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2023 ARRL January VHF Contest

34 Logs Received

Updated 2023-03-19
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Callsign	Score	Region	Category	Bands	QSOs	Points	Grids	Rover Grids Activated	Grids Activated	PNW Grids Worked
K5QE *	73,914	STX	LM	ABDF	324	382	193		EM31	1
KE7SW	10,414	WWA	SOHP	ABCDEFG	155	252	41		CN87	15
N0LL *	6,365	KS	SOLP	ABCD	92	95	67		EM09	2
W7FI	4,752	WWA	SOHP	ABD	124	132	36		CN85	19
W7GLF	4,553	WWA	SOLP	ABCDEF	110	157	29		CN87	12
K7CW	3,638	WWA	SOHP	A	105	105	34		CN87	23
N7QOZ	3,220	WWA	SO3B Analog	ABD	111	140	23		CN87	8
K7MDL	2,461	WWA	SOHP	ABCDF	79	105	34		CN88	10
KA7RRA/R	2,256	WWA	RL	ABCD	114	141	16	4	see details below	3
WA9BTV	2,016	WWA	SOHP	ABCDF	74	112	18		CN88	7
NR7Y	1,696	OR	SOLP	ABCDF	85	106	16		CN85	8
KG7P	1,649	WWA	SOHP	ABCDEF	69	97	17		CN87	8
KG7PD	1,564	WWA	SO3B	ABD	81	92	17		CN87	9
K7YO	1,494	OR	SOLP	ABCDF	60	83	18		CN85	6
VE7DAY	1,404	BC	SOLP	ABDF	49	54	26		CO70	14
VE7AFZ	1,224	BC	SOHP	ABDF	63	72	17		CN89	10
N7MWV	1,120	WWA	SOHP	ABCDEF	38	56	20		CN86	7
AL1VE	976	WWA	SO3B	ABD	58	61	16		CN87	11
K7ND	760	WWA	SOLP	ABCDEFG	29	76	10		CN87	3
N6ZE/R *	729	LAX	RL	ABCDEF	44	76	9	1	DM04	0
N7NWP	703	OR	SO3B	ABD	36	37	19		CN84	14
K7BWH/R	684	WWA	RL	AB	57	57	12	2	see details below	6
AD7MC	572	WWA	SO3B	ABD	41	44	13		CN85	8
W7JMP	513	OR	SO3B Analog	ABD	47	57	9		CN85	3
VE7HR	506	BC	SOLP	ABCDF	26	46	11		CN89	3
VA7RKM	450	BC	SOLP	ABDF	37	50	9		CN88	4
KX7L	396	WWA	SOLP	AB	44	44	9		CN87	6
W7TZ	324	OR	SOHP	AB	18	18	18		CN83	13
WA7BRL	220	WWA	SOLP	A	44	44	5		CN87	4
N7DB	126	OR	SO3B Analog	ABC	19	21	6		CN85	3
K7ATN/R	100	WWA	R	18	20	5	1	1	CN87	4
N7PHY	80	WWA	SOLP	B	20	20	4		CN87	4
K7SYS	35	ID	SOLP	A	7	7	5		DN18	5
VE7VIE	16	BC	SOLP	A	4	4	4		CN89	4

* = 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, 9 - 902 MHz, E - 1.2 GHz, F - 2.3 GHz, G - 3.4 GHz, H - 5.7 GHz, I - 10 GHz, J - 24 GHz, K - 300+ GHz

PNWVHFS Award Winners

Certificates presented at the PNWVHFS Conference, TBD Oct 2023

Additional Information

K7ATN/R Rover Classic - WWA
Activated 1 Grids: CN87
Worked 3 PNW Grids: CN87, CN88, CN89, CN98

KA7RAA/R Rover Limited WWA
Activated 4 Rover grids: CN88, CN98, CN87, CN97
Worked 3 PNW grids: CN87, CN88, CN98

K7BWH/R Rover Limited - WWA
Activated 2 Grids: CN88, CN87
Worked PNW 6 Grids: CN87, CN88, CN89, CN97, CN98, CO70

This event was a shakedown cruise for a new battery system for the radios in the rover van. I made two dozen contacts from the comfort of my driveway, and then three dozen Qs from the I-5 Smokey Point Rest Area at CN88ve, a nice open area without nearby hills.

