The January 2026 VHF Contest was very, very similar to the 2025 contest. Same location in EM01wv. Same cold weather, but overcast and windy. And, the same limited number of stations were heard, and fewer worked. The big difference was that I had to return home late Saturday night. So, I missed Sunday’s limited six-meter opening and the herd of rovers passing by my location.

January VHF Contest — Saturday Only Operation

I set up my portable station in the car last week, with final testing on Friday. On Saturday, I headed south to Hico and my favorite spot in EM01wv. The setup went smoothly, despite being a bit cold and windy. Everything worked!

On the air at 1 PM and starting to work a few stations, mostly on two meters. The final tally for the day was 29 QSOs, split between 50 MHz with 7 QSOs and 5 grids, 144 MHz with 19 QSOs and 12 grids, and 432 MHz with 3 QSOs and 3 grids. Many QSOs failed to progress: I could see they heard me once, transmitted many times, but couldn’t get my RRR. All of this was on FT8. I tried SSB but couldn’t raise anyone.

Total was 29 QSOs, 20 multipliers, and 640 points.

I’m sure Sunday would have been better since six meters was open for a while, and the stations would have been more aggressive later in the contest. I worked a few rovers, even though they were quite far away. Their planned route past my location on Sunday would have been a big addition to the logbook.

January VHF Contest — Single Op Portable

I used the same setup from the September VHF Contest: IC-7100 and IC-9100. Both rigs were set to 10 watts, as measured by separate wattmeters. The IC-7100 operated on 144 and 432 MHz using the Antennas-Amplifiers dual-band single-feed Yagi. The IC-9100 ran on 50 MHz into an M2 3-element Yagi. My reliable MaxGain Systems fiberglass mast supported them well in the wind. N3FJP’s VHF Contest Logger captured the details, driven by JT-Alert and WSJT-X Improved.

The Lenovo laptop and an external monitor displayed everything. VHF Chat on Slack didn’t really help much, since I was only able to work with local stations I could actually hear. I did appreciate the GPS system I used to sync the clock.

Pack Up and Head Home — Sunset Version

My previous photos from this spot have almost always captured the Sunday sunrise, as long as I arrived early enough. This time, I managed quite a few shots of the Saturday evening sunset since I packed up late and headed home.

It was a good contest given January’s limited activity. Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and for digging my signal out of the QRN, QRM, and QSB. Sorry, I couldn’t be there on Sunday.

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