CQ World Wide VHF Contest
CQ World Wide VHF Contest
| Call | Category | Comments | 5B4AMX | Single Op 6M | Best QRB is 2148km for OK1KKI at JN79 | 7L4IOU | Single Op 6M | tnx to all for the QSOs | AA0MQ | Single Op 6M | First time in this contest. Unfortunately, I heard more beacons than contest operators! | AA2SD/R | Rover | Mini Rove Update CQ Wireless VHF Contest Update AA2SD/R This was an extremely slow contest for me as a Rover, most likely due to the fact that many of the Pack Rats attended the great Picnic event. Thanks to all of the operators that worked me and the help from Andrew, N2NT for spotted me. I put a full effort in early Sunday morning starting at 6AM, but the pace was extremely slow for contacts. My primary focus is on phone contacts, and I tested FT8 in my rover later in the day. For the CQ VHF Wireless contest I worked 1 hour from the Pack Rats parking lot, and 1.5 hour from FN20 on the drive back home. I made 14 contacts in total during my drive and from the parking lot. During the next day I worked GRID FM 29 at the Pole Hill Park location 240 feet elevation and worked another 28 stations during Sunday. I also tested FT8 with 7 contacts from my driveway. Summary Total QSO 49 I used Halo only antennas, a dual stacked 2 mtrs set up on my roof rack and a 6 Mtr Halo at both locations. Later during the day I stayed in my Rover and put up a 20 foot mast with the dual stacked halos from my home driveway.. Pleased to work WZ1V Ron in FN31 and Jeff K1TEO FN31 from my Rover with the Halo Stack antennas. I also worked Alex KR1ST FN21 from FM29 with the Stacked Halos on the roof rack. Thanks to the Club Leadership, and all of the help with the great food, and well prepared and fun event, it was good to see many of the Rats at the meeting. AA2SD/RRoverScott | AA6XA | Hilltopper | It was a hot day, but that didn't stop me from hiking up SOTA peak Mt Allison in Fremont, CA. Had a bit of trouble keeping the radios from overheating. Also planned with some friends to get some 2m CW contacts with our new Quansheng radios. Hopefully there's more 2m CW in gerenal in the future. I didn't hear any 6m openings, sadly | AJ6T | Single Op All | I experimented using two computers each with an instance of N1MM+ dedicated to a single band. That arrangement worked out quite well. Conditions on 6 meters were poor, but that was no surprise since this entire sporadic-E season has been just awful. It was all troposcatter on 2 meters with some contacts close to 500 miles. I sure miss the days of rip roaring 6m Es SSB QSOs, but that fun is long gone with flat propagation and the dominance of FT8. I was hoping for some nice meteor scatter on Sunday morning, but I was only able to make a single contact on MSK144 on 6m. There were a lot of one-and-done FT8 6m bursts during the day, but I was only able to cobble together a few QSOs making use of that marginal propagation. I hope the CQ Contest Director clarifies the definition of 'assisted' operation in time for next year's CQWW VHF contest. The existing write-up is poorly worded and confusing, and the ominous tone of the 'adjudication process' for violation of the rules is not in the ham spirit in my opinion. 6m: K3s + KPA1500(700 watts)+ stacked loops at 50 feet (no tower, sigh) 2m: IC9700 (100 watts) + 9el LFA on a push-up pole Contest: CQWWVHF Band Mode QSOs Pts Grd Pt/Q 50 FT8 36 36 24 1.0 50 MSK1 1 1 1 1.0 50 USB 1 1 1 1.0 144 FT8 35 70 25 2.0 Total Both 73 108 51 1.5 Score: 5,508 73, Walt, AJ6T | AK4U | Single Op All | Made a single contact on 2-m SSB, everything else was ft-8. Miss the VHF contests in years past where SSB was king, much more enjoyable. Lets consider having a separate non-digital VHF contest next year? 73 all | BH6BEZ | Multi-Op | We worked on this contest for all day in portable. BG6HNY's skin got burned but still making QSOs on 6m band. At last, we did 72QSOs. We used PESA Antenna System all designed by ourselves! | BH6KWC/R | Rover | In OM64 use 100W ICOM IC-706MK. In OM54 use 8W QRP homebrew transceiver | BI1MHK | Single Op QRP | My first contest. VHF is attractive. Best QRB is 1441km for RN0JJ at PN49 | CO2QU | Single Op QRP | REALLY BAD PROPAGATION | DB7MM/P | Single Op 2M | 4 hours operation on lookout tower with IC-705 + PA, 120 W, 7ele Yagi | DK2OY | Single Op 6M | It is not good idea to have CQWW VHF in DG, CW, SSB at the same time. You will reduce the number of qsos in CW and SSB. Use different dates | JA1KPF | Single Op QRP | Radio: YAESU FT-817ND Antenna: Mobile Whip | JA1RRA | Single Op 6M | I enjoyed the contest. | JA6WFM | Single Op 6M | Currently, most of the communicating in this contest is done in FT8 digital mode. Since this contest is a VHF festival, I know we enjoy VHF worldwide regardless of the mode! But I have a request. I would like you to distinguish the categories between CW/SSB legacy mode and digital mode so that CW/SSB mode will not become obsolete | JA8CEA | Single Op 6M | I enjoyed the contest | JA8KGG | Single Op All | RIG:FT857MD ANT:12MH GP | JA8RWU | Single Op 6M | Entered this contest for the second time since 2021. 6m CW only and a part time effort. Wkd only JA6GCE. TNX! Did not have a good sporadic E this time. Maybe next time! 73's Akira, JA8RWU | JE2HXL/P | Single Op 2M | I enjoyed the contest | JH1XUM | Single Op All | I enjoyed the contest | JH7UJU | Single Op QRP | FT-817ND GP Yagi | JI4JGD | Single Op QRP | I enjoyed the contest | JK1VBK | Single Op 6M | I enjoyed the contest | JO6NZN | Single Op QRP | I enjoyed the contest | JQ1NGT | Single Op All | I enjoyed the contest | JR0RBY | Single Op 2M | I enjoyed the contest. Thank you! | JR1UJX | Single Op QRP | I enjoyed the contest with 5watts and mobile whip/2element yagi installed on the balcony | JR1USU | Single Op QRP | Portable: Midori-ku, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Pref | K0GD | Single Op 6M | Rig: Elecraft K4D, KPA1500 Antennas: OptiBeam OB5-9 at 50' 144' doublet with ladder line. Logging: N1MM | K1DS | Single Op All | Slow with an occasional pop of a new station or grid | K2DRH | Single Op All | What a grind! | K2MN | Single Op 6M | Used an indoor fan dipole and 90 Watts. Seemed like little activity | K3TW | Single Op QRP | 'Band conditions on 50 MHz. CW/SSB were very disappointing considering it's near the peak of Sunspot Cycle 25.' | K4HQK | Single Op 6M | Activity Saturday and most of Sunday was regional and fairly light my area, the Mid Atlantic, was getting no help from the ionosphere. Early afternoon Sunday, however, a path opened briefly to Minnesota and central Canada--VE3, VE4, VE6. It then snapped shut for the remainder of the contest, and activity dropped off. From then on, all I heard was the same small group of hearty souls calling CQ over and over. I was disappointed in hearing only one CW station and no SSB stations throughout my six hours in the contest. It was virtually all FT8 | K5ND | Hilltopper | First time entry in Hilltopper category. I was lucky with considerable 6 meter activity during my limited 6 hours | K5QE | Multi-Op | Worst propagation that I can remember. It was truly awful | K5ZD | Single Op All | Never heard any signals other than digital. Maybe CQ VHF should change to being only analog modes | K7BIK | Single Op QRP | Logging for benefit of the other station. Just happened to turn to 6M & heard STN CQ call on 50.125 | K7IU | Single Op All | Really poor conditions throughout the contest her in the PNW. Mostly locals just working locals | K7MDL | Single Op All | 6M was closed so was a locals only event | K7SYS | Single Op All | Probably the least activity I have ever seen on 6m and 2m here in North Idaho. But I tried | KA0PQW | Single Op All | not much activity. to much ft8 73 Matt ka0pqw | KA6BIM | Single Op 6M | Band was completely dead here. Did someone cut my coax?? | KA7RRA/R | Rover | I got up at 5am and went to the Chehalis Ham Fest.CN86, after it was over, I started the contest, and worked a couple of hams in Portland, CN85 I drove down to exit 40 and decided to drive back home. I stopped at the Federal Way rest stop, CN87 and made some contacts. Then when I got home, CN88 I finished the night in CN88. ON Sunday I drove up to Mt Pilchuck, CN98 