2025 ARRL June VHF Contest!

The view to the Northwest in October when Lisa and I had a chance to visit the park!

Begin: Saturday June 14 at 1 PM Central
End: Sunday June 15 at 10 PM Central
My call will be N5ZY/R for Rover

ARRL VHF Contest Rules: arrl.org/june-vhf
Also check for my friends in OKROVER.INFO

Weather permitting, I will drive to Mount Magazine in Arkansas! Mt. Magazine has the highest point in Arkansas. It is located South of Ozark and Clarksville in Midwest Arkansas. The park is beautiful and is about 2,600 ft above sea level! When standing on Mount Magazine in Arkansas, one observes the classic example of mountain ridgelines. The Ozark Mountains, where Mount Magazine is located, feature mountain ranges with distinctive east-west running ridgelines. These ridgelines create a visual effect where mountains appear to layer into the distance, with each subsequent ridge seeming slightly lower and more distant.

My goal is to submit a best score for me and if that happens to be ranked in the section top 10 that will make me real happy. I also hope to provide new grid squares to lots of people! My other goal is to enjoy the sights and some high-tech radio time. The peak of Mount Magazine is not accessible by car so I will be driving from side to side as the peak is a few hundred feet above the roadway. I’m planning to begin the VHF Contest at Mount Magazine on the North face Saturday and make as many contacts as possible then scoot around to the South face and repeat. I will overnight at Mount Magazine and Sunday morning do the same when 6m opens Sunday morning.. however Sunday morning I will start pointing South to South America, then as those opportunities dissipate I will return to the North side and face East and North East.

When 6m begins to fade away around 10:30 AM I will leave for my next grid squares to hopefully make several local contacts at each stop. For the evening opening I will try to be at another higher elevation in Garfield or Pea Ridge. Then I will begin my journey home since I cannot see tree limbs in the dark!

Grid Squares – Where and when

Local TimeGridLat,
Lon		Elevation (Ft)NoteGmap Link
SATURDAY 1PM until band dies
1,3,5PMEM3535.17419, -93.646292570North face of Mount Magazine ARGoogle Map
2,4,6PMEM3535.16378, -93.641822540South face of Mount Magazine ARGoogle Map
SUNDAY 8AM to 10PM
8-9 AMEM3535.16378, -93.641822540South face of Mount Magazine AR to South AmericaGoogle Map
9-10:30AMEM3535.17419, -93.646292570North face of Mount Magazine AR to EastGoogle Map
12 PMEM3535.51837, -93.83549708Ozark ARGoogle Map
1:20 PMEM3535.51540, -93.99827780Fisher Mountain, Mulberry ARGoogle Map
2:00 PMEM2535.45844, -94.35614554Van Buren ARGoogle Map
3:30 PMEM2636.05842, -94.203011495Centennial Park, Fayetteville ARGoogle Map
4:55 PMEM2636.23008, -94.154531521Callahan Mountain, Springdale ARGoogle Map
5:35 PMEM2636.37672, -94.114721335Pleasant Hill, Rogers ARGoogle Map
6:05 PMEM2636.444062, -94.0253681400Pea Ridge National Military Park, Garfield ARGoogle Map
6:40 PMEM3636.441154, -93.9727001672Garfield ARGoogle Map

The contest does not end until 10 PM local time but once the sun goes down I’m going to concentrate on getting home. I will have a radio on but 146.52 but I suspect nobody will be listening for me on a Sunday night.

APRS Position Beacon

I will use APRSdroid to beacon my live position.
You can see where I am using https://aprs.fi/ and searching for my callsign.

Frequencies

For this contest we are allowed to use everything above 6m and the National Simplex Frequency may be used if not busy.

BandWSJT-FT8
(USB)		Call Freq
(USB)		QSO Freq
(USB)		FM
SIMPLEX		FM
SIMPLEX 2		FM
SIMPLEX 3
6 M50.31350.12550.145
2 M144.174144.2144.220146.52146.49146.55
1.25 M222.174222.1223.5
70 cm432.174432.1446.0
33 cmn/a903.1915.0
23 cm1296.1741296.11294.5

Antennas

BandsAntenna
Verticals
2 MWhip while driving
2/70/23Comet Base Vertical CMA-GP-95 while parked only and while the rotor is NOT in use!
1.25 MComet CA-SUPER22 while parked only
33 CMComet KP-20 while parked only
Horizontals
6 MPar Electronics Stressed Moxon, (50.3 Mhz)
or M2 Antennas 6M-3SS beam
or Par Electronics 6M Omniangle (OA-50)
2 MM2 Antennas 2M7X (144-148MHz)
1.25 MM2 Antennas 222-10EZ (222-226 MHz)
70 CMM2 Antennas 440-11X (420-450 MHz)
33 CMM2 Antennas 917HD (900-930MHz)
23 CMM2 Antennas 23CM35 (1250-1300MHz)

For June VHF I may add verticals for 33cm and 1.25m.

Radios

RadioDesc/Use
IC97002m, 70cm and 23 cm USB and FM
IC76106m
IC7300To use with transverters
Q5 Signal L33-28hp50Converts 10 M to 33 cm
Q5 Signal L222-28hp100Converts 10 M to 1.25 M
AnytoneVHF Mobile

Visual Map

I’m visual.. so here is a map created using https://www.egloff.eu/qralocator/ I’ve added number to represent the order and local where I intend to be on the air.

Mastery of none!

As you can see from my ARRL VHF Contest Rankings below I’m a newcomer to VHF contesting and rovering. It’s a fun challenge though! I hope this June I can drastically increase my QSO count and multipliers.

YrMoCategoryDivDiv Rank/ALL Cat
Me/Total		Div Rank/Rovers
Me/Total		ScoreQSOsMults
2022SepSngOpLPWGDiv (OK)9/25n/a5132819
2023JanClascRovrWGDiv (OK)23/472/23991719
2023JunLimtdRovrWGDiv (OK)51/100+3/31522815794
2023SepClascRovrWGDiv (OK)7/251/441826751
2024JunLimtdRovrWGDiv (OK)14/724/71556618086
2024SepLimtdRovrWGDiv (OK)6/412/349228946
2025JanClascRovrWGDiv (OK)~ 2565~78~27
2025JunClascRovrWGDiv (OK)