ARRL VHF Contest Fun

 

I had such a great time participating in the ARRL VHF Contest this past Saturday and Sunday. As was my habit, I headed out to Hogback Mountain on the Skyline Drive. Hogback Mountain stands at a little over 3000 feet and has a good view of New England to the N/NE and Pennsylvania to the N/SW:

Hogback Mountain, FM08

My approach to this contest is laid back. In fact, the June VHF Contest is the only contest series that I participate in. (There is also a September and January segment. September starts to get in the way of hunting and, well, January is pretty cold on a mountaintop.) Since I'm casual about this, I really only use one Yagi and the FM vertical on my Jeep. Also new this year was a significant amount of QRM from neighboring operators. We'd step on each other every time we were operating the same band. We then decided that we'd not call CQ and hunt/pounce instead. Hunt/pounce worked, but it did reduce log entries.

Spring on the Skyline Drive

The Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Equipment. My equipment was a little different this year. I blew out my IC-7000 to years ago; I replaced the same with an Elecraft KX3 using a Dual Band VHF/UHF Transverter made by
UR3LMZ. All my SSB contacts were at 8W. (Note: next time I'll reduce power further to 5W and go for the QRP category.) I also used my vehicle mounted Kenwood TM-D710GA for most of my early FM VHF contacts. I then used the KX3 for both VHF and SSB. I know, I know: my Yagi is clearly horizontally polarized. Still, I made plenty of FM contacts with little degradation of signal. Besides, the FM contacts were local.

Elecraft KX3 with Upverter

My setup on Hogback. Flagpole holder, MFJ-1910 mast...and cooler.

• Challenges/Observations.

• I heard very little CW on the bands. I heard none--zip, zero--on the designated frequencies of 144.000-144.100 and only scant QSOs in the 144.200-144.300 range. I only made  two or three CW QSOs myself. 
• Once I started operating primarily from the KX3, I found that moving between bands/freq tiresome. Next time I'll add the following to memory before going to the field and make sure I know the procedure for doing so in the field:
• 144.100 (2M CW Calling/start of band)
• 144.200 (SSB 2M Calling Freq)
• 146.520 (2M Simplex Calling Freq)
• 420 (70cm CW Calling/start of band)
• 432.10 (SSB 70cm Calling Freq)
• 446.00 (70cm Simplex Calling Frequency)

• Future Plans/Expansion
• I normally operate as a limited Rover. This means that I must transmit and make contacts from more than one grid. I normally spend all afternoon on the first day of the contest on Hogback Mountain. I leave soon after dark so that I can see the sunset:

Sunset from Hogback

Illuminated Clouds from Hogback

 

On day two/Sunday, I go to Mass then normally park on the top deck of a parking garage in FM18 for a few calls to qualify. But this plan was impossible this year. The amount of RF pollution and new buildings invalidated this plan. I made a few contacts on FM, but that was it. For future contests, I will forgo parking garages and go a little farther to either Bull Run Mountain or Mount Weather. 

•  If I feel ambitious, I may add a 430 MHz Yagi similar to my 2M Yagi. I can stack the two on the same fiberglass mast and use a switch to go between the two.  I also have a 6M Moxon that I built that I could press into service, but this might need it's own mast. It also doesn't breakdown so easy for the back of the jeep.

Nice photo, but made zero QSOs on SSB with KX3 and Yagi. Made two QSOs on FM using Kenwood
TM-D710GA mounted in my Jeep. Remainder of the QSOs made from my home.

• Results. At the end of the day, I made 55 QSOs from FM08 and FM18. All but four QSOs were from Hogback Mountain. Best QSO: W1VD, Burlington, CT (363 mi) on 8 watts USB. A personal best. Hogback Mountain (elev. 3000') sure helps.

QSO Map