VHF Contesting

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VHF Contesting

• Scott Honaker N7WLO

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Why Contesting?

• Emergency preparedness
• Familiarity with equipment
• Operating practice
• Competitive need
• Challenge

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Why VHF?

• More about location than station even playing
  field
• Cooperative contest
• More relaxed
• Less band fighting
• No awkward antennas
• Everyone can play available to all class
  licenses

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Rules - Classes

• Single operator (high/low power)
• (Limited) multi-operator
• Rover
• Single operator portable (QRP)

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Rules Grid Points

• Maidenhead Grids
• 1 degree latitude x 2 degrees longitude
• Either 4 or 6 character designator
• Covers the whole world
• Seattle is CN87, Bellingham CN88
• Vancouver, BC is CN89, Portland is CN85
• 1 Grid point for each grid contacted per band
• 1 Grid point for each grid activated

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Maindenhead Grids
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Rules QSO Points

• Modes (CW, SSB, FM)
• Most activity is USB on/near call channel
• A QSO is same points regardless of mode
• No additional points for additional modes
• Bands
• 6m to light
• Higher bands worth more points
• Exchange Call and grid square
• Score Grid pts x QSO pts

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Equipment - Radios

• Multimode (CW, SSB, FM) most activity is SSB
• Multiband - 6m, 2m, 220, 440, 1.2 gig
• FM OK 2m and up
• IC-706MKIIG, FT-88100(D), FT-817, TS-2000(X)
• Dont forget IC-T81s, TH-F6A, etc.
• Transverters

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Equipment Antennas

• Loops
• Beams Planars - Dishes
• Horizontal polarity
• Verticals only useful on 2m, 222, 446
• Arrow, Cushcraft, M2, KB6KQ, Par
• Mast/rope, telescoping masts, park-on mounts, etc.

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Facilities

• Car
• Camper
• Truck
• Tent
• Trailer
• RV

Rodger KK7LK on Mt Anderson
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Rover Vehicles
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Mapping

• Delorme Gazetteer Identifies grid squares and
  good operating locations
• Topo data is critical for finding good operating
  locations or route planning
• GPS Can provide antenna bearings
• Locations scouted on
• http//pw1.netcom.com/n7cfo/locations.htm
• Radio Mobile software
• http//www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html

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Locations

• Altitude
• Access to population centers
• Unique grid squares
• Accessibility rover
• Beware of populated hill tops may need
  intermod filters

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VHF Propagation Modes

• Sporadic-E
• Most common on 6m
• Troposcatter/ducting
• Most effective on 6m through 70cm
• More common in summer, near water
• Aurora
• Works late at night on 6m and 2m
• Point antenna north

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New Modes

• Not too common - yet
• PSK 31
• Similar noise immunity to CW
• Easily run on most laptops
• http//aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31.html
• JT 44 with WSJT
• Copy up to 30dB below the noise floor
• Computer clock and radio freq must be accurate
• Not real-time, must be scheduled/arranged
• http//pulsar.princeton.edu/joe/K1JT/

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PSK 31 Frequencies
HF Band Frequency VHF Band Frequency
160 M 1807 KHz 6 M 50.290 MHz
80 M 3580 KHz 2 M 144.144 MHz
40 M 7070 KHz 1.25 222.070 MHz
30 M 10140 KHz 70 cm 432.200 MHz
20 M 14070 KHz 33 cm 909.000 MHz
17M 18100 KHz
15M 21080 KHz
12M 28120 KHz Most PSK 31 is USB Most PSK 31 is USB
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VHF During Field Day

• VHF/UHF QSO counts are notoriously low
• The vast majority of QSOs are voice
• FD scoring gives 1 point for voice, 2 points for
  CW and 2 points for data QSOs
• Typical VHF QSOs might be 80 all voice
• If 50 added soundcard modes, we get 5 points per
  station rather than 1 point
• 80 points becomes 240 points
• This doesnt count QSOs now possible with PSK/JT44

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Strategies

• Make noise
• Pay attention to 6m band openings
• Track rovers and the bands they have
• Identify big stations with multiple bands
• Use CW/PSK/JT44 for extra QSO points
• Bring as many bands as possible
• Scan 2m FM simplex channels and 446.000
• Check out http//www.pnwvhfs.org

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Monitoring Activity

• 50.125 50.200 MHz USB
• 52.525 MHz FM
• 144.200 144.250 MHz USB
• 146.580 FM and 2m simplex (not 146.520)
• 225.500 FM or 222.100 USB
• 432.100 432.120 MHz USB
• 446.000 MHz FM
• 1294.500 FM or 1296.100 USB

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Additional Field Day Info

• Use HamScope/MixW/WSJT to make CW/PSK available
  to all operators it all loads on the logging
  machine
• Arm the GOTA station with VHF and multimode
  software
• Anyone not operating should be contacting the VHF
  and GOTA stations
• Use down-time for JT44 contacts while
  continuing to monitor other frequencies

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Have Fun!