AA2SD/Rover Details Jan 2024 Contest

Dear Fellow Club Members and Friends

Thanks to all the worked me on the air this past weekend as a Rover in the ARRL VHF Contest.. You
can follow along with me on this "very cold" Rove with the YouTube Video Link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBGMl_gJCSo

The colder weather and wind really impacted my ability to put up larger antennas at each site. at
Sandy Hook, I did complete Mount Mitchel and the Twin Lights in the Atlantic Highlands of NJ,  and I
scratched Cape May. 

I was able to complete the planned Rove in Lancaster with Welsh Mountain with the following grids. I
also experienced much slower drive times, due to the ice and weather. The positive is that I was
able to make over 40% of my calls "on the run mobile" with omni directional halo antennas. and
digitally record the audio QSO for logging after the drive. The W3SZ.com Database and live map,
worked very well for on the move contacts


Thanks to all that worked  me on site and on the Run !

AA2SD/R
ROVER
Scott

Summary of Rove

385 Miles Total Roving

Average Temperature was 22 Degrees, windy blowing over 15-20 knots at Sandy Hook, at Welsh Mountain,
roads were clear and we had a foot of snow with beautiful weather, lots of Snowy Roads in Lancaster
with wind drifts slowed me down.

Completed Over 193 plus  contacts, of which 70 plus were completed on the move or 40% as a moving
mobile Rover with Halo Antennas on the roof rack.

Saturday Day 1-  I covered a total of (4) Grid Squares Sandy Hook Overlooks Atlantic Highlands 

- FN30 Twin  FN20 one way home and FM29  Lights and FN20 Mount Mitchell and FM29 on the way home

Sunday Day 2 - I covered (3) Grids Wesh Mtn FN10 - 

Gap PA FM 10  FN20 and FM29

Highest elevation was 1075 feet

I used (4) antenna for this rove on push up poles, and a set of rack mounted Halo Antennas on the
mobile

4 Element 6 Mtr Beam

7 Element 2 Mtr Antenna

10 Element 440 Antenna

10 Elemen 222 Antenna


Not one FT8 contact - all on Phone

The W3SZ.com Database and live map, worked very well for on the move contacts


Thank you  everyone for contacting me on the Rove!

I could only work may Saturday, Sunday belongs to the YL.

First ARRLVHFJAN in San Diego CA

Conditions were abysmal. ( that is half way between atrocious and dismal).  If you want to increase
your score, add some microwave bands!

Worked New Zealand on 6 Hooray for me!

For this contest I used two Win10/11 towers plus a laptop, with two instances of N1MM+ each with its
own WSJT-X instance and rig control.  I finally was able to get WSJT-X to play nicely with N1MM+, so
the dupe checking went pretty well.  A big windstorm in Tennessee ruined my 6m antenna, so I
installed a Comet GP-15 vertical on the rear deck during the contest in order to make a few QSOs on
6m.  The bad weather was also responsible for my 432 Yagi going to high SWR, so my contact count on
70cm was very low.  A barefoot FT857D was used on 6m/2m/70cm (with 100 watt amps), and an IC375A (25
watts) was dedicated to 222 MHz.  Operating SO2R was a real pleasure.  Separate FM rigs and
verticals provided a few QSOs on that mode.  A total of five rigs were used simultaneously.  One of
the QSO highlights was a 2m MSK contact with WE7L in DM79.  It was a shame that the horrible cold
weather put a damper on rover activity.

Antennas:
6m Comet GP-15
2m 9el LFA Yagi
1.25m 15el M2 Yagi
70cm 21el M2 Yagi (failed feedline)
FM triband vertical with triplexer
 Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts  Grd  Pt/Q
    50  FT8     15      15   11   1.0
   144  FM       3       3    0   1.0
   144  FT8     48      48   30   1.0
   144  MSK1     3       3    3   1.0
   144  USB      2       2    2   1.0
   222  FT8     15      30   14   2.0
   420  FM       1       2    0   2.0
   420  FT8      2       4    2   2.0
 Total  Both    89     107   62   1.2
Score: 6,634
1 Mult = 1.4 Q's

Thanks for all the QSOs and attempts. Looking forward to even more fun in the June contest.
73, Walt, AJ6T

