ARRL 222-And-Up Distance Contest 2018
 category: MULTI-OPERATOR, FIXED
contest region 11 (MI, OH, VE3, NNY, WNY, WPA)
 callsign: N2SLN





OPERATORS

Jon W2BDN -- 432 op Saturday night, logging Sunday morning
Tom KC2SFU -- 432 op Sunday morning, partial equipment supplier
Lu N2SLN -- 222 op, partial equipment supplier






ANTENNA SYSTEM






EQUIPMENT

222:
    driver side Icom IC-7000
    DownEast Microwave transverter
    Advanced Receiver Research RF-sensed preamp
    DCI bandpass filter
    TE Systems amplifier at 200 watts

432 Saturday:
    passenger side Icom IC-7000
    TE Systems amplifier at 60 watts with built-in preamp
    Telewave bandpass filter

432 Sunday (2nd vehicle containing remotely operated station):





DESCRIPTION

We weren't going to participate in the second running of this contest but KC2SFU indicated interest and the wx looked rain-free for most of it, so we threw together plans at the last minute to get on the air at the most likely times for tropo over land paths (evening and morning). The Hepburn tropo forecast showed slightly-above neutral conditions for Saturday evening, and just a bit better Sunday morning. I got the contest van set up Saturday evening on a local hilltop in western FN22. The 432 stack was with Tom who was unavailable Saturday evening, so we used the spare 432 antenna which was a single end-mount 11-el Yagi. Jon arrived and the first contact went into the log around 7:30 PM. With wind-free conditions at sunset, we found that some evening enhancement seemed to be helping our situation for a while, but there was also long QSB. It was great to hear Jeff K1TEO back on 222 as he re-builds his station.

I returned to the hill Sunday morning as early as possible and found Tom already there. We got my station set up with additional bands so we could run tests for the September VHF Contest after operating some more of the 222+. Jon arrived and we got Tom's unique station set up with the 432 stack. Lots of folks are using the Internet to run remote stations thesedays, but not as many are using anything like Tom's wired remote station. It is best described as a vehicle-based rover station run from a distant control point using a laptop and an "umbilical cord". The distant control point in this case was the cargo area of the N2SLN contest van, about 20 feet away, where Tom had the laptop, a headset, and the control panel of his transceiver. You can type in the grid square, hit "enter", and the rotor turns the antennas to the proper beam heading. You can alternately use the touch screen grid map to do the same thing, or override both and operate the rotor manually. The system can also be run from inside his vehicle incase of issues. After 90 minutes, we shut down contest operations due to time constraints and began testing for inter-station interference using other bands. We discovered that Tom's 432 station was receiving interference from 6m. It could be the umbilical cord picking up the long wavelength of the 6m signals, or it could be caused by the lack of filtering on Tom's station. We will have some big decisions to make before September, and hopefully we'll have time for additional testing before then. Best DX on 222 was 614 km (382 mi) on SSB from central NY to central Ohio. Best DX on 432 was 387 km (240 mi) on SSB to northeast Vermont. Update: N2SLN multi-op takes 2nd place on our first try.









POINTS SUMMARY 


Band   QSOs   total distance (km)   band factor   total points
---------------------------------------------------------------
222     21          6,216                2           12,432
432     17          4,783                1            4,783
---------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS  38         10,999                            17,215







LOG



START-OF-LOG: 2.0
ARRL-SECTION: WNY
CALLSIGN: N2SLN
CATEGORY: MULTI-OP HIGH
CLAIMED-SCORE: 17,212
CONTEST: ARRL-222-AND-UP
CREATED-BY: hand
NAME:
ADDRESS:
ADDRESS:
ADDRESS:
OPERATORS: W2BDN KC2SFU N2SLN
SOAPBOX: contest region 11 (MI-OH-VE3-NNY-WNY-WPA)
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-04 2333 N2SLN            FN22dn N2PA             FN12hn
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-04 2334 N2SLN            FN22dn N2PA             FN12hn
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-04 2338 N2SLN            FN22dn N1JEZ            FN44ar
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-04 2338 N2SLN            FN22dn N1JEZ            FN44ar
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-04 2347 N2SLN            FN22dn K1TEO            FN31jh
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0047 N2SLN            FN22dn W1GHZ            FN34uj
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0049 N2SLN            FN22dn W1GHZ            FN34uj
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0115 N2SLN            FN22dn WZ1V             FN31rh
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0116 N2SLN            FN22dn WZ1V             FN31rh
QSO:   222 CW 2018-08-05 0128 N2SLN            FN22dn W9KXI            FN12ne
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0128 N2SLN            FN22dn K3TUF            FN10we
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0130 N2SLN            FN22dn K3TUF            FN10we
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0133 N2SLN            FN22dn W9KXI            FN12ne
QSO:   222 CW 2018-08-05 0138 N2SLN            FN22dn K2OS             FN13ce
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0143 N2SLN            FN22dn KD2LGX           FN12ig
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0143 N2SLN            FN22dn VE3ZV            EN92vw
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0144 N2SLN            FN22dn VE3ZV            EN92vw
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0153 N2SLN            FN22dn WM8I             EN80pt
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 0211 N2SLN            FN22dn K1GX             FN31tt
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 0212 N2SLN            FN22dn K1GX             FN31tt
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1314 N2SLN            FN22dn N2NT             FN20si
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1315 N2SLN            FN22dn N2NT             FN20si
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1324 N2SLN            FN22dn AF1T             FN43cd
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1325 N2SLN            FN22dn AF1T             FN43cd
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1333 N2SLN            FN22dn NN3Q/R           FN20bi
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1335 N2SLN            FN22dn NN3Q/R           FN20bi
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1352 N2SLN            FN22dn KF2MR/R          FN02vu
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1356 N2SLN            FN22dn KF2MR/R          FN02vu
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1359 N2SLN            FN22dn VE3ROR           FN03bg
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1402 N2SLN            FN22dn VE3DS            FN03fq
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1403 N2SLN            FN22dn VE3DS            FN03fq
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1412 N2SLN            FN22dn W2RMA/R          FM09mt
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1441 N2SLN            FN22dn K3SFX            FN20fe
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1442 N2SLN            FN22dn VA3HD            FN14bb
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1452 N2SLN            FN22dn W2SJ             FM29jr
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1500 N2SLN            FN22dn K1RZ             FM19jh
QSO:   222 PH 2018-08-05 1501 N2SLN            FN22dn K1RZ             FM19jh
QSO:   432 PH 2018-08-05 1501 N2SLN            FN22dn W2SJ             FM29jr
END-OF-LOG: