ARRL June 2020 VHF Contest Results — Driving and WSJT-X

This was a good contest with my best ever results in terms of QSOs, multipliers, and grids. Plus, no antennas hit trees and the rigs worked great. The only challenge was getting my laptop to communicate with my cell phone hotspot on Sunday. Driving long distances was the other challenge, which is the story of a rover contest entry.

Rover Results

My raw score came in at 40,736 with 282 QSOs, 124 multipliers, and 10 grids activated. Here’s the break down:

• 50 MHz — 234 QSOS
• 144 MHz — 26
• 222 MHz — 10
• 432 MHz — 12

Of those QSOs there were 261 FT8 and 21 SSB. No CW and I didn’t look for FM signals.

Most of the time I was operating FT8 on both 50 and 144 at the same time. I did go to SSB for some schedules. At the end of the contest, when six meters really opened up, I was in EM14 and worked lots of stations. For the first hour I worked 28 QSOs and second hour ran 33 QSOs. And for a 10 minute spell ran 9 QSOs. This is pretty good for FT8, but I should have picked up the microphone and worked more stations.

Surprise of the Contest — EA8RH in Tenerife answering my CQ TEST from EM21. Alas, didn’t complete the QSO.

Rover Rigs

For this contest I brought back my IC-9100 and IC-910H. The IC-9100 ran about 10 watts into a TE Systems 170 watt 6 meter amplifier and a Q5 Signal DEMI 222 MHz transverter with 25 watts out. The IC-910H ran barefoot on 144 and 432.

In the January 2020 VHF contest, I had Icom loaner IC-7300 and IC-9700 rigs with RFI issues — which I solved with lots of ferrite after the contest. No problems this time with RFI, perhaps because I used Digimode interfaces between both rigs rather than USB interfaces. The Digimode uses an opto-isolator on PTT and transformers on the audio link.

Rover Antennas

My roof top rotator mount holds Directive Systems Rover Yagis for 144, 222, and 432. For six I use a Par Electronics Stressed Moxon. They all worked great with no encounters with trees during the contest this time. Although there was a twist of the moxon in the wind as I drove from EM13 to EM02. And, of course, one encounter with a tree during set up a few days before the contest. Bent it back in shape and all was well.

Rover Software

Kudos to N1MM with the follow-up analysis tools and sound logging of contacts. I just wish it were easier to move between WSJT-X and SSB. This required shutting down WSJT-X to make a SSB QSO followed by sometime snags reengaging WSJT-X.

After the contest I had to enter the Rover QTH grid for every WSJT-X contact as it wasn’t recorded even though I updated the grid at every stop — both in N1MM and WSJT. I’ve submitted a feature request to N1MM. Hopefully, it will be an easy improvement. [N1MM was corrected for the next update — very fast response.]

I will note, too, that N1MM doesn’t provide rover scoring for the number of grids activated. I needed to calculate that separately before submitting my log. Still it worked quite well, with the usual number of arduous tasks always expected of a rover. Here’s my earlier review of N1MM for VHF Contesting.

Next are uploads of QSOs for each grid activated into Logbook of the World under the call sign K5ND/R.

FT8 — Worked Great. Even so, as noted above, I should have picked up the microphone when the band really opened up at the end of the contest. In addition, what I believe were JTDX users were somewhat troubling. It would seem that when they answer “CQ TEST” they would expect a contest mode exchange. At least with current versions of WSJT-X whether you’re in contest mode or not, the software figures it out and moves ahead with the QSO. Not so JTDX and their operators.

I had one station that bounced back and forth with me for at least six or maybe eight exchanges not moving from my R report. I finally stopped and went to SSB for a few 222 skeds. When I came back I encountered the same issue with another station and finally resolved to switch out of contest mode to make the QSO. Then, of course, I forgot to switch back for a few QSOs. Gee whiz.

Monitoring Slack-VHF-Chat, Twitter, and text messages proved a bit challenging for me. I responded to one query that my multi-tasking was lame, which pretty much sums it up.

The messages reached a crescendo when I got near EM24 — when will you get there, point toward me, tell me your sequence and frequency offset. It’s nice to try and help people work a new grid. But for me at least, hearing the station is the only real proof that you can actually make the QSO. Although I did work a few 144, 222, and 432 QSOs with text messages for alerts to the stations that needed grids.

Perhaps there’s a place here for those live video feeds from the ham station — this would be over the shoulder of the rover. On second thought, that might prove illegal for a contest. I did try APRS for this contest but used my iPad for beaconing. It always went to sleep between grids and only beaconed when I remembered to activate it.

I used my cell phone hotspot to link the laptop and iPad to the Internet. However, I ran into a snag early on Sunday when the laptop first refused to find the hotspot. Later it started working but lost it about mid-way through the day. I use Meinberg-NTP to time sync, monitor DX Maps, and use VHF-Chat Slack. The iPad picked up some of these tasks. Perhaps I need to explore a USB Dongle for GPS time sync for the future.

Rover Route — Social Distancing

Talk about Butt in Chair/Seat — 14 hours operating and 18 hours driving, including my drive to the starting grid, driving home Saturday evening, back to the route on Sunday morning, and finally driving home after the contest. All this came to 760 miles on the road and about five hours sleep Saturday night.

Normally, if “normally” fits a rover, I would stay in a hotel overnight, which would save a couple of those hours. But I was under “social distancing” protocol, which even excluded stopping for food. Amazingly I made only two stops for gasoline. I had thought about risking a drive-through meal, but my rover antennas prohibited entry.

Overall the route worked well. I only wish that the 6 meter band would have been open while I was in EM24 which is a somewhat more sought after grid than EM14, where the band really opened up.

I had planned 11 grids but skipped EM12 on Sunday morning and went to EM21. I was a bit crunched for time and EM12 is my home grid, which didn’t offer any magic. The rest of the grids generated at least a bit of interest — as well as lots of interest in EM24 and EM14.

Higher Local Activity

I did notice that there was a great deal more activity locally, particularly on Saturday. I’m reasonably sure this is because the HamCom hamfest, which always happens the same weekend as the VHF Contest, was cancelled this year. I sure hope a few operators will catch the bug — the VHF contesting type of bug.

Rover Video

I also generated a video that includes set up of the full rover configuration along with snapshots of each of the ten grid stops. It’s only three minutes at VHF Rover Rover Video — June 2020 Contest.

Next Steps

The next contest is the CQ WW VHF. I had been planning to do a rover route in the Texas Panhandle similar to the route I ran in the June 2019 VHF Contest. But with many wanting DM86 on six meters and the band so fickle, I’m planning a fixed station operation within DM86 for the entire contest. That will make sure that I’m there if and when six meters opens.

Equipment wise, I will use my pushup mast, 3-element yagi for six and rover yagi for two. I may also work on some improvements in my DC power arrangements.

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs.

The results are in, finished 5th in the USA. Not bad at all.