HI I HAD A LOT OF FUN

Very casual operating during this contest. I am happy with my score, and the fact I partially
rebuilt an engine during my off times. Sunday started slow, for me, and just as I was about to call
it a day,,,BOOM,,,,6m opened up nice to the NW and then XE, ZL, and a very loud signal from FK8HA
(Pat was +7 off the side of my yagi!) I tried to work Pat for 10 mins and moved on. It was great to
see a few rovers working STX and I was able to log a couple. Dupes from the non contesters were not
as abundant and I noticed a few eventually changed to contest mode. 432  was dead for me and I had a
few failed attemtps at MS(finally realized i was 500 hz low dang it!). Well, Jan is in the books and
it's time to plan my June Rove as K0AXX/R. 73 de K0AXX-Will-EM20

This weekend I had the great pleasure of remotely operating Dave Robbin's K1TTT station.
It was my first time at K1TTT so I had a bit of learning to do but with Dave's help
I was able to settle in quite nicely.  6M FT8 yielded the most Qs; at times the waterfall
looked like 20M on a contest weekend!  No DX was to be had but there were plenty of
'locals' to fill the log.  2M FT8 also quite busy at times; again, no amazing DX
but several new-to-me grids made me smile.  432 was generaly very quiet,
only a small handful of Qs there.  The absence of a bandscope made finding SSB
contacts a bit challenging but a few were had, mostly as a result of the 'any other bands'
question.  I did make a few FM contacts, mostly out of curiosity for activity
in that contest class.
As always, great fun was had!  I'm now looking forward to "The Big One" in June!

Used an indoor fan dipole and 80 Watts.

T -3 hours, it's cold in DC/NOVA. Bands are very quite, maybe the
radio waves are frozen!
Very little enhancement here in the east though some of the
bigger, DX stations managed some ZL contacts.  I built a coaxial
mast for my indoor antenna system so that I could work different
directions on 6 and 2/70cm at the same time.  Worked well though
I had to get out of my chair more to activate the armstrong
rotators.  Once I worked out a system, set one antenna to call
CQ and then move the other around to search and pounce.  The S&P
had to be moved more frequently.  Can't wait for June.

Indoor antennas and HOA restrictions limit abilities, but the Jan VHF
contest was still fun this year. Nice to work some old friends on the air.

I had serious software interface issues and lost more than half of the contest operating time.  
However, I still managed 120 contacts, all digital.

"Hopefully activity will be better in June."

Difficult to make high analog score when everyone else is on digital mode.
We need analog only contests like 10+ years ago.

Good Saturday. Fabulous Sunday. Here's my blog post
https://k5nd.net/2024/01/arrl-january-vhf-contest-2024-blockbuster/

Not many stations on this year!  Tnx and 73 to those I QSO'ed. Dennis K6DF

As the 49er game started at around 5:15 here in the Bay Area, the
bands went silent!

First January contest at new QTH, temporary antennas surrounded by wet trees, really limited QSO
totals compared to Sept and past QTHs.

6 was great on Sunday

Fun to operate the Family Station
with my Dad and help him get the
6 M dipole up ten feet above the
bed of the truck in the clear.
This must have helped on the
154 mile contact from Lakeville
EN34ip to KG0VL near Waterloo, IA
in EN32wo. Maybe Jeff did all the
heavy lifting on his end with a
beam antenna. Still pretty good
for a mobile in bitter cold winds.
Fantastic !

didn't do as much of the contest because of naqp and also not enough activity.

Conditions not as great as last January making it a bit more difficult.  In the last hour and a
half, many new stations appeared with the last 30 minutes being very slow.  Interesting to watch psk
reporter to see where I was getting out.  Unfortunately I did not hear any ZL stations like others
were.  PSK reporter didn't show me being heard in ZL land either.  Maybe someday.  Hope to see
everyone and more in the fall!

Ka5pmv

Single band 6 mtr ft8 only.  Best I can do in a remote rural area....  Great
opening Sunday from OR to AZ/NM area  Nearly doubled my previous high score for
Jan VHF.  Thanks for the qso's  Dave ka6bim

I want to thank W2EV for inspiring me to participate!

