I have a very humble station in a neighborhood where looming towers would not be welcome. So I won’t be winning any contests from home. But even small fry contesters can take advantage of contests because of the increased participation on the bands.
But I have participated in contests from a few capable stations in the past. In most cases, those winning efforts included me as a member of a multi-op team.
The Valley of the Moon ARC (W6AJF) achieved its highest Field Day score in all of the years I have been involved with the club effort. Our 445 QSOs beat out 2019’s effort by just three contacts. But CW contacts and extra points pushed us over 2,500 for the first time. Preparing to erect the […]
Want a year long challenge? The State QSO Party Challenge provides a fun way to check out propagation and different modes to various spots in North America. Years ago, state QSO parties were a bit more popular and active than they are today. The State QSO Party Challenge is trying to reverse this by encouraging […]
My local club, the Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club (W6AJF), operated from Sonoma Skypark once again. It was an interesting outing in that we had to overcome multiple issues before things started to roll for us. This made the exercise a good practice run for solving problems on the fly in the field […]
The conditions for the January VHF Contest were not particularly good. Six meters never really opened up anywhere. So a major component of my previous scores went missing. I only ended up making 28 QSOs and 9 grids on 50MHz, 144 MHz and 440 MHz. Despite this, I did work a brand new grid on […]
Here are some tips intended for fellow Valley of the Moon ARC club members to use the N1MM logging program for Field Day. Since we’re all working from home stations in 2020 each participant will have to learn how to set things up themselves. Non-club members are free to use this info as well, just […]
Certificates are the awards of Amateur Radio contesting. Many Hams around the world dedicate large amounts of money and time building up stations and operating skills to take on their competition and win. But there are plenty of opportunities for participants of all levels to take part and compete against similarly equipped stations nearer to […]
I operated Field Day this year with the Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club. We set up a 3 station emergency power operation at Sonoma Skypark. Power was supplied by batteries and solar panels. Field Day for the club is a very laid back affair. Everyone learns a little bit about something. Everyone operates […]
