CQ World Wide VHF Contest
CQ World Wide VHF Contest
| Call | Category | Comments | KG9OV/R | Rover | Though the last outing was only a few weeks ago, there was one major upgrade to the rover setup prior to CQWW. I came across a Sierra Wireless MP70 router on eBay for a decent deal and couldn't pass it up. It provides wired network ports for the main computer and radio, a WiFi access point for ancillary devices (phone, laptop, etc.), and LTE or WiFi connectivity for Internet access. Simply an amazing upgrade from the kludge of hand me down network gear and a MiFi hotspot that I was using before. Having a purpose built device for in vehicle networking means it just works and I can focus on the next multiplier instead of dorking with infrastructure. True to form for me it seems, it was a few days before the contest and I still had not nailed down where it was I was going yet. Finally I decided to just stick closer to home and it ended up working out pretty well. Saturday I headed to the EM49/EM59/EN40/EN50 corner. Partially in a state park with several nice options for operating and some secluded country roads for other options make this a great place to play radio. On Sunday I headed down to the EM47/48/57/58 corner. The stops were a little more spread out here due to the general location of the corner, but all in all it worked out pretty well too. As a bonus, I was able to get a couple hours sleep at home since it was right on the way between corners. While the new network gear worked flawlessly all weekend, Murphy seemed to dig his hands in elsewhere just to keep things interesting. Not even an hour in and the inverter that runs the main computer and monitors faulted and reset out of the blue. When the computer rebooted, it was not happy. A few reboots and some fixing later, everything was running and Qs were going in the log again. Then, somewhere between the first couple of stops, the computer decided it didn't want to be on the network anymore and a reboot was the only thing that helped. Not any major issues thankfully, but just enough here and there to be annoying. As for the bands, well, I guess we used up all the Magic last month in June VHF. The sporadic Es were really sporadic. Moving between grids would bring a little excitement to it as all the fixed stations start to pile on to the 'new one' that just showed up to briefly cure their boredom. Then, back to the grind of trying to dig out something new to work. Somehow though, even with the less than stellar band conditions, I still managed to greatly improve my score compared to the previous two years for this contest. So, I guess that is a plus. Gear: Flex 6600 / Q5 Signal 5BVUX 50 - 250w - Par Moxon @ 18’ 144 - 375w - Directive Systems 6el Rover Yagi @ 12’ | KH6AQ | Checklog | 17.5 hours on the air and decoded only one FT8 station | KL7P | Single Op 6M | I flew from Fairbanks to Utqiagvik, AK (formerly Barrow) to activate BQ11, the northernmost maidenhead grid in the United States. Portable set-up near the northern tip on a narrow strand of beach separating the Beaufort Sea from a saltwater lagoon. 75w and small yagi. Unfortunately, no openings I did work 3 AK stations via ionoscatter, KL2R and AL7ID in BP64, and KL7HBK in BO49 (810 miles) | KV2X | Single Op All | First time using FT8 in contest with my new IC-7300 with 6m dipole and 2m halo atennas | KW4G | Single Op All | Very low activity level. I wish people would move off the FT8 frequencies if the band is open | KX7L | Single Op All | Too many demands on my time this weekend, so only managed a couple hours in the contest. But had fun anyway. Thanks for the QSO's! | KZ2I | Single Op 6M | Did not hear any of the guys that went out to give rare grids | M1V | Single Op 6M | Only a couple of hours of good propagation, which was welcome. Yaesu FT-2000 / 3-ele Yagi @ 8m | MM0GOR | Single Op 6M | Very poor conditions here this weekend | N0JK | Hilltopper | Busy with grand children all weekend. Some time early Sunday morning for a 6 Meter MSK144 contact with W5ZN. Thanks ! | N0LD | Single Op All | Casual | N2BEG | Single Op All | no one on and bands flat | N5YIZ | Checklog | CHECKLOG ONLY | N5ZY/R | Rover | My 3rd VHF contest as a rover. A little less learning this time and a little more fun, but I'm improving. Thanks to everyone who followed me and listened for me. These VHF activity weekends are a lot of fun and exhausting at the same time. I'm already looking forward to the next one. Also a big thanks to OKROVERS and N0LD for mentoring me in VHF and rovering | N6GP/R | Rover | Too lopsided on FT8 now. Need an Analog Only fixed category | N6ZE/R | Rover | With limited time availability for the 2023 CQ Worldwide 6 & 2 Meter VHF Contest, I did manage a 2 grid Rove. In CN87, I used a 3 element beam for 6 meters & a 7 element beam for 2 meters on Mt. Erie in CN88, I just used a vertical whip for both bands. All contacts were on SSB Phone (virtually nothing heard on FM) I did not attempt Data or CW modes. Three Sporadic E contacts were made on 6 meters to DM79 & DN79. Just 2 States & 2 Provinces were worked on 6 meters. Contacts were made with only 1 State & 1 Province on 2 meters. Rove QTHes were at about 500 ft in CN87 & 1270 ft in CN88 | N7EPD | Single Op All | With the sudden passing of Tom KE7SW the contest seemed very empty. Miss him and hearing his signal | NE6I | Single Op 6M | Very poor conditions both days. It was quite a slog | OK1KKI | Multi-Op | QRV 2M ONLY | IC-9700 | SSB+CW = 500 W | FT8 = 50 W | ANT: 2x GW4CQT | LOC: JN79NF | 73! | OM7PY | Single Op 2M | ic-7100 | ON4EI/P | Single Op 2M | Weekend 15-16 July, I took part in the CQ WW VHF contest in single operator/2m only category, near Namur in Belgium with my call ON4EI/P. CQ WW VHF contest is not really known in Europe, but I made part several times on 6m from Ireland and one time from IS0 where I scored 8th World in 2021. This time for 2m, I used the 4x4 elements array + 1x7elements at 15m both with rotators. I started in SSB and quickly found almost zero activity, I decided to check FT8, and there, a lot of answers came. The contest allows digital entries and almost all the contest traffic has been shifted to FT8. I fed both arrays with 300 watts instead of the 1KW usually used for SSB. On some occasions, I had 2 answers in parallel from different directions with a very good RUN at the end of the contest (18 qso/hour). Reported results: 216 worked stations (14 in SSB), 70 worked squares and 30.240 points. According to the database past results since 2000 (see https://cqww-vhf.com) and under the condition that nobody made a better score this year, 30.240 points are the 5th EU / 7th World best result ever achieved during the CQ WW VHF in single op 2m category. Special thanks to the support from ON4BW (Jean-Michel), ON2PSA (Pedro), Sam (ON2VST), ON7ZB (Bruno), ON3NR (Pascal), ON4DG (Raymond) and ON4PS (Pierre) | OZ7BQ | Single Op 6M | Really poor conditions and low activity. Rig: Elecraft KX3/KXPA 80 Watts and 2 elm Moxon Beam abt 5 meters up | PU3MIP | Single Op 2M | Best QRB is 60km for PU3LMZ at GG40 | PY2TDB | Hilltopper | POTA PY-0262 | PY2WOT | Single Op 2M | tnx 73 | PY3DCC | Single Op 6M | Only 6 meter, very poor propagation | RX6APY | Single Op 2M | IC 290 80 watt 11el yagi | SV1NZX | Single Op 6M | Terrible propagation. Completely flatlined until Sunday afternoon and that was 1-hop wonders until just after SV dusk. Until next year.. 73 thanks all for the QSOs | TA3BJK | Single Op 2M | 73 | TA3ITW | Single Op 2M | TNX 73 FROM TURKIYE | TA3VAV/R | Rover | 73 FROM TURKIYE | TA3YEL | Single Op All | 73 AND 88 YL OP. TA3YEL GULAY | UT1IC | Hilltopper | I am taking part in the CQVHF for the twentieth year... Years of despondency, when several QSOs were made, followed by years with excellent results... Good VHF competitions, at a good time of the year | UZ7W | Multi-Op | First time almost empty 6M band here, both days. But 2M was fun | VA2VT | Single Op QRP | No openning on 6m this year, very dissapointed! | VA6RCN | Single Op 2M | Too busy with the NAQP RTTY running at the same time | VA7OTC/R | Rover | Had almost a ball. I was missing the 50 MHz opening I experienced last year g That said the only thing that killed some of it for me was lost sleep due our apt bldg situation. So, two vs four grids. I did enjoy/experience the challenge of multiple radios. Had to deal with more than one AF gain control, microphone, etc. Different from one rig for multiple bands. Thank you to all on in the region and for helping me in my noisy, more remote grid and to the other Rovers. 73 | VE3QC | Single Op 6M | low power, lousy antenna, not much propagation | VE3SMA | Single Op 6M | Operation from Burlington, Ont. FN03CH My transmitted mode is shown for cross-mode contacts Equipment - 50 MHz FTDX10 60 W, Moxon at 25 ft. Log includes one duplicate QSO, not counted in claimed score | VE7DAY | Single Op 6M | Operated only on the last day of the contest. Enjoyed it very much | W0WLA/R | Rover | no 6m ES and a malfunctioning 2m SSB radio made for a poor outcome. I didn't operate on Sunday | W1AW/7 | Single Op 6M | 40 big whopping minutes according to N1MM... I wasn't motivated to deal with the stations calling that were not in the contest. Max NG7M | W3ICM | Single Op 6M | Poor condx. Hope they are better next year | W4EE | Single Op All | Ouch! | W4XP | Single Op QRP | I had 10 Watts only on the 144-MHz band, so decided to keep the power on the 50-MHz band at 10 Watts. QRP is always a challenge but I had a good part-time effort. I used my 7-element XPOL on 144-MHz at two- meters AGL, and a Turnstile on 50-MHz, 10-meters AGL | W5OV | Single Op 6M | Conditions were good Saturday morning, but didn't last | W6XXX | Single Op 6M | First one, my 6m situation is poor poor poor, hopefully in a year's time I'll be more prepared! | W8AKS | Single Op 6M | Lousy Condx | W8RU | Single Op 6M | Some decent openings on 6m. Lots of fun! Thanks for the QSOs and 73! -Ron (W8RU) | W9EWZ | Single Op All | Many thanks to all the rovers. Great job!! |
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