[TVARC] ARRL June VHF K2PS SO 3Band LP

[Frank M]

Way to go Pete. I, for one, can attest to the extra effort you expended to achieve those results.
The use of FT8 was a good addition to the VHF contest. It allowed many to continue making contacts during so-called ‘dead’ times.
Agreed, the rate is slower, especially given the issue of many people not using the contest format.
I wonder if CQ Test K2PS would have made it clear as to who was part of the contest. The other choice would be to set aside a slightly different frequency group for the contest (as a suggestion but not a mandatory frequency).
In any case, you did very well. 

Frank KA1AF 

> On Jun 12, 2018, at 4:36 PM, K2PS Pete Stafford <psk2ps at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I truly love this contest.  And now, with FT8, it's even better!
> 
> Turns out that Florida is often the best place to be to rack up QSOs on 6
> meters, and this year did not disappoint.  Had quite a few terrific openings
> to both New England, and to the Midwest.  Unfortunately I missed an FT8 EU
> opening - not sure how long it was there, and I got a call from an IS0, but
> couldn't complete the contact - and then no more from across the pond.
> 
> SSB was, of course the best way to make lots of Qs, and I had the rate meter
> up over 200 a couple of times.  But CW wasn't bad either, at times.  FT8,
> however, let me stay in the chair all day long, as there was always
> something out there to work - not that it was always easy to do, and it's
> agonizingly slow sometimes, especially working stations not clued in to the
> contest exchange.  I got used to flipping back and forth between contest
> mode and standard whenever someone would send me a signal report.  The
> problem was remembering to put it back!  It was also pretty clear when it
> was time to jump back to SSB/CW when FT8 would start displaying lots of
> signals in the waterfall.
> 
> Although I live in an antenna-restricted community, I take the chance to put
> up my old Cushcraft 5-element yagi on my old HAM-IV (which, outside of the
> contest, houses a PVC pole with a bird-feeder on top), on a Rohn pushup mast
> which I raise to about 25 feet.  No one complained this time around, so all
> is good.
> 
> One hassle was in trying to deal with the transition between N1MM+ and
> WSJT-X.  I like to know about what mults I've worked, whether a station is a
> dupe, and to just get a sense of total score.  So I kept grabbing the ADIF
> file from WSJT-X and importing it into N1MM+ whenever I went back to SSB/CW.
> It would also be nice to keep both programs running concurrently, but I
> haven't figured out how to do that, even with an IC-7610.
> 
> Looking forward to next year!
> 
> 73, Pete, K2PS
> 
>                    ARRL June VHF Contest
> 
> Call: K2PS
> Operator(s): K2PS
> Station: K2PS
> 
> Class: SO 3Band LP
> QTH: NFL
> Operating Time (hrs): 23
> 
> Summary:
> Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>    6:  663   141
>    2:           
>  222:           
>  432:           
>  903:           
>  1.2:           
>  2.3:           
>  3.4:           
>  5.7:           
>  10G:           
>  24G:           
> -------------------
> Total:  663   141  Total Score = 93,483
> 
> Club: Florida Contest Group
> 
> Comments:
> 
> 
> 
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
> 
> 
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