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Re: Sep VHF
Mike WB2FKO
I will be around but do not plan to work this contest very hard. I will try to keep track of KK6MC and hope to be at or around the radio for at least the first couple of hours. Mike WB2FKO On 09/08/2017 12:04 PM, Keith Morehouse
wrote:
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Re: Sep VHF
Bill
Keith, I have some unfortunate errands to run in CA so will be off air.. Bill W7QQ On Fri, Sep 8, 2017, 1:54 PM Mike H <mph@...> wrote:
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N7KA
Arne N7KA
Plans unraveled as days progressed. No aluminum to finish 2M yagi. Several of us had changes in plans. Did not contact K5WO to request using club call yet. I may do a solo trip on Sunday on 432 only. Its about 120 mile drive so its a maybe at this time. Arne N7KA |
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Re: N7KA
James Duffey
Sorry to hear about that Arne. Are you going to be on from home on Saturday? - Duffey
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Re: N7KA
Arne, I have a 2M9SSB (or a 2M7) available if your interested in borrowing a 2 meter antenna. 73, Jon W0AMT On Sat, Sep 9, 2017 at 9:10 AM James Duffey <JamesDuffey@...> wrote:
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Re: Sep VHF
KC7QY
My plan is pretty much in line with Mike's. I'll be on from home 50, 144, 432MHz. Jim KC7QY From: Mike H <mph@...> To: nmvhf@groups.io Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 2:54 PM Subject: Re: [nmvhf] Sep VHF I will be around but do not plan to work this contest very hard.
I will try to keep track of KK6MC and hope to be at or around the
radio for at least the first couple of hours.
Mike WB2FKO
On 09/08/2017 12:04 PM, Keith Morehouse
wrote:
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On my way out
James Duffey
Getting ready to head out to dm64. Look for kk6mc-6 on APRS.fi to see where I am. Bands 6m through 70cm. Thanks - Duffey kk6mc
James Duffey KK6MC Cedar Crest NM |
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W3DHJ/R Post OP: ARRL SEP VHF
Once again the ARRL SEP VHF presented as the triumph of hope over
experience. Very little Front Range participation -- at least detectable by me. Reading Phil, N0KE's report reveals more Colorado activity on the western slope. There were some "interesting" incidents in the contest, but any reward of spending some 18 hours in a car seat just did not seem to be there. The first hour score was 4 -- 2 Q's The second hour score was 25 -- 5 Q's The four hour score was 49 -- 7 Q's.... It was just 1 1/2 log sheets. There'll be no frantic rush this time to transcribe it into RoverLog to meet the ARRL submission deadline. (A much younger ham could've kept the log in his head...) DXCC 1 , WAS 3 I made more CW QSOs this time than in ALL my previous rover experience combined! My Saturday CW QSOs exceed my SSB QSOs. Sunday was similar. I probably screwed up copying one or two of the exchanges, but I was extra careful in passing my exchange to the other OPs. At least they'll get log credit. My brain goes blank when the QSO goes beyond the contest exchange format. My apologies to everyone. I REALLY screwed up when W9RM asked me to QSY to 6M. Sorry Keith! Worked Larry, N0LL late Sunday afternoon on 2M CW. One totally surprising 2M CW QSO was with Ben, KB0ZOM/R in EM09 -- my last QSO in the contest. A tough go - that one was! The only QSO into the NM VHF Society group was with K9VSW, DM76 My 432 rig was useless ballast on Saturday. But, on Sunday morning Ray, AA0L replied to my CQ on 432 and then went to the effort to work me on 2M and 6M. He also helped me figure out where 432.1 is on _my_ antique rig -- 432.101.5. WB0RRU (very weak) also gave me 2 QSOs on 432. And, George, AB0YM/R worked me for several QSOs on 432. Thanks to W0ETT -- who always seems to be there to make an exchange and/or to lend some moral support. Thanks, too, to George, AB0YM/R who had a tough go with WX this weekend and S9 QRN from his cellphone charger (until he pinned it down.) (My WX, in contrast, was sunny, hot, VERY DUSTY, with light wind.) It was my firm impression that propagation was Just Crap this weekend. Maybe it's the carbon attenuation from all of the smoke in the area from the western North American forest fires. It was so bad even my usual powerline QRN was down as I drove from site to site. HI!HI! I have yet to tally my score, but it would amaze me if it reaches 4 figures. 73 Jonesy -- Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/ Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ 38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK |
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Re: N0KE September ARRL VHF Contest