After finally connecting the right antenna to the right radio, the setup worked well. Now, look: all I've got are two antennas and two radios. So it turns out the odds of connecting them the wrong way around is pretty near 100%. Thank you Murphy! See ya next contest.

N6ZE/6 Rover Classic - LAX
Activated 1 Grids: DM04

After hotel living for 5½ months while water damage from broken waterline in DM04 house attic plus bathroom rehabs, we got back in house a week ago. With limited operating available this time, I just used five in-town locations with my mobile rigs with whip antennas plus two Alinco FM handhelds with whips for a few QSOs on 223.5, 902.1 and 1294.5 MHz.

All Thousand Oaks (DM04) sites had little tropo noted: there were substantial winds and no temperature inversions were noted. All QSOs were on USB or FM.

Only non-DM04 QSO was with N6UTC DM03 in Long Beach. Made almost 50 QSO on 5 bands. Thanks to all who operated.

Right: - Woodie, WA6WDY, Atop Tarantula Hill DM04 in Thousand Oaks, CA exercises an Alinco handheld borrowed from N6ZE to work N7WLC and WA6EJO on 223.5 and 927.5 mhz FM.

K5QE LM EM31
Operators: K5QE, KA6U, KI5MHB, K5SAB, K0AXX, KC5HOZ, K2EZ, N5YA, KF5LKG
Propagation was awful. Moon passes were truly terrible. The declination was very low and the moon times were short. You have to be a masochist to run this contest. - Marshall

KX7L SOLP CN87
This year Mr. Murphy came to visit the shack in spades. At the opening gate I realized I had some computer issues relating to the expiring support for Windows 7 that I had to resolve, then I messed up the WSJTx log files.

Finally got a late start, and began making QSO's, but then discovered that the tree next to my house had grown a bit since the Sep contest, and I could no longer rotate my antenna. I was stuck between 90 and 180 degrees! Then to make things worse, no one seemed to be hearing me on 2m. I worked a couple locals on FT8, but my calls on SSB went un-answered.

In desperation on Sunday afternoon I turned off the 2m amp, and suddenly people started hearing me. Evidently my 2m amp is now a 2m attenuator! Some station work needs to be done before June. Thanks for all the QSOs in spite of everything!

AL1VE SO3B CN87
Did anyone else notice that someone erected a rf dampening fence on west of the Mississippi River again! I second Marshall's comments about the lousy propagation. Saturday activity was slow, Sunday morning, I missed the few 50 MHz MS contacts that some of you scored. The contest did give me a chance to try out another prototype rover antenna. Since building a 50MHz 3 element yagi antenna that fits in a carry-on bag, I've been searching for a 144-432 MHz companion antenna. A wire quad developed for the N6NB "pack rovers" might just be the thing.

So for the contest I built and tested this simple multiband, three element per band wire quad. The largest element is 27" square and the wooden boom was 36" long. N6NB's design used elements made of #12 TW solid (covered) copper wire. Not having much #12 TW wire around the shack some of my elements were made from sections of a failed Christmas light string.

Overall the antenna worked fairly well on 144 and 432 MHz, but the SWR on 220 MHz was well over 3:1. It didn't help that I fed the antenna with a run of 90' of RG-8. A triplexer fed each driven element with a short run of RG-8X, I used fiberglass plant stakes for the spreaders and the boom was a wooden 3/4" square tomato stake. Remember this was just a test situation.

It's definitely not a long haul antenna, but worked for close-in contacts. I'm going to rebuild this antenna for the June VHF contest. All the elements will be made from #12 TW wire. I'll still use the triplexor, but change the feedline to a short run of LMR-400.

If you feel so inclined to build this simple multi-band antenna and can't find the measurements on the internet, message me direct for them. - Tim

VE7HR SOLP CN89
I did not invite Murphy into the shack for the contest, but he showed up and decided that I should not be able to use my 2M beam for most of the contest. So much for upgrading to a new antenna for the contest. Apparently the new antenna does not like wet weather in its current configurations. Guess what? It rained in Vancouver in January.

K7MDL SOHP CN88
Limited-time operation this year. Saturday evening and most of Sunday.