2020 ARRL January VHF Contest

Callsign	Score	Region	Category	Bands	QSOs	Points	Grids	Rover Grids Activated	Grids Activated	PNW Grids Worked
K5QE *	102,287	STX	LM	ABCD	377	428	233	1	EM31	0
N6ZE/R *	13,326	SB	RU	ABCDEF	254	357	33	4	see below	0
K7YDL	10,664	OR	SOHP	ABCDEF	228	324	31	1	CN85	12
KE7SW	9,758	WWA	SOHP	ABCDF	161	224	41	1	CN87	9
N7EPD	7,520	WWA	SOLP	ABCD	154	188	40	1	CN87	15
N7KSI	6,318	WWA	SOLP	ABCDF	114	162	39	1	CN86	17
KE7MSU/R	5,858	OR	R	ABCDEFG	138	202	29	5	see below	7
N0LL *	4,956	KS	SOLP	ABCD	70	84	59	1	EM09	0
K7ATN	4,480	OR	SOP	ABCDEF	206	301	14	1	CN85	6
W7GLF	4,408	WWA	SOHP	ABCDF	110	152	29	1	CN87	11
KT7E	3,249	OR	SOLP	ABCD	129	167	19	1	CN85	9
N7QOZ	2,486	WWA	SO3B	ABD	87	113	22	1	CN87	8
W7FI	2,392	WWA	SOHP	ABD	87	92	26	1	CN87	17
KG7P	2,226	WWA	SOLP	ABCDF	76	100	21	1	CN87	9
AF7MD	2,004	OR	SOLP	ABCDEFG	57	106	18	1	CN85	5
K7ALO	1,908	WWA	SOLP	ABCD	87	106	18	1	CN85	11
K7ND	1,805	WWA	SOHP	ABCDEFG	57	106	19	1	CN87	7
VE7DAY	1,736	BC	SOHP	ABCD	53	57	34	1	C070	5
K0JJ	1,380	OR	SOLP	AB	60	60	23	1	CN85	14
KX7L	1,152	WWA	SO3B	AB	63	64	18	1	CN87	11
VE7AFZ/R	1037	BC	R	ABCD	51	61	17	1	see below	8
K7JSG	1,008	WWA	SO3B	ABD	75	84	12	1	CN87	7
KE0CO	759	WWA	SOLP	ABCDF	30	60	11	1	CN87	4
K7III	756	WWA	SO3B	ABD	60	63	12	1	CN87	7
NJ7A *	702	UT	SOLP	ABCD	32	39	18	1	DN30	0
KI0E	648	ID	SOLP	ABCDE	55	78	8	1	DN13	3
W7GJ *	567	MT	SOHP	A	27	27	21	1	DN27	7
KI7LTT	520	OR	SOFM	ABD	82	104	5	1	CN85	3
K3RW	425	WWA	SOFM	ABCD	68	85	5	1	CN85	2
K7SMA	352	ID	SO3B	ABD	36	44	8	1	DN13	4
VE7JH	345	BC	SOLP	ABCD	29	40	12	1	CN88	5
KD7HGL	342	WWA	SO3B	AB	38	38	9	1	CN87	5
KD7HB	342	OR	SOHP	AB	28	28	12	1	CN94	11
AI9Q	228	WWA	SOLP	ABCD	41	57	4	1	CN85	1
K7BWH	198	WWA	SOHP	ABD	29	33	6	1	CN87	4
KM7O	189	WWA	SOLP	AB	27	27	7	1	CN87	4
N7IAD	161	WWA	SOLP	AB	23	23	7	1	CN87	4
VE7HR	154	BC	SOLP	ABCD	16	22	7	1	CN89	4
VA7RKM	108	BC	SOLP	AB	18	18	6	1	CN88	4
N7JPF	104	OR	SOLP	A	13	13	8	1	CN95	6
WV7S	84	WWA	SOLP	A	12	12	7	1	CN87	1
N7EDW	80	WWA	SOLP	AB	16	16	5	1	CN87	3
W7TZ	56	OR	SOHP	A	8	8	7	1	CN83	7
AG7QH	42	OR	SO3B	ABD	12	14	3	1	CN84	1
K7SWS *	21	MT	SO3B	AB	7	7	3	1	DN26	2
K7IMA	6	OR	SOFM	BC	2	3	2	1	CN85	1
NOCYT	6	WWA	SO3B	BD	3	3	2	1	CN87	2
K7AWB	1	EWA	SOHP	A	12	1	1	1	DN17	1
K7KQA	1	EWA	SOHP	A	1	1	1	1	DN06	1

* = PNWVHFS Member operating outside the Society region. Not eligible for PNWVHFS Awards.
** = Log received late, not eligible for PNWVHFS Awards.

Band Codes: A - 50 MHz, B - 144 MHz, C - 222 MHz, D - 432 MHz, E - 902 MHz, F - 1.2 GHz, G - 2.3 GHz, H - 3.4 GHz, I - 5.7 GHz, J - 10 GHz, K - 24 GHz, L - 300+ GHz

PNWVHFS Award Winners

Certificates at the PNWVHFS Conference in October 2020
Rover: KE7MSU/R-OR, VE7AFZ/R-BC
Single-Op High Power: K7YDL-OR, KE7SW-WWA, VE7DAY-BC
Single-Op High Power 50 MHz: W7TZ-OR
Single-Op Low Power 50 MHz: N7JPF-OR, WV7S-WWA,
Single-Op Low Power: N7EPD-WWA, KT7E-OR, KI0E-ID, VE7JH-BC
Single-Op 3-Band: N7QOZ-WWA, AG7QH-OR
Single-Op Portable: K7ATN-OR
Single-Op FM: KI7LTT-OR, K3RW-WWA

Additional Information

VE7AFZ/R Rover BC:  Activated 2 ROVER grids: CN89, CN99; Worked 8 PNW grids CN85, CN86, CN87, CN88, CN89, CN93, CN94, CO70

KE7MSU/R Rover OR:  Activated 4 ROVER grids: CN76, CN77, CN86, CN85; Worked 6 PNW grids CN76, CN77, CN84, CN85, CN86, CN87, CN95

AG7QH SO3B OR CN84:  Only worked last three hours of contest.