I also want to thank the other folks that took the time to get on the
air and make the contest worthwhile.

Great fun, as usual. Thanks everyone for the contacts.

RoverLog is terrific!


RoverLog is terrific!

START-OF-LOG: 3.0
RoverLog is terrific!


RoverLog is terrific!

Terrible cold operating conditions.
Outdoor truck thermometer showing
MINUS 9 F. WX SERVICE broadcasting
MINUS 35 F Wind Chills. Frostbite
ON Exposed skin in less than 10 min.
Almost impossible to change antennas
from secure travel bindings to
rotateable operate configuration.
Forget it, just aim the truck and take
what I get. Worked KG0VL at 175
miles on 144 and 432 that way.
Fantastic !

Happy 75th Anniversary, Rochester VHF Group!

KD6EFQ/R operated as a Rover in Arizona Pima County,
Pinal County, Maricopa County, Yuma County,
California Imperial County DM22, and San Diego County DM12.
Weather conditions were damp with some rain, with WX fronts aloft
moving from west to east apparently enabling some
propagation on the 6m band.   We had pretty good activity with FT-8 on 50.
We used a portable loop antenna on a stick, vertical
and portable antennas, for the band in use.   W4IU operated while in vehicle and KD6EFQ operated
1.3m and 1.2GHz when portable.
Too few stations were on-the-air for this event in Arizone for a high QSO score
However, 6m FT-8 was very active with stations with grids in
western USA received ... except not many California stations received.
A contest shout-out to Paul W9PDC for his effort putting on 1.3m and 1.2G bands for QSOs in DM42.

Fun to work the family station with
Grandpa Mel.

I recently got my ham license and this is my first VHF contest!

This was my first January VHF contest and my fourth-ever VHF contest. I'm getting the hang of
things, though I still need to polish my workflow for logging. This was also my first time roving
with another vehicle, piloted by Andrea K2EZ/R. We made a lot of QSOs within grids, across grid
lines, swap, do it again. It was during this time that I learned that I need to work on a logging
routine that flows well in such a high-paced environment. Yes, I was parked while operating and
logging. Still, it was very easy for me to forget to update my grid square or to change bands in the
log. I run three mobile rigs; so, a rig interface for the log is not an easy task.

This was also my first contest with a trailer-mounted tower. I am experimenting with different
setups. I don't think I like it. Its benefit is that I can set it up well in advance when the
weather is nice, then it takes just a few minutes to couple to the trailer hitch. Drawbacks include
increased fuel consumption (~22 mpg) and it's VERY difficult to reverse in the dark since the
trailer is small and black. The combination is very maneuverable, so long as I don't need to back it
more than a few feet.

My rove included over 900 miles of driving through eight Maidenhead grid squares. I burned 41
gallons during the rove, resulting in 2.9 QSOs per gallon. ;) With 93 octane averaging $3.70, each
QSO cost about $1.30. It's a cost of entertainment! :)

I think I will try operating with only my beams next time. I'm learning from others what seems to
work and may find benefit in leaving the loops at home.

73,

Scott, KE4WMF

Best QRB is 1963km for NR7T at DM38
First foray into 2m contesting with an old IC-275H.
Now I have to find a 70cm rig. . .

Great event, special thanks to the ROVERS who make this event interesting!

There was not a lot of activity on VHF and UHF during the event in Anchorage, Alaska.  Will have to
get the word out for the June VHF event.

A couple of fun days.  My system is built for going to hill tops a 3,500-4,500 feet in the Blue
Ridge so I know what to expect when I work from home in VA Beach at Sea Level.  The 6m antenna is
only 20feet up on the Jeep and the top antenna, 2m, is at 38 feet with 432 and 220 in between. 
Works great at 4K ASL, not so good a Sea level.  Contest down here are all about ignoring the score
and having a much fun handing out points as possible. 

The contest did not disappoint. 69 QSO's in 19 hours mostly FT8, yawn.  

However I had a couple hours of great fun working a rover through 4 grids getting all 4 bands on
three grids and 2 bands on the 4th.  We did a combo of FM and SSB.  I sure love talking through the
QSO's versus clicking through them.

