2015 ARRL August UHF Contest results

VHF and UHF antennasWhew, it's been interesting last couple of days around here.  On Friday the only antenna I had in the sky was my OCF dipole for HF.  Saturday morning found myself, Bob N3PPH, and Dave W3PQS erecting a pole with antennas for 2m, 70cm, and 23cm.  With the ARRL August UHF contest starting at 2PM (local) we had to scramble.

Okay, so I was a little late getting on the air.  First QSO went in the log at 3:09 PM.  I operated, off and on, until 2:00 PM on Sunday and ended up with 18 QSOs, representing six grids and six states, all within ~500 km.

Best DX

432 MHz - 70cm

Best DX of the weekend was K1GX in FN31 with a door-to-door distance of ~493.9km.

1296 MHz - 23cm

Best 23cm DX of the weekend was K1TEO with his powerhouse station at a distance of ~405.3km.

Easiest Copy

K1TEO was very loud during the entire event.  When I went searching for a place to call CQ (usually around 432.107 MHz) I had to give him clearance as he was constantly in my ear.  WA3QPX was also armchair copyable and we chatted for a bit during the contest.

K3TUF gets the 'easiest copy' mention on 1296MHz.  We chatted using SSB on 1296.100 MHz without too many problems.

Score

I pay little attention to the score I generate in these contests as I am more interested in the number of contacts and the distances I can work. With my small station, and with my off-and-on operation, I managed to rack up 324 points.  Obviously not a winning score but with my antennas stuck pointing at FN (basically pointing at Connecticut) and running 50 watts on 432MHz and 10 watts on 1296MHz I say I did okay.

Grids

  • FM19
  • FM29
  • FN10
  • FN20
  • FN30
  • FN31

States

  • Connecticut
  • Deleware
  • Maryland
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Pennsylvania