The CQ WW VHF Contest 2023 edition did not match the incredible conditions experienced during the June VHF contest. Saturday was pretty slow, but Sunday picked up, providing a reasonable score. Plus, I picked up a new 2-meter grid thanks to N5ZY/R. I just missed him in what would have been another new grid; oh well.

Overall Results

You can see the activity from my station via the Contest Online Scoreboard charts nearby. Overall, I did well.

Six Meters — 140 QSOs and 83 grids.

Two Meters — 32 QSOs and 20 grids

Raw Score — 20,600

I had a raw score of 2,592 when I went to bed around 11 PM on Saturday to give you an idea of the difference between Saturday and Sunday.

Computers and Antennas

My new Beelink computer ran into troubles before the contest. It would just crash at times. I have sent it back for replacement but still waiting for the new one to arrive.

I had roughly a week to get the old HP Laptop up and running. It’s slow, and for some reason, despite my best efforts, I could only get one rig working via CAT connections. That meant I could operate on both bands but not watch one while working the other.  I used the IC-9100 and would switch from time to time from the six-meter band with most of the activity to two meters.

What helped me on two meters was using the stacked Par Electronics omniangles. I could listen and send a few CQs without moving the antenna. That helped me snag a few QSOs and alert me to some when I needed to point the quad in their direction. But I know I missed some QSOs and grids because I couldn’t monitor the band continuously.

It was a good contest. I enjoyed myself and worked hard for the score that I was able to achieve. We’ll see what happens when the results are published.

Next Stop Central States VHF Conference

At the end of the month, I’m headed to the Central States VHF Conference in North Little Rock, Arkansas. This is easily my favorite ham radio gathering. However, I’ve only attended two other conferences: Austin in 2014 and Wichita in 2018. Even so, it’s all the people I work on the VHF bands throughout the year, and the topics are always enlightening, even when a few of them go over my head or are outside my interests.

This time I provided a few papers for the journal of the proceedings. I’ve also been asked to provide a presentation on Valid QSOs and Online Chat. So that should prove to be fun.

I hope to see you at the conference or on the air.