It makes me appreciate those events where I have FM and SSB pile ups on the mountain tops.  Guess I
need a tower, bigger beams and amps to make working from  home fun.  "Hey honey guess what I
bought....Hi HI.

Hope you had as  much or more fun than I did.

73 
John
KM4KMU.

1300 local Sat to 2200 local Sun.

Missed all of Sat afternoon and Sunday Morning. Was kind ofslow until 4 or 5 hours before the end
when 6m opened up wide to New Zealand.

My second contest. Very rainy and cold up on Corona Heights Park in San Francisco.

My first contest and first time operating from Mount Tamalpais.
Also my first time to activate this location for POTA.

Unfortunately the wet weather attenuated signals and it seemed like
there were fewer stations on the air.

I missed out , as a kid, not getting into Amateur (Ham) Radio. Now, as a Senior, I am playing
catchup and loving every minute, every contest, club interaction, and more. Thanks AARL and W4OVH

Casual operating just for fun.

Wow, definitely my highest all time score in the January contest!
Saturday was nice, with some good regional DX (W7MEM and KA6BIM
for example), I got a late start on Sunday morning, but when I
turned the radio on, I had to check to see if it was June or
January!  6m just kept going until 0400 when the contest ended.
Thanks for all the QSOs!

Deed restrictions at our new house preclude putting up much for a 6M antenna, so I put up a homebrew
HoLoop style antenna mounted on the back deck handrail.  Running 35W into it on FT8 yielded 16 QSOs.
 Certainly not a winning score, but 6M is always fun, regardless of mode or number of QSOs.

6 meters was spotty at first, then it went wild on the last day.

A very cold, chilly contest for single op portable. It was -8 degrees F when I set up at the start.
Sunny at least. So cold my Microsoft Surface laptop balked and quit. Went to an old Dell to log and
do WSJT-X. Contest started with some local tropo on 6 Meters - NI0G EM48 being contact #1.
Conditions picked up Saturday evening with Es on 6 Meters to Mexico. Logged XE2YWH DL92, 6D5C DL90
and XE2N DL95. These Es provided a crossing path from the southeast states, Louisiana and south
Texas to Australia by linking with TEP. W5TRL and K5QE worked into Western Australia. The next
morning, I logged K5QE EM31 on msk144. Meteors are a tough challenge with 10 watts. Then Es to 7
land appeared around noon. Picked Up N7GP/R in 3 grids. After sundown, 6 got smokin' hot with strong
Es to VE3, VE4, W7 and Colorado. W9RM was very loud, but the signal was spread on the waterfall and
often did not decode. Worked 2 stations in CN85 and K7CW CN87.  Last contact was with W7GJ in
Montana. Copied Lance work PY2XB (GG66) right at the end of the contest. It was real cold operating
portable, but the conditions were worth it. Brrrr!

I just operated in the evening Sunday night on 6m.
It was pretty open from OKC in EM15!

ZL in the January contest was really nice!

First time for this contest in a long time. Enjoyed it very much!

N1QDQ Westerly RI running barefoot IC9700 and dusting off old cush
2mx13 boomer. Portable tripod and mast, antenna took a spill, no
damage, had a lot of fun. 73

Conditions were not great, but after I redesigned inside shack had an
easier time operating. Split was 71 SSB and 51 FT8. My new Gemini amp
for 432 worked great. Only problem was 6M. Very low score due to rotor
failure on Saturday. The rotor locked in only a 90 degree pattern
(west-south). As a result, missed many New England stations. Not a bad
showing spend some time rag chewing and then contesting. I will fix 6M
issue in Spring.

