The 2023 edition of the ARRL June VHF Contest hit an all-time high for my home station. See the nearby graph of activity levels over the contest weekend, roughly a 4-hour window when I slept, and the rest was non-stop activity.

There was a six-meter opening in one direction or another for the entire contest. I would start the day pointing to the east and end up pointing to the west as the E cloud moved or as I exhausted the stations that I could work in one direction. There were also some amazing Es on two meters!

Overall Results

All my contacts were either on FT8 or a few on FT4. I did try some MSK on Sunday morning. Heard a few but didn’t work anyone. With Es going, it’s hardly worth the effort during a contest weekend. Here’s the overall breakdown.

Six Meters — 545 QSOs and 224 Grids.

Two Meters — 47 QSOs and 30 Grids.

Raw Score — 144,018

This is easily my best score ever, particularly in a VHF contest. The January VHF contest, by comparison, came in at 1,512 points. My previous June contests were as a rover. So not much comparison.

I can compare it to my early days in VHF contesting, with a microphone and key in hand. I recall listening to noise for far too long and wandering off to the workbench to take care of a few chores. My wife stopped by to tell me she was frightened by a loud male voice from my ham shack. I looked at her to offer my sympathies but instead took off to the shack to take advantage of what must be an opening!

This contest was much, much different. Staying in the chair and working as many stations as possible was easy. When the grid total started to climb, it was a great motivator. Plus, when the QSO count started to taper off, I could watch DX Maps to see where else to point the antenna. See also my notes below on the contest online scoreboard as a motivator.

There are some dupes in the QSO count but not the overall score. My N3FJP VHF Contest logger correctly identified the dupes but often too late. Plus, JT Alert didn’t flag dupes when I moved from FT8 to FT4. I’m reasonably sure I will have some NIL (not in log) from my log and others. I tried to be particularly conscious of this possibility, as noted in the National Contest Journal article on Digital Contesting, but I know I don’t have a golden log.

K5ND Station Setup

You can see my latest setup in Ham Shack Update 2023 Episode. The antennas are a Directive Systems 5-element 6-meter Yagi and an 8-element Cubex Quad for two meters. They are mounted on a 25-foot push-up mast that is hand turned after running down the stairs and out the back door.

For this contest, I had both rigs running at all times. The IC-7100 was paired with an Airspy SDR with SDR Console for receiving and an M2 amplifier running 500 watts on six meters. The IC-9100 was paired with a Tokyo Hy-Power 300-watt amplifier on two meters. They work great for my limited budget.

I will note that I tried switching to the stacked two-meter omniangles in my attic, but I didn’t find any stations I didn’t hear on the quad. So I left the quad connected most of the time.

Six Meter Results

The challenging part of working six-meter FT8 was finding a place in the 3 kHz window to transmit (I run a 5 kHz window with the Airspy). I found that it was best to move to the top end. I would CQ, but I’d call them when I’d spot a new grid. Late in the contest, so many stations were on the air that I selected CQ-only visibility on WSJT. That helped with picking the stations to call.

I did move to FT4 on a few occasions. I worked several stations early in the contest until I’d worked all those there. Late in the contest, I found that I was working a lot of dupes, so I moved back to FT8. It was a quick way to make QSOs and much less crowded.

My immense delight in the contest came Saturday night as I worked one new grid after another when pointing west. It was more challenging on Sunday to find new grids, but it did happen. And when it did, it caused a very big smile.

I was fortunate to work four all-time new grids to bring my six-meter worked total to 767. One was an FFMA grid, DN93 from N0LNO/R, two from Canada, and one from F1IXQ, who popped in on Sunday night. I worked him, and then he was gone!

Two Meter Results

For this contest, I was able to monitor both 6 and 2 meters at the same time. That allowed me to pick up on the few times someone was actually on the air on two meters. That also helped me discover a fantastic two-meter Es opening on Sunday evening. It started with N4OGW in EM53 and then went on to several grids to the east, including FM05, 06, 16, and 27. The topper was working VE4MA and VE4DDZ in EN19. I added seven new grids to my total of 147 worked. Here’s an image from the APRS-driven VHF propagation system.

Contest Online Scoreboard

I’ve written about the Contest Online Scoreboard earlier. I like it for providing some score comparisons in real-time with a selection of competitors. Of course, not all competitors post their scores, but the motivation helps.

This time the motivation took hold. I was watching the Single Op High Power category. Early on, I was happy to confirm that my score was showing up. Yet, as the bands continued to generate QSOs, I started to pay more attention.

First, I noted that I was ranked fourth, but I also started to pay attention to the top three: K9CT, K2PS, and N5RZ. Seeing how their competition developed with swapped positions and a real chase right down to the wire for 2nd and 3rd was terrific. Fortunately, my 4^th was relatively secure, but it did motivate me to stay in the chair, even when I would have instead rested or caught some of the sports news I was missing.

Fixes for Next Time

I did run into some software challenges at the start. JT Alert was moving the QSOs from WSJT to the N3FJP VHF Contest logger. But the two-meter connection kept giving a warning and recording the QSO as 6 meters. I soldiered along for several hours and then spent some troubleshooting time. One instance of JT Alert was connected to VHF Contest Log, while the other tried to find AC Log. Once I restarted all instances of WSJT and JT Alert, it worked fine.

I also need to take the time to reset the JT Alert grid watch. It was loaded with all my regular log grids. Instead, it needs to be reset to look for any new grids at the start of the contest. That could have been a real help in sifting through potential WSJT QSOs to work and find the multipliers.

The one other thing that’s troubling my station is the computer audio setup. I’m using virtual audio cables for the Airspy SDR and the Icom USB audio setup for the two rigs. Unfortunately, the setup seems to change every time I restart the computer. It can also send some audio alerts out on the air occasionally. I have to get that set up correctly and in a manner that stays set up.

I hope you had a fantastic contest as well. This VHF stuff is such a blast. Let’s hope the rest of the season is gangbusters right up to and through the CQ WW VHF contest. See you on the air.

Results Update December 2023

I finished 13th overall, 5th in the West Gulf Division, and 2nd here in North Texas. Not bad. A bit baffled by the log checking report finding several incorrect call signs. Not sure how WSJT-X copies those into the log incorrectly. Here’s the certificate.