2007 ARRL UHF Contest

K1TR -- Aug 29, 2007 12:46 ET

My wife and I were camping in nearby Maine that weekend so I snuck away early Sunday morning to operate a little UHF contest on Mount Washington (6288' in FN44). Both weather and band conditions were very agreeable. Visibility was 100+ miles and a couple of stations made it in to the log from 600+ miles away.

Today's highly integrated radios make it so easy! I don't have to lug the varactor tripler, Tapetone converter, BC348, and all the rest. -- K1TR

K6XN -- Sep 7, 2007 11:50 ET

I operated this contest from CM99 at an elevation of 5000 feet in the Sierras from the top of a mountain in a wilderness area using batteries and solar power. I made 27 QSOs on three bands in 7 grid squares. This was a really slow contest this year for me mainly due to lack of participants, no propagation and only one rover heard although there may have been several rovers too weak for me to copy from the Sierras that were on. It was not an uncommon occurrence to have 30 minutes or more between any new contact or even hearing anybody on any of the calling frequencies on 223.5 MHz, 430.1 MHz or 1296.1 MHz. On the positive side I had lots of fun any way and I was able to test out my 1296 MHz equipment and antenna that I used for the first time in this contest. It was good to hear the usual deserving west coast UHF die hards in this contest (thank you!) with their good signals and inspirational enthusiasm for vhf/uhf weak signal work. I especially appreciate the help on 1296 MHz during this contest weekend with on the air advice and with successful and persistent efforts of several 1296 MHz people as they knew I was a 1296 MHz rookie. I am learning something with every contest and I have a lot to learn. Next year however I am going to run more power and have better antennas and feed lines!!! Although I am pleased with how my 10 watts did on 1296 MHz with my new 23 element yagi and LMR600 feed line I intend to QRO next year and also add mast pre-amps! The additions of 220 MHz SSB to my 223.5 FM and the addition of 1296 MHz SSB/CW capabilities this year were a good decision but I clearly need to continue to improve my equipment, feed lines, antennas and operating abilities. Another positive: I was able to operate this entire contest again using solar power and batteries. See you all in the pileups next year! 73, Ted, K6XN -- K6XN

N9TZL -- Sep 4, 2007 21:19 ET

Conditions were down from last year and I think participation was down but it is always an enjoyable contest. I was hoping to have 902/3 up but did not make it this year. I lost a lot of time due to stormy weather, more than last year. Best DX was WA8RJF in EN91. Twenty three Qs out of 63 came from rovers, 11 from W9FZ/R, 8 from WB8BZK/R and 4 from K9JK/R. The fact that W9FZ picked a frequency and used it made a real differnce in me being able to find him, it works! Until next year, 73, Dennis N9TZL EN52 -- N9TZL

W0ZQ/R -- Aug 17, 2007 20:39 ET

Rain in EN44ab, SE MN.

W0ZQ/R "runs into" the WA0VPJ/R rover team in EN25. Can you hear me now?

This year our region of the country had been suffering through a drought so I was a bit surprised when the weatherman called for rain on Saturday. I departed Mpls to head south and a bit east to the area near Rochester, MN that we call the St. Charles grid corner. The radar had shown that the rain was on the move, so I thought that I might have an hour or two of light to moderate rain, but instead of that I had a day long deluge and ended up being the unwilling withness to nearly 2" of rain. That made setting up the outside 5.7 and 10 GHz systems a challenge, and rain eventually shorted out my electronic keyer for those bands. I then went to my straight key back-up, but the wooden base that it was mounted on eventually got wet and it too shorted out sending only very long "dahs". What to do. I eventually cut the wires off the keyer, stripped off the wires insulation, and made a good many of my uW CW contacts by touching two wires together. All in all, it was one of my tougher rove's with rain, coolness, and some wind. Here it was August and I had the car heater on. Just to compound things, propagation was very poor making contacts out beyond about 200 km nonexistant. Despite that, I was able to make a very nice 10 GHz QSO from EN33 to K0AWU in EN37. I also was able to clean sweep K2DRH on 222 through 3456 from EN33, 43 and 44. Rovermania (aka, the ARRL UHF contest) continues to be a fun event and I am already looking forward to next year - lets just hope Mother Nature is in a better mood ! Don't forget, send in your logs. -- W0ZQ

N5TIF -- Aug 15, 2007 09:36 ET

I found the contest slow and had a low score to show for it. Just running 432 and made only 20 contacts with the score of 371. Best Dx was KB0HH EM06 could only find one grid to my south K5LLL EM10 were was every one! Things should pickup for the Sep contest look for you there. -- N5TIF

N1CCF -- Aug 10, 2007 17:22 ET

I had just put up a homebrew 18 element yagi for 432mhz with my elmer and dad WA1RKS a week prior to the contest. So I was curious to see how it would play. That is what is good about contesting. You can find out how the upgrades you made are working. The yagi played well. -- N1CCF