So this one was a bit of an adventure.  The original plan was to go up SOTA W2/GC-055 Hook Mountain
with all bands from 2m to 5.7Ghz and to be ready for the start of the contest on Saturday.  I was
packing a lot of stuff, but the hike up Hook is short...something like a mile.  Unfortunately I got
delayed and found myself starting up the hill late in the afternoon. The weather had deteriorated as
well, it was a windy 15F or so.  Still I continued as I was well prepared for the cold. What I was
not prepared for was for my backpack to fail 3/4 of the way up.  My 15 year old Osprey's left
shoulder strap ripped from its moorings and at that point, in the harsh weather, I decided to turn
around rather than struggle the rest of the way without a pack. What a heartbreaker but in the
windy, icy, cold conditions it was the right move.
The next day I found some time to operate from the nearby drive up summit W2/NJ-009 where I wouldn't
need a backpack. Also the temps had slightly improved. I setup the IC-905 with a log periodic for
2m-1.2ghz, an M2 yagi in a randome for 2.4G and a panel for 5.7G.  The Microsoft Surface Go3 froze
in the conditions, so no digital modes, but the IC-905 worked almost flawlessly despite the spec for
the head unit only going to 32F. I was thrilled to make my first 5.7G contact with K1TEO and to make
a handful of contacts on 2.4G and 1.2G and a few 902 and 222 contacts. No true DX for me this time
though. W2/GC-055 would have about 360 degrees of unobstructed horizon while W2/NJ-009 had tall
trees for about half of that and only good shots from 0-180 degrees. WB2JAY was very patient to work
the bands with me.

top of Palos Verdes sees a long way

Started out  fine, but Murphy visited, and things go worse from there.  Finals died and my house
water pipes had 5 leaks. So had to cut my contesting time to take care of some of the problems that
I could.  Water back on now, thanks to Grandson in Law.  But now have to patch drywall, replace
master bedroon shower controls, and paint several rooms. Oh well, we did what we had to do.  Better
luck next contest, I hope.  73, from Joe  N5QYC

Enjoyed operating from the top of San Pedro Hill and listening to the rain Saturday night

All QSOs were made from DM04, but 3/4 of my QSOs were made from
Tarantula Hill in the City of Thousand Oaks (DM04ne). the rest were
made from the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu (DM04pa). 900
MHz
only yielded 2 QSOs, but 446 MHz netted 13 QSO. 1294.5 MHz provided 4
QSO in 3 grids.

I decided to be simple and show newbies what can be done with 2 watt
FM handheld rigs with rubber duckie antennas. I used 2 ALINCO
handhelds and an old Yaesu VX-5R.

Dest DX at 81.5 miles from Tarantula Hill was with KN6UWK (DM02rx) at
the North end of San Clemente Island. Signals on the 2m, 70cm, & 23cm
bands all passed over the over the 3000 ft. Santa Monica Mt. range.

We had lots of rain in the weekend forecast, but I managed to avoid
all of the showers on both days.

Because I operated only on FM, I missed the 6 meter FT-8 openings on
Sunday: Oh, well....but I hasd fun anyway.

Ho hum Saturday. Lost power from about 1200Z to almost 1800Z
Sunday and when I could turn on the radios 6 meters was open to
the east.  Sunday was a lot of fun!

Despite blowing thr fuses on the 432 amp early on and scrambling to find replacements, then having
to tilt over the UHF tower to fix a bum jimper to the 432 antenna on Sunday, things went prretty
smoothly. Activity seemed light, and only a couple of openings (Ohio to ZL early on Saturday!). BUt
we had a great time as always.

Typical January conditions. Still only have 3 elements at ~18'AGL for
6M, and armstrong rotator. With below zero temps here in TN the past
couple of nights, the mast joint I turn the antenna from froze at 250
degrees. The CO2QU, KA1JY, and W4ERP were all worked on the ground mounted
6BTV due to beam orientation! Surprisingly, I was a ble to make 3 meteor
scatter contects. That was fun, but took a long time to finish. All three
of the ops I worked definitely did all the heavy lifting after checking
their QRZ pages. K5QE, W5EME, and WM5L all have top notch EME arrays.
Sunday late afternoon and evening we got some "steady spoadic" Es to the WNW
that made things interesting. Also copied a couple ZLs off the side of the
beam. BY the time I finally took the cold walk out to the antenna to turn
the beam towards ZL, and back to the shack, they were pretty much gone! But
I saw other stations still calling them. Some in my grid square and some
from grids 400 miles NNW from me. Another January VHF contest in the books.
73 Gene, N9TF  Rig K3S for 6M, FT-897D for 2m and 70CM. 3 element 6m beam
at 18' and 6BTV for some 6m Qs. 2m and 70CM ant. Discone at 20'

Could not find any 70cm stations from my location.