Keith Morehouse
I'm not usually into long messages about my results, but as a courtesy to those who were on locally (and to talk up VHF contesting ) I'll give a quick overview :) With only one tower up right now, with 6 & 2, I don't get too excited about VHF contests where there is little to no chance of sporadic E propagation on 6M. But, I do try to get on the bands I have to help others in the region. I'm pretty much the only opportunity anyone is going to have to work the DM58 multiplier above 6M (and usually on 6M also). This time, my goal was working a bit of meteor scatter Sunday morning (I really like meteor scatter on 2 and 222, even now with the relatively easy WSJT mode, MSK144), maybe logging a new grid or two on 2M and chasing KK6MC/R who was doing a loop east and south of ABQ. I figured I'd also be able to help out AB0YM/R, W3DHJ/r and others a little. Things went pretty much as I expected. I was able to work KK6MC/R on 2M from all four of his stops Saturday (DM64/74/65/75) and from two of four on 6M, including a all-time new 6M grid (DM74). I also worked W3DHJ/R from two or three stops, including one very strong 6M QSO from, I think, DM88 and a pair of 2M QSOs with AB0YM/R. At the start of the contest, I heard George/YM almost S9 on 2M and called and called with no response. Since I was probably running 3X his power, I was concerned he had a receive problem on 2M and made an effort with another front-range guy to relay my concern. That didn't work too well so I emailed him. He later replied that the location in question had S9 power line noise. Oh..... The number of people on PingJockey (the on-line chat site for VHF meteor-scatter) was surprising. The two summer contests had seen a decline in activity but September was way up. I guess the lack of decent 6M prop attract users to meteor scatter. I made a large handful of QSOs on 6M Saturday afternoon, a time you usually don't bother. Meteors are more prevalent in the morning hours and die off as the day goes on, starting to rise again after midnight local. There were enough users on PJ that it made it worthwhile to try. I also had a relatively easy and successful run with multi-op K5QE (EM31) on 2M at 3PM local time. I wouldn't have even tried then, but they were going to be concentrating on EME all night and into Sunday morning, so it was my only chance to give Marshall the multiplier. On Sunday, I started meteor-scatter ops at 1100Z, working a good number of 6 & 2M QSO's, including a pretty easy 1200 mile shot to KU8Y in EN61 on 2M. Meteor conditions were average to maybe slightly above average. Most runs attempted put a QSO into the log. There was no other propagation noticed on 6M. The vaunted and highly hyped FT8 mode on 6M was a non-starter. There was NO sporadic-E and no amount of digi horsepower and black-magic algorithms was going to change that fact. I did listen to the official FT8 6M frequency a couple of time and heard only meteor pings. I had to laugh to myself, thinking that these guys could be making QSOs using meteor-scatter modes instead of spinning their electric meters for no reason. Note to all readers - FT8 is a great mode when conditions are RIGHT for it, but don't be fooled into thinking it's the ONLY 6M mode. When the band is open, you can still run contest stations 5X faster on SSB. I turned everything off a little past noon on Sunday after I heard KK6MC/R was aborting the rest of his trip, ending the log with another W3DHJ/R and AB0YM/R QSO on 2M. W9RM score as submitted: 50 MHz: 52 QSOs x 43 mults 144 MHz: 33 QSOs x 25 mults Final: 85 QSOs x 68 mults => 5,780 pts Club submission: GMCC -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 7:41 AM, Phil Krichbaum <vailphil@...> wrote: Well there was a minor spurt of activity on the western slope to break in the completion's of K0AMA's tower in Rifle with a 3 el Stepper IR and yagis for 432 and 2m. Also Rick, KB0AHR a few blocks away was finally able to make a 222 QSO with his newly finished xverter to N0KE and 1.2 GHz is his next project. I heard Jeremy on 6m MSK144 at the tail end but we'd already worked on 6m so he is good to go next time! A couple of us found Prentice on from El Jebel on 6m and 2m with a vertical and W9RM from DM58 west of Delta. I only made 3 digital QSOs and all on 6m, 2 to CA and one to NM and was late to that party as meteor scatter was pretty decent earlier Sunday AM on 6m and 2m.My best DX on 2m was two front range rovers, AB0YM/R in DM78 and W3DHJ/R in DM87 who called while I was calling AB0YM./R |
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KK6MC/r in September VHF contest
James Duffey
Here are the KK6MC/r results for the September contest.
