About a month before the contest I was still debating what to do for the contest. After some debate with K0DAS and KC0SKM we decided to do a multiop effort in EN15. The main reason for choosing EN15 was how rare it was on 6m for FFMA chasers and its still semi close to civilization to hopefully work some stuff above 6m. So we started planning with very little time to do so. I found an old farm house on AIRBNB and messaged the owner asking if we could set up the station there. Surely she had no idea what I was asking about but after a little discussion she said we were free to do whatever we wanted. When I first arrived I met her there and confirmed she was ok with what we were doing. 

I arrived Friday before the contest about 4pm and started setting up about 5pm after talking to the owner and coming up with a game plan. By 7pm or so I had 6m up and working but no time to operate. Since I saw 6m was doing good I recruited my friend KG5CCI to remote the station and give the grid out to FFMA chasers.  He worked a bunch giving me the chase to continue setting up. By the time it got dark I had gotten about as far as I could without. About 11pm Rod and Gregg showed up and we got all the rest of the stuff, mostly setup and the shack and went to bed about 1am. Saturday morning we got off to a slow start but somehow just barely managed to get all the antennas up and working by contest start. The 2m antenna had to come down once as well as the 222 antenna which was damaged in the trip north. 

The following was the antenna layout. 

6m- 3 antennas feeding a stack match

1. 6m7 at 45ft

2. 6m7 at 30ft

3. 6m5 at 28ft

2m- 12 element lfa at 50ft above the higher 6m7. Had a seperate rotor for 2m but didn't use it because we didn't get it working in time. 

222- 30ft M2 clone at 50ft

432- m2 432-9wl just above the 222 yagi

Equipment used on each band. 

6m- FTdx101d and eb104 2kw sspa running about 1100w in contest

2m- IC7300, Q5 transverter and DX shop 1400w SSPA running about kw

222- IC7300, DEMI Transverter and Harris amp running about 650w

432- IC9700 and EB104 400w sspa

6m and 2m were the same operating positions as were 222 and 432. This could obviously be improved but it works ok. 

Here is the score and break down per band. 

6m- 1096qs/277 mults

2m- 80qs/47 mults

222-19qs/12 mults

432-27qs/17 mults

Total 1222qs/353 mults 

Total score- 447,604

High lights in the contest for me was working 4 qs on 2m eskip. 6m was also pretty much open the entire contest to somewhere. Dx from here was very little compared to what lots of others reported. I think 2 or 3 European qsos and a handful of JA. 

Lots of room for improvement but we are highly considering doing this again next and maybe from the same location. I'll list a few items of improvement. 

1. Separate 2m to its own tower and put 2x12 for a bigger signal. 

2. Improve 432 rx by switching to transverter and possibly mount amp and transverter at tower base. Maybe the same on 222. 

3. Rovers? Our biggest shortfall was a lack of local grids(200 miles) worked with some more rovers to the west and east. We are very grateful for the rover that did go out. Without the log in front of me I'm not going to name them and miss one.   

4. Show up a day earlier to get everything setup and tested before 3pm on saturday. Mostly working through little issues that take up time. 

Monday morning we got up and tore down most of the station in short order. By 10am Rod and Gregg headed south. I stuck around till Tuesday morning working a few more people that needed EN15 for FFMA. Of the FFMA Leaders we completed qs with all but three of them and 2 of those were out of town. Huge Mission success for FFMA chasers and EN15. Monday evening there was also some big tropo building and on 2m worked over 900 miles to EM53. I'm guessing the tropo was better Tuesday morning but I had to pack up and head for EN38.  

Onward to EN38-

Myself and Vince(K0SIX) arrived in EN38 at a Cabin I again had found on AIRBNB about 3pm and began setting up the 6m and 2m stations. Here we set up a 6m7 at 45ft and 2m 12 element lfa at 50ft again above the 6m yagi. I did get the 2m rotor working so 6m and 2m could be independently aimed. To my surprise I found a 240ac outlet for the dryer so we could run a full 1500w on 6m and about 1300w on 2m. The owner of the cabin told me there was no 240 and that the dryer was a gas dryer. Brad(KB0HNN) showed up Thursday morning to join in on the fun. 

From EN38 we operated through Saturday evening trying to take advantage of any and all 6m openings for FFMA chasers. The only place the band never really opened was W6. Of the 68 people on the FFMA spreadsheet we worked all but 14. Some of the 14 aren't leaders which requires over 400 grids toward ffma. From EN38 we made 642 qsos about 60 of which were on 2m the rest on 6m. 

A few pictures of each setup can be found on my twitter page. And maybe the other guys have more pictures they could share? 

I might do some more roving this summer but I'm not sure. I will definitely be setting up for the CQWWVHF  contest with both 6m and 2m from EN42. After that I look forward to seeing everyone at Central States. 

73 Wyatt

AC0RA