and I'm glad they got rid of the car eating chuck holes, and graded the road also they have pave some of it | KF3G | Single Op All | Portable QTH Grid: FM29jw Thank you for the 2024 CQ Worldwide VHF Contest | KG5EIU | Single Op All | dead bands | KK7PZE | Single Op All | Rural Arizona so few VHF contacts and poort 6M prop made for hard contest conditions | KN6OKY | Single Op QRP | Did a quick trip to Florida and managed to work two stations around the time of doing a POTA activation | KN6ZOO | Single Op QRP | First CQ World Wide VHF contest! - station configuration: - location: Angeles Forest - antenna: Hustler SF-2, 3/4 wavelength vertical antenna. - magnet mount: Tram Tri-Magnet Mount - coax: 15 feet of RG-58. - radio: FT-818ND - Morse key: cwmorse 3D printed iambic paddle. - microphone: FT-818ND's stock mic. - ft8: Digirig, Thinkpad T490, WSJT-X, GridTracker - failures: - SO-239 to BNC female adapter this failure now allows me to graduate from the fragile ones I use to something robust made locally. I like assessing the state of the lowest barrier to entry before I decide to graduate to the next option. That adapter was a contingency and didn't stop the show. I had a great time! I even met a north African gentleman visiting from Canada up on the mountain! Always love meeting new people. Last contest it was meeting a French couple that had just recently started studying for their first ham license they asked all the questions about the operation and station configuration. I operated my QRP portable station on 2 meters CW, Phone and FT8 from 9 AM to 2 PM. I always hope for a 2 meter CW contact and I managed to get _one_ with KI6A! One per contest is always my goal maybe I need to increase that goal to twice as many. Hmm... Speaking of great contacts! I made contact with Tom KE6SRO and Carol KE6SRN for the first time! They dropped eaves on the local SOTA frequency(.58) and found me soliciting contacts two lovely hams. We recently played radio together during ARRL's June Field Day with the Pasadena Radio Club and the South Pasadena Radio Club and managed a max of 102 QSOs per hour! Speaking of great contacts! I made three of those on 2 meter FT8! Highly irregular and unlikely, but there's no greater chance than during a VHF/UHF contest excited to see their distance oh, all in southern California! No magic propagation. ) The best part of the contest was getting the few contacts that I did get and I'm grateful for the hams that came back to me. Some familiar, some new. That reminds me of W6CJ! He was my first contact today. Was hoping to get a 2m CW contact with him, but his current configuration didn't support it in the past we've made consistent contacts across modes. Interestingly, no one else was competing locally in the CQ WW VHF Contest at least for the period I participated. I anticipated as such. Even thought it might even be challenging to get a handful of contacts, but managed 18 historically I get about 50 for the ARRL VHF contest with less time spent! Lunch was Costco's unsalted nuts mix and Sky Flakes Saltines with some ice cold water its been hot lately. Oh, and I now need an additional item for my portable station I need a noise cancelling headset. I have my eyes set on a Radiosport headset. The location I usually operate for contests tends to have a lot of motorcycle and sports car traffic through the canyon(Highway 2) fun fact...it's supposedly the most dangerous road in the United States. It happened one too many times were I couldn't copy a callsign. That's a bit of the highlights. Oh, last bit my 12V 3Ah lithium ion phosphate battery ran out of enough oomph to keep the FT-818ND powered. I was mostly done I was rag chewing with Phil KI6PMD for about 90 minutes when the radio keeled over. **nods**. I transitioned to the VX-6R handheld connected to a backup antenna on the car's roof. Grabbed a 9v 3Ah litium ion phosphate battery and replaced the drained one while I continued my chat with Phil. Alright! Good times. Good ops. Excited for the next VHF contest! |
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