K7SWS SO3B MT DN26:  Worked both days but only made contacts on Saturday. Small Moxon for 6, getting the tower up and a bigger 6m antenna is moving way up the list!

KX7L SO3B WWA CN87:  Only five Phone QSO's out of 63 total. Lots more FT8 action on 2m this time around - really helped on the grid count. Biggest thrill was finally working KA6BIM down in CN73 - I've been hearing him on every contest but could never make the QSO.

K7SMA SOLP ID DN13:  Not a lot of VHF activity here in Boise, but it was fun!

VE7DAY SOHP BC CO70:  Another enjoyable contest. Not many operators in the area on.

K0JJ SOHP OR CN85:  All Qso's Digital FT8 and MSK144.

K5QE Limited Multi-Operator STX EM31:  Operators: K5QE, K5MQ, N5YA, N1XS, VE3WY, N5KDA, W5KDA, W5ZZ, N5NU, KV5W, WB2FKO.

KI7LTT SOFM OR CN85:  I had a great time this January and had more QSOs than last year. I had some antenna problems the first day and ongoing issues on 70cm throughout the contest that can hopefully resolve before the June contest. Hopefully I'll have 1.25m available for the June contest as well.

N6ZE/R Unlimited Rover CA  Activated 4 ROVER grids: DM03, DM04, DM13, DM14

Operators Pete, N6ZE and Woodie, WA6WDY, made just over 250 QSOs on 6 bands from activating four grids. Our 7-hour stint at our Saturday location in the Santa Monica Mts (DM04qb) yielded 150 QSOs. Of particular interest, on Saturday, we noticed lots of activity from the San Diego (DM12) area. We made 25 FM & SSB QSOs: 3 on 6m; two on 2m; one on 135cm; and five on 70cm. 16 different unique callsigns were worked. I think that is the biggest turnout we have ever noted from DM12. Most, if not all contacts, were made with roof mounted verticals on the pickup truck. For most of Saturday, our location in the Santa Monica Mountains experienced a cold Santa Ana wind. Looking Southward, we could visually see light brownish color over the Santa Monica Bay: this typically indicates a temperature inversion. This was borne out by SkewT-log P plots provided to us after the contest by NWS Oxnard/LOX: there appeared to be a temperature inversion, some 2800' thick.

On Sunday, we activated DM14, DM13, DM03, & DM04. Of note, we did very little transmitting when in motion due to maintaining LA Freeway safety. While driving Eastbound early in the morning at 65 MPH, with very strong, gusty NE winds, we heard a very loud bang, but could see that nothing had blown out of the bed of the pickup. It turned out that the 6m mag mount vertical had briefly encountered a gust of over 100 mph (65 mph ground speed + 40 mph wind) which dislodged the mag mount and subsequently broke the magnetic bonding of the other 2 verticals. They all ended up in the bed of the truck. Phew! Despite the Topa Topa Mountain Range to our North, best DX for the weekend was with K6MYC; SSB contacts were made on 2m, 35cm, and 70cm at a distance of 217 statute miles.

In the words of WA6WDY, some of our roving station activity was akin to a monkey chasing a football: An FT857 mounted in the cab of the truck was used for 6m SSB; 2m FM and some 2m SSB; 70cm FM and some SSB. For 135cm, a Kenwood TM331 was utilized. We just used a 1/4 wavelength vertical for 6m, a small dual band 2m/70cm vertical, and a 1/2 wavelength vertical for 35 cm. For long haul comms on 2m,135cm,70cm, and 23cm, we used an old barefoot FT-736 sitting on the tailgate of the pickup truck along with a rotor and small yagis for those bands. On 33 cm, we utilized an ALINCO handheld with a hand-held yagi. Band changing speed varied from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes! During the weekend, N6ZE/R had from 1 to 14 QSOs with 7 other Rovers who participated: N6GP/R, K6JEY/R, K6LMN/R , N6MI/R , K6WLD/R,NQ6X/R and KM6ZJY/R. Thanks to the ARRL for sponsoring the event and to those who participated this year.

K3RW SOFM WWA CN85:  Planned periods away from QTH during the contest and a lack of a rotor negatively impacted score. Most of the contest I was physically holding a dual band yagi from a second story bedroom, and occasionally holding a homebrew 223 MHz yagi. 6m FM activity was frequent and had I not suffered an equipment failure I could have had up to a dozen or more 6m FM QSOs rather than one.

Kudos to most of the SOTA activators and chasers for moving to adjacent 2m calling frequencies. 2m FM 146.52 was already very crowded and there were few SOTA chasers compared to contesters. One operator berated me for contesting on 'the calling frequency'. This is a very sore subject for some ops locally, with some running informal nets on 146.52 and most contests utilizing this frequency. This controversy may be a matter of settled discussion at the League level, but I've run into this in every contest thus far and I would advocate a change to this rule. I have had at least one random QSO in every contest from travelers using .52 who were unaware of the contest and confused why everyone kept asking their grid. I only worked one rover during the contest. There may have been 1 more I missed early in the contest, but did not see any others. Weather was a significant factor in the days leading up to the contest.