Class: Limited Rover LP QTH: NM Operating Time (hrs): 6.5 Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 6: 24 5 2: 29 7 222: 5 1 432: 22 6 903: 1.2: 2.3: 3.4: 5.7: 10G: 24G: ------------------- Total: 80 19 Total Score = 2,461 Club: New Mexico VHF Society Comments: I had a good contest on Saturday. Sunday not so much. Saturday I went out to the Moriarty convergence, DM64/65/74/75 and worked the four grids there until early evening. There was a fair amount of local activity for September and conditions were good enough to complete QSOes with W9RM at 300 miles on 2M from all the grids and 6M in 2 grids. WB5CST/r from OK who is visiting Albuquerque came out to the convergence and was on for a while to give me some QSOes from adjacent grids where activity was lacking. Early Sunday I drove down to Socorro and DM64. I picked up a few new QSOes that I hadn’t worked the day before in DM64 and two new mults with N5SJ. I then headed east to DM63. On the way to a high ridge on a very rough and bumpy road, my mast support broke and sent my antennas crashing to the road, which was rock there. The antenna mast is tied to the roof rack of the Subaru with a wooden 2x2. The mast with the antennas was rswaying back and forth and eventually split the 2x2 and the mast fell backwards and all the antennas came smashing down on the road. The 6M antenna is OK, the 2M antenna has a badly bent driven element and a couple of bent elements. The bent elements can be straightened; I already have straightened them a bit. The 222MHz antenna had a couple of bent elements and a bent driven element, but the driven element is not bent badly and I straightened that. The 432 MHz antenna has a few bent elements, but they can be straightened. Like all disasters there were several mistakes made: 1. I probably should not have been on that road. 2. There is a retaining pin on the mast which prevents it from folding over. That pin would have kept the mast from folding over even if the 2x2 had split. The pin was missing, I am not sure if I didn’t replace it when I folded the mast over to install the antennas or if I didn’t put the retainer clip in place to keep it from falling apart. 3. Wood was probably not the best choice for the support. I removed the antennas from the mast and put them and the mast on the roof for the trip home. Some rebuilding needs to be done for the January contest. Little major damage, but without the support I could not continue the contest, so I disassembled everything and drove home, stopping in Socorro for lunch and a beer with KC7QY. I hope others had a better time of it. - Duffey KK6MC/r James Duffey Cedar Crest, NM jamesduffey@... |
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Re: N0KE September ARRL VHF Contest
James Duffey
Wow Keith, good score!
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Thanks for the QSOes on Saturday, I think the humidity in the air helped a lot. 300 mile+ QSOes are difficult from non-elevated locations, so I appreciated the efforts on your end. Sorry about having to abort my rover trip early, it would have been nice to see if we could work from DM63 and DM73. - Duffey KK6MC
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Re: KK6MC/r in September VHF contest
Keith Morehouse
I think you need to invest in a carbon-nanotube 2x4 ! -RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 2:20 PM, James Duffey <JamesDuffey@...> wrote:
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W3DHJ/R SEP VHF results
That didn't take long!
I managed to transcribe my clay tablet log to RoverLog even before the clay had a chance to dry. Only used one clay tablet for this contest.... RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid: Grid QSOs DM77 8 DM78 3 DM87 9 DM88 11 RoverLog Score Summary Band QSOs Value QSOPts Mults 50 7 1 7 4 144 18 1 18 10 432 6 2 12 4 Grids activated: 4 Totals: 31 37 22 Claimed Score: 814 Old School: SSB, and rusty, QRS CW During transcription I was reminded about how grim it was. Made 5 QSOs in DM88, 2.5 hours on Saturday Just 2 QSOs in DM87, 2.5 hours on Saturday Just 3 QSOs in DM77, 2.0 hours on Saturday Just 1 QSO in DM78, 2.0 hours on Saturday. Yep! That was Saturday: 11 QSOs! 73 Jonesy -- Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/ Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ 38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK |
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Re: KK6MC/r in September VHF contest
On Mon, 11 Sep 2017, James Duffey wrote:
OUCH!! I'll bet that brought tears to your eyes! My "Murphy Moment" came when I let the solar panels slip and fall back down on the roof rack as I was adjusting the prop for the lower angle of the late afternoon sun. It cracked the underside glass on one of the panels. But checking just now with a VOM, it appears all three panels still show the same open circuit volts, and the same short circuit amps. The panels must be overlaid by some plastic film -- at least on the underside, because a finger nail test does not detect the cracks. However, I think some overlaying by strips of Gorilla Tape (tm) is called for (since, contrary to Murphy, the cracking is on the _underside_.) Just for the helluvit, I'll do the other two panels, as well. 73 Jonesy -- Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/ Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ 38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK |
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Re: N0KE September ARRL VHF Contest
Keith Morehouse
Jim, both DM63 & DM73 would be all-time new grids for me on both 6 & 2.
Maybe I could talk you into going there someday with a small 6M beam and attempting a QSO on one of the digital modes if CW didn't cut it. -W9RM |
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Re: N0KE September ARRL VHF Contest
James Duffey
Yes, I can do this. I will do some Radio Mobile calculations to identify the best sites for success. Given what we just did this weekend, I think that it is possible, particularly on the digital modes. I am going to try to get WSJT-X up and running this week in time for the 2M sprints to experiment with the mode. - Duffey
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Re: KK6MC/r in September VHF contest
n5epa.bob@...
