ARRL VHF Contest June 2023

One year had passed, and the SLAMS team was once again gearing up for another ARRL VHF Contest. The calendar read "June 2023" and the thermometer soared past 90F ....

But no, we can't start the story like this, even though it is true. In reality, the preparations began months in advance, and we even conducted a testing event just one week before the VHF contest. Harry WA0NCS built a new station based on the famous SDR Pluto. The design is called "Project Langstone" and Harry used a Raspberry Pi instead of a laptop with Windows to control the unit. Herbert AF4JF got a new set of transverters from a Bulgarian company SG Labs with decent PA units for 902, 1296 and 2304 MHz. Herbert and Harry tested these new units on Saturday, June 3. AF4JF went to Cottleville Community College in EM48qs while Harry was at High Ridge in EM48rl. The distance between these was about 20 miles.

AF4JF with tested antennas for 902, 1296 and 2304 MHz

AF4JF station on a test rack in the back of his car
(looked even worse in real contest one week later 
with more bands added)

Details of AF4JF antennas .. the dish is actually fed
by wideband LPR feed covering 2-11GHz

Everything worked fine, so we made big plans and went to our contest locations. Harry WA0CNS to his usual High Ridge while Herbert AF4JF and Ron KO0Z went to Foley in EM49oa on Saturday June 10 for the first day of the contest.

WA0CNS setting up his station. Note the 50MHz loop.
This is High Ridge EM48rl

Ron KO0Z working on his 1296MHz setup

Herbert AF4JF operated his rover station 
(50-144-222-432-902-1296-2304-3400-5760 and 10368MHz,
dish antennas still in the car)

We have made several QSOs with Harry and some other stations from EM49oa. This is the location of a railroad communications tower on a hilltop, but most of it was covered by foliage. We returned home in the late afternoon, with a plan to continue tomorrow from the "Egyptian Hamfest" that took place in Granite City in EM48wr.

Unfortunately the weather changes. We went from tropical Saturday to cold and wet Sunday. This hamfest typically includes a flea market running in the parking lot, but the weather stopped any attempts at that.

Egyptian Hamfest rainout

After the hamfest, we all headed to our usual lunch spot - Uncle Linny's restaurant in Pontoon Beach. They serve fantastic burgers in sizes of 1lb, 2lbs or 3.75lbs. 

1 lb burger at Uncle Linny's

From here, Ron KO0Z went back to EM48 while Herbert and Harry took a little detour to EM58as (Edwardsville). We did not take any pictures there, just made several QSOs with each other and couple of stations that we found on the bands. Harry remained there to work more stations on 50MHz while Herbert returned to his favorite Community College park in EM48qs to work Ron KO0Z on 10GHz.

AF4JF in EM48qs

Ron set up in nearby grid EM48qr and received a surprise visit by W0MFQ and KB9LLD who live in the area. That was the end of a nice, long event where we activated 5 locations in 3 big grids, got a sunburn and free shower, ate huge burger and had a lot of fun with ham radio.