The conditions were pretty much to the east on Saturday but by Sunday afternoon the opeining to the
southwest and west was tremendous. My biggest surprise was when ZL1RS called me!

Contest conditions were typical winter. Did make some excellent aircraft scatter contacts including
VA2WA on 144, WZ1V K1TEO and K8TQK on 1296. Thanks to the rovers out there VE3OIL/R,
VA3ELE/R,K2UA/R, KF2MR/R and KE2BUY/R!
Big Happy 75th Anniversary to the Rochester VHF Group!

Cold day.  Rotator froze (I was the rotator).

BAND           QSOs              MULTS

50             79                16
144            86                19
222            49                12
432            48                12
902            17                4
1.2G           21                7
2.3G           9                 4
3.4G           4                 3
5.7G           1                 1
10G            6                 3
24G            1                 1
123G           1                 1
LIGHT          1                 1

This was a very low key Rover effort this year.  I was also
multitasking and doing Geocaching at the same time.    Most of the
contacts were 2m FM.  Nothing was heard on 6m. I hope I helped a few
folks.

My transmitted mode is shown for cross-mode contacts
Claimed score does not include 5 duplicate QSOs
Equipment -
50 MHz Yaesu FTDX10 60-100 W, attic dipole
144 MHz Elecraft K2+xvtr+amp 100W, 5 el Yagi @ 25'.FT290RII 25 W, indoor GP on FM.
222 MHz Elecraft K2+xvtr 20W, 7 el.indoor Yagi
432 MHz Elecraft K2+xvtr+amp 50W, 10 el. Indoor Yagi.FT-818 6W, indoor GP on FM.
903 MHz Elecraft K2+rx conv., homebrew tx, 5W, 7 el indoor Yagi
1296 MHz FT-290R+xvtr+amp 6W, 10 el indoor Yagi
2304 MHz: FT-290R+xvtr 1W, 9 el indoor Yagi
3456 MHz: FT-290R+xvtr 1W, indoor horn
10 GHz: K2 + 2m xvtr + DB6NT xvtr/amp 2 W, indoor 2 ft. dish

Special thanks to KG6CIH/R for lots of contacts.

Thanks for the contacts. 73 - Dan, W1Qk

This was the first contest since January 2020 where we had all of the lower four bands plus 1296.
Still running with just the radios without power amps or LNAs and microwave is currently on a
discone, so TX and RX were a little weak (as per usual RX was the bigger handicap). Overall however,
very pleased with how the station performed despite the limitations, All the new club members are
learning how to work together well for multiop, and it was good hearing familiar voices back on the
air as well.

73, KC1EPN

Was playing on JS8CALL and just happened to notice activity on 6 meters. Learned what CQ TEST was
all about. Was surprised to hear some "Dx" on 6. Honestly, was the first time I've heard Dx on 6m. I
was using a G5Rv and didn't even know my tuner would tune the antenna on 6m. Was also exciting to
work K4MIE, the radio shack of SIGNALS museum (Aka museum of information explosion).

Happy 75th Anniversary to the Rochester VHF Group!

This event was the IC705 at 10 watts into a 7 element zero cost homebrew yagi on 70cm, a 4 element
yagi on 2m, and a homebrew zero cost dipole on 6m ... all less than 10 feet above ground ...
operating portable analog only.  It was a little chilly and the analog bands seemed quiet and the
location wasn't perfect, but it was a lot of fun and a learning experience.  Thanks to everyone who
worked to pull the tiny W2NTN signal out of the noise.  Also thanks to Gary, N2OT, who built a mini
rotor in advance, and let me use it for the contest.

Spent a pleasant 6 hours on the radio while driving up the I-85 and I-95
corridor Sunday from Apex NC, FM-05 to Lancaster PA FN10.  Station was a Kenwood
TM-255A 2 meter multimode and the antenna was a Hustler 5/8 wl mag mount on the
roof of a rental minivan.  Had no great expectations since antenna was
vertically polarized and I was running light bulb power.  Surprisingly, I made
11 contacts, and could have had a few more if stations I heard had heard me. 
Worked Aaron, W4JST/R, FM07 while in a number of grids in VA,Dave K1RZ, FM19 from
two grids and a few other people. Surprised at how well the thrown together
station worked. Got to Lancaster right before 2:00 p.m.