Duffey,
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Wood should be an adequate non-conductive support for your particular mobile installation. But, it seems, you just need to carry a much bigger "stick"!(With safety retainer pins in place too, of course.) Bob, N5EPA ----- Original Message -----
From: "James Duffey" <JamesDuffey@...> To: nmvhf@groups.io Sent: Monday, September 11, 2017 8:20:37 AM Subject: [nmvhf] KK6MC/r in September VHF contest Here are the KK6MC/r results for the September contest. Class: Limited Rover LP QTH: NM Operating Time (hrs): 6.5 Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 6: 24 5 2: 29 7 222: 5 1 432: 22 6 903: 1.2: 2.3: 3.4: 5.7: 10G: 24G: ------------------- Total: 80 19 Total Score = 2,461 Club: New Mexico VHF Society Comments: I had a good contest on Saturday. Sunday not so much. Saturday I went out to the Moriarty convergence, DM64/65/74/75 and worked the four grids there until early evening. There was a fair amount of local activity for September and conditions were good enough to complete QSOes with W9RM at 300 miles on 2M from all the grids and 6M in 2 grids. WB5CST/r from OK who is visiting Albuquerque came out to the convergence and was on for a while to give me some QSOes from adjacent grids where activity was lacking. Early Sunday I drove down to Socorro and DM64. I picked up a few new QSOes that I hadn’t worked the day before in DM64 and two new mults with N5SJ. I then headed east to DM63. On the way to a high ridge on a very rough and bumpy road, my mast support broke and sent my antennas crashing to the road, which was rock there. The antenna mast is tied to the roof rack of the Subaru with a wooden 2x2. The mast with the antennas was rswaying back and forth and eventually split the 2x2 and the mast fell backwards and all the antennas came smashing down on the road. The 6M antenna is OK, the 2M antenna has a badly bent driven element and a couple of bent elements. The bent elements can be straightened; I already have straightened them a bit. The 222MHz antenna had a couple of bent elements and a bent driven element, but the driven element is not bent badly and I straightened that. The 432 MHz antenna has a few bent elements, but they can be straightened. Like all disasters there were several mistakes made: 1. I probably should not have been on that road. 2. There is a retaining pin on the mast which prevents it from folding over. That pin would have kept the mast from folding over even if the 2x2 had split. The pin was missing, I am not sure if I didn’t replace it when I folded the mast over to install the antennas or if I didn’t put the retainer clip in place to keep it from falling apart. 3. Wood was probably not the best choice for the support. I removed the antennas from the mast and put them and the mast on the roof for the trip home. Some rebuilding needs to be done for the January contest. Little major damage, but without the support I could not continue the contest, so I disassembled everything and drove home, stopping in Socorro for lunch and a beer with KC7QY. I hope others had a better time of it. - Duffey KK6MC/r James Duffey Cedar Crest, NM jamesduffey@... |
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[VHFcontesting] My article regarding the new WSJT modes and VHF contesting....with link this time....
Keith Morehouse
This is a longer version of an article Marshall, K5QE, wrote for NCJ. It was too long for publication so a lot of the history and perspective was cut out of the article, which will appear some time in the future, either in NCJ or linked from one or another ARRL website. I helped him refine the published version and was concerned a lot of the real 'meat' had been cut. The original article, accessible via the dropbox link below, is a must-read for anyone interested in VHF contesting. I'm very concerned about where the VHF bands (mostly 6M) are heading. The wholesale adoption of JT65 & now FT8 WSJT modes has reduced SSB & CW activity to near zero on that band. What this means from a contesting perspective, something everybody reading this should have a stake in (I sent this to two CONTESTING mail lists), is people are trading off high run-rate modes for much less efficient, albeit effective, digital modes. This is not pushing the art of contesting forward. This phenomenon is limited to VHF contests for the time being, as they are not mode-specific, but this appears to be the first time in contesting history where many people accept a step backwards in the ability to create score by using a much less efficient run mode. -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marshall-K5QE <k5qe@...> Date: Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 3:04 PM Subject: [VHFcontesting] My article regarding the new WSJT modes and VHF contesting....with link this time.... To: VHF Contesting <vhfcontesting@...> Hello all, my previous mail was useless as the reflector stripped off the attached article. Here is a DropBox link that should work https://www.dropbox.com/s/9l5o If at first you don't succeed,....... Thanks and sorry for the first attempts..... 73 Marshall K5QE |
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AUTUMN 2M SPRINT (tonight)
Keith Morehouse
Is anybody going to be on for the 2M Sprint tonight (7PM-11PM local time) ? I'm not planning on sitting in front of the radio unless there is going to be someone on to work (or at least hear). -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO |
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Re: AUTUMN 2M SPRINT (tonight)
bmoelius
I plan to be on.
Bob KA5EBL
DM84JK
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