dakotas (+/-MN) on Monday.
>
> Many thanks to all those who chased us around the band and pulled our 
> often-weak
> signal out of the noise.  It was an exciting weekend, especially when 
> we could
> move off of FT8.
>
> 73 from Bill AE0EE (writing) and Matt K0BBC
>
>
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
>
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