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 I will either do the same when 6m opens Sunday morning or I will leave very early for the next grid. I also have a 3 element 6m beam that I may swap to however doing so remedy me stationary for a longer period.
When 6m begins to fade away I will leave for my next grid squares to hopefully make several local contacts at each stop. For the Sunday 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! Note that the timetable below may drastically change if the top is crowded and movement is restricted due to traffic and low hanging limbs.
Grid Squares – Where and when
| Local Time | Grid | Lat, Lon | Elevation (Ft) | Note | Gmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SATURDAY 1PM until band dies | |||||
| 1,3,5PM | EM35 | 35.17419, -93.64629 | 2570 | North face of Mount Magazine AR | Google Map |
| 2,4,6PM | EM35 | 35.16378, -93.64182 | 2540 | South face of Mount Magazine AR | Google Map |
| SUNDAY 8AM to 10PM | |||||
| 8-9 AM | EM35 | 35.16378, -93.64182 | 2540 | South face of Mount Magazine AR to South America | Google Map |
| 9-10:30AM | EM35 | 35.17419, -93.64629 | 2570 | North face of Mount Magazine AR to East | Google Map |
| 12 PM | EM35 | 35.51837, -93.83549 | 708 | Ozark AR -skip – go 70m straight to Overland RV Park, Van Buren- | Google Map |
| 1:20 PM | EM35 | 35.51540, -93.99827 | 780 | Fisher Mountain, Mulberry AR -skip – Kia still not compatible with NACS- | Google Map |
| 2:00 PM | EM25 | 35.45844, -94.35614 | 554 | Van Buren AR -skip hilltop – go straight to RV Park near Fort Smith or Centennial Park- | Google Map |
| 3:30 PM | EM26 | 36.05842, -94.20301 | 1495 | South Centennial Park, Fayetteville AR -53 mi from Fort Smith, 106 mi from Mount Magazine- | Google Map |
| Pilot Travel Center or Springdale Walmart Supercenter 10 mi from South Centennial Park | |||||
| 4:55 PM | EM26 | 36.23008, -94.15453 | 1521 | Callahan Mountain, Springdale AR | Google Map |
| 5:35 PM | EM26 | 36.37672, -94.11472 | 1335 | Pleasant Hill, Rogers AR | Google Map |
| 6:05 PM | EM26 | 36.444062, -94.025368 | 1400 | Pea Ridge National Military Park, Garfield AR | Google Map |
| 6:40 PM | EM36 | 36.441154, -93.972700 | 1672 | Garfield AR | Google Map |
The contest does not end until 10 PM local time Sunday 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 however for 222 and 902 I’m using transverters from 28 Mhz so my band is limited to 1.7MHz (28.0 to 29.7 MHz).
| Band | WSJT-FT8 (USB) | Call Freq (USB) | QSO Freq (USB) | FM SIMPLEX | FM SIMPLEX 2 | FM SIMPLEX 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 M | 50.313 | 50.125 | 50.145 | 52.525 | ||
| 2 M | 144.174 | 144.2 | 144.220 | 146.52 | 146.49 | 146.55 |
| 1.25 M | 222.174 | 222.1 | 223.5 | |||
| 70 cm | 432.174 | 432.1 | 446.0 | |||
| 33 cm | 902.174 ? | 903.1 | OOB Trnsv | |||
| 23 cm | 1296.174 | 1296.1 | 1294.5 |
Antennas
| Bands | Antenna |
|---|---|
| Verticals | |
| 2 M | Whip while driving |
| 2/70/23 | Comet Base Vertical CMA-GP-95 while parked only and while the rotor is NOT in use! 6 dBi @ 146MHz, 8.6 dBi @ 446, 12.8 dBi 1.2 GHz |
| 1.25 M | Comet CA-SUPER22 while parked only 6.6 dB @ 222 MHz |
| 33 CM | Comet KP-20 while parked only 9.2 dB @ 902 MHz |
| Horizontals | |
| 6 M | Par Electronics Stressed Moxon, (50.3 Mhz) or M2 Antennas 6M-3SS beam or Par Electronics 6M Omniangle (OA-50) |
| 2 M | M2 Antennas 2M7X (144-148MHz) 7ele 12.3 dBi |
| 1.25 M | M2 Antennas 222-10EZ (222-226 MHz) 10 ele 14.1 dBi |
| 70 CM | M2 Antennas 440-11X (420-450 MHz) 11 ele 13.4 dBi |
| 33 CM | M2 Antennas 917HD (900-930MHz) 17 ele 17 dBi |
| 23 CM | M2 Antennas 23CM35 (1250-1300MHz) 35 ele 20.94 dBi |
Radios
| Radio | Desc/Use |
|---|---|
| IC9700 | 2m, 70cm and 23 cm USB and FM |
| IC7610 | 6m |
| IC7300 | To use with transverters |
| Q5 Signal L33-28hp50 | Converts 10 M to 33 cm |
| Q5 Signal L222-28hp100 | Converts 10 M to 1.25 M |
| Anytone | VHF 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.
Zoomed out map of the grid corners in Arkansas
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.
| Yr | Mo | Category | Div | Div Rank/ALL Cat Me/Total | Div Rank/Rovers Me/Total | Score | QSOs | Mults |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Sep | SngOpLP | WGDiv (OK) | 9/25 | n/a | 513 | 28 | 19 |
| 2023 | Jan | ClascRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 23/47 | 2/2 | 399 | 17 | 19 |
| 2023 | Jun | LimtdRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 51/100+ | 3/3 | 15228 | 157 | 94 |
| 2023 | Sep | ClascRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 7/25 | 1/4 | 4182 | 67 | 51 |
| 2024 | Jun | LimtdRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 14/72 | 4/7 | 15566 | 180 | 86 |
| 2024 | Sep | LimtdRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 6/41 | 2/3 | 4922 | 89 | 46 |
| 2025 | Jan | ClascRovr | WGDiv (OK) | 11/40 | 1/1 | 2366 | 72 | 26 |
| 2025 | Jun | ClascRovr | WGDiv (OK) |
Coverage Map calculated using ve2dbe.com
The coverage map below is calculated from the north side and the south side of Mount Magazine using 146 MHz to a 6dBi omni at 100 watts. This map shows the reliability of a site-to-site communication WITHOUT atmospheric enhancement.
This map is the same criteria but from EM26-Centennial Park, Fayetteville
This map shows the calculation from EM26-Callahan Mountain Springdale AR
Skipping up to my last point it looks like I can reach to several metro areas from Little Rock to Springfield to Tulsa!