K2DRH -- Aug 8, 2007 10:33 ET

With a cold front and lots of rain on the way, conditions didn’t look really good for this year’s UHF contest. They turned out to be fairly decent on Saturday while the front was coming through. I was amazed at successful runs up to 3456 with stations out past 300 miles that don’t often get into the log much above 1296. Even so, there didn’t seem to be a great deal of casual activity. Then everything pretty much shut down again Saturday night around 10PM never to return. Sunday was pretty dismal with very few QSOs above 1296. In fact there were very few stations to work at all, and I heard only two stations I’d already worked before 8AM. Several hours passed with only a handful of rovers QSOs added to the log and practically no fixed stations. Brightest spot of the day was working KM0T in EN13 up to 3456 and W7XU/R in EN02.

On neither day did I hear a whole lot from the Minnesota Rovermainia crowd despite tuning and calling on their published frequencies. Many of them I never heard at all. Bruce W9FZ/R stands out as the most consistent, easily found on his published frequency with a good ear for a weak one off the back. I believe we worked in every grid he stopped. However on Sunday conditions were much tougher and our 2304 QSOs vanished, even though that band was working the best ever has for me (what a difference all new coax makes). And while we worked several times up to 3456 on Saturday, I did not hear W0ZQ/R even once all day Sunday despite practically haunting his contact frequency every hour. At the end conditions were so bad I barely heard K9JK/R in EN50 and 60, and could not work him on 1296. Can’t complain about the results, but it sure wasn’t my favorite UHF contest.

73 de Bob -- K2DRH EN41 IL

KB0HH -- Aug 7, 2007 20:43 ET

Thanks to all ops for looking us up out here in "no-man's land"! Many thanks to WR0I/R and K0IFR/R for their efforts. This was our first try at multi-op in the UHF contest. Our score was 5 times better than my single-op effort last year.

While KC5DPT, Tad, and KA0KCI, Dave, did most of the the operating I did the cooking. The menue was ribeye from the grill on Friday night. Slow cooked Memphis stlye ribs and Bunkhouse baked beans for supper Saturday evening. Breakfast each morning was a Bunkhouse special of "grand slam in the pan". Lunch .. .. .. none needed!

The conditions were mostly good. The contacts seemed slow in coming Sunday. The temperature was a hot and humid 101.2 at the end of the contest.

The contest antennas are on the tower with the dishs. The tower is 90' of rotating Rohn 45.

73, Gary -- KB0HH

N9TF -- Aug 8, 2007 08:51 ET

YA GOTTA HAVE PATIENCE AND DETERMINATION in this contest, especially when you only have the two bottom bands, and only SSB on one of them! I believe this is the best score that I have posted in this contest to date. But, it wasn't good enough to beat Bob, N9AKR. We both have similar stations, SSB and FM on 432/446, and FM only on 223 Mhz. We had a friendly competition going on throughout the contest. We would check up on each others Q count periodically throughout the contest during low activity times, and there were plenty of those! I beat Bob with total grids, but he had just enough additional Q's to beat me in total score, DARN! Although, I was working this contest under just a bit of a handicap, as Sunday the 5th of August was my XYL and my 29th wedding anniversary. My XYL is very understanding to my contest needs. Thanks Wendy! I'm pretty sure though, I missed a Q here and there due to lack of complete concentration! Nice job Bob on your score. I’ll get you next time.

Conditions Saturday afternoon were pretty decent with nice Lake enhancement north and NE around Lake Michigan. But man, was activity down. Especially Sunday. Although, with a heavy blanket of rain and storms early in the morning Sunday, seemed to have killed conditions. With about 2 1/2 hours left in the contest, I threw in the towel. The silence was deafening. A big THANKS to all the rovers who made it into my log. If not for WB8BZK/R, K9JK/R, N9UX/R, and W9FZ/R, my Q count would have been 35% lower and a real bummer of a contest. Thanks guys, you all covered a lot of ground. Well, next up September VHF QSO Party. I'm ready as I'll ever be. How about you Bob? Station Conditions, TS-2000 432/446 50 watts, DR-235 223FM 35 watts, CX-333 triband vertical@ 47', 719B 19 elements@ 44'. No Rx preamps, so if you called and I did not answer, it's my deaf RXer!

73's Gene, N9TF -- N9TF

K1DS/R -- Aug 7, 2007 23:59 ET

Glad to provide lots of QSOs from the rover to the fixed stations--this is a healthy and fulfilling symbiotic relationship. Had all 10 bands CD9EFGHIJP working from the rover. It was especially rewarding working W3SZ on 24GHz from 3 grids. Had 8-band sweeps from 4 grids with him and also K3TUF and from 2 grids with N3NGE. Still one of my absolutely favorite activities. You learn a lot from operating this event. 73, Rick -- K1DS

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