Best QRB is 477km for N3FB at EN90

My first VHF contest.  I need better equipment, but still had fun.  Quite a challenge living in a
valley

The summary got it wrong, we used 50w on 6m, 2m, and 70cm but they listed us as HP.  No obvious way
to fix.       
Jim W4EE

Had a great time as /R.  FT8 ruled the day on 6m and 2m with opening
to 7 land mid Sunday afternoon on 6m.
Looking forward to June as /R.

Greatest January VHF contest yet!

First time contesting on 6m SSB, what a hoot!

I operated for 4 hours from a SOTA Summit near the Phoenix area called Usery Pass Mountain.  The
weather was overcast with occasional drizzle as a system was moving into the area. I operated 50 MHz
to 1.2 Ghz SSB CW and FM. I really enjoy participating in the VHF contests this way.  The challenge
of hiking up to the summit and operating is great fun.  The height advantage is a huge boost as
well.  I am looking forward to June and then next Mountain Top Portable activation.

Right off the bat I had.high vswr on 2m, then vswr went high on 1.25m, leaving me with 6m and 70cm.
Faraday was bad for me on Saturday limiting 432 eme and 6m propagation was all but nil. Sunday
looked a little better with some unexpected E's on 6m and favorable eme conditions. Although my
score looks poor, it's actually pretty good for my QTH during Jan contets.

6m was active all weekend. There was a
nice opening to the West on Sunday evening.
Thanks for the QSOs and 73, Ron (W8RU).

It was a struggle with the worst VHF conditions of the year in South Florida this weekend.  Murphy's
law. Add to that the fact that I was using a 5 element beam at 13ft AGL in my attic for 2m, and my
80m attic dipole for 6m, and you have a recipe for a very low score in the contest.  Knew that I
wasn't going to have a big score with my setup,but was hoping to pick up some more grids and maybe a
state or two on 2m.  Only picked up 2 grids during the entire contest.

The one bright spot, that helped me lift my score at least to 4 digits, was the really big E-skip
opening on 6m Sunday evening.  Prior to that, 6m had been stone cold dead here the entire contest.
It was also open to ZL, and I picked up my first ZL contact on 6m! So, the contest wasn't a total
wash out for me.  I did have fun for my first ever VHF contest!  FT8 is my friend with a condo
station.

Fun contest this year.  Better than usual VHF January conditions.

Absolutely HORRID propagation conditions, worst I've seen in years!

This year I decided to have all 4 antennas indoors due to the sub-zero temps outside. To my surprise
the MFJ telescoping 6m whip, which I mounted in my dining room window, performed better than
expected. As soon as I turned on my radio to check the SWR I worked, VO1SIX with only 6 watts on
50.130 Mhz. Unfortunately, the contact happened before the contest, so it didn't count. It was
however logged into my QRZ. As always, height is might during this contest anyway.

Didn't spend as much time operating as usual; the polar vortex made it all the way into the shack!
Running 3 amplifiers and a space heater barely helped!

Snow Ice and artic winds returned to eastern PA the week before the contest after a nearly two-year
absence. This caused several rovers to change plans or avoid the general area altogether. Otherwise,
it was a typical January VHF slog.

I was not able to operate on Saturday due to family obligations.
Sunday was 25 degrees with some wind, making portable operation a bit
challenging and fun in setting up the antennas.  I Worked two grids
across the four bands on analog modes.   There was no SSB or CW after 11 am
local time.

Getting ready for next one

Brian WS1O driving around with Ron N1LSJ from home QTH in Connecticut to a couple of reasonably
elevated spots in ice-cold snowy western Rhode Island (FN41) and southeastern Massachusetts (FN42),
not too much action on the bands, otherwise we would have also tried to rove over to FN31 and FN32.
Maybe in June!

Analog-Only category

Remote operation only a few hours, hunting grids and TX5S, but opening provide 5 new grids for FFMA
, VHF and UHF was the intention but some comp port issues disable the radio and only 6m was possible
with a lucky rain that reduce the noise a beautiful level