2025 ARRL September VHF Contest!
Begin: Saturday Sept 13 at 1 PM Central
End: Sunday Sept 14 at 10 PM Central
My call will be N5ZY/R for Rover
ARRL VHF Contest Rules: arrl.org/september-vhf
Also check for my friends in OKROVER.INFO
Join us on-the-air during the No Static VHF Activity weekend! These two days everything 6m and up will be radioactive. For this rover event I will be meeting up with my friends of the OKRover group at Mount Scott and then we will head North. Sunday I will again start the day with friends of OKRover in Tulsa at Turkey Mountain and then I will drive South. Weather predictions looking great! No storms/hail!
Fun fact: In the June VHF contest the atmosphere provided some enhancements and N0LD/R and I both made some 2m contacts 1,000 miles away! That was great! This stuff is very interesting and a lot of fun!
- Grid Squares – Where and when
- APRS Position Beacon
- Visual Map
- Frequencies
- Antennas & Radios
- Calculated ve2dbe.com line of sight Signal Map
- Previous Results while rovering
Grid Squares – Where and when
| Local Time | Grid | LAT,LON | Elevation (Ft) | Note | Gmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SATURDAY 1PM until band dies | |||||
| 1-3PM | EM04 | 34.74529,-98.53184 | Mount Scott | ||
| 4:30-4:50 PM | EM15 | 35.03246,-97.93297 | Chickasha | ||
| 5:45-7PM | EM15 | 35.50335,-97.93830 | El Reno | ||
| 8:40PM | EM16 | 36.003213,-97.96142 | Dover | ||
| 9:30PM | EM15 | 35.63495,-97.74510 | Piedmont | ||
| SUNDAY 6AM until band dies | |||||
| 5-6AM | EM26 | 36.07073,-95.99425 | Tulsa Hills ShopCntr | ||
| 7-9AM | EM26 | 36.07073,-95.99425 | Turkey Mountain | ||
| 11-11:15AM | EM15 | 35.98606,-96.01076 | Clarion Hotel | ||
| 11:30-11:45AM | EM16 | 36.01049,-96.04800 | Creek Turnpike Overlook | ||
| 12:30-1PM | EM25 | 35.44057,-95.97012 | Henryetta | ||
| 1:45-2:15PM | EM24 | 34.90770,-95.82560 | McAlester | ||
| 3:20-3:50PM | EM23 | 33.99704,-95.50172 | Hugo | ||
| 3:50-4:50 | EM24 | 34.00391,-95.48348 | Hugo | ||
| 6-7PM | EM13 | 33.99815,-96.35494 | Durant | ||
| 7-7:20PM | EM14 | 34.02854,-96.38119 | Durant | ||
| 8:30-9:30PM | EM14 | 34.19392,-97.14566 | Ardmore | ||
| 10PM | EM14 | 34.82691,-97.30700 | Paoli | ||
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 N5ZY.
Visual Map
Saturday
At Point 4 above we actually doing a grid dance in EM06/05/15/16. While Randy, N0LD, is driving around I will have the verticals up thus I cannot use the rotator & yagi antennas.. however my verticals are amazing however we are on flat land at 1,042 ft elevation since it’s toward Western Oklahoma (up-hill all the way) so I don’t know what our range may be.
Sunday
Frequencies
| 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 ? | 902.1 | 902.125 | |||
| 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 |
VE2DBE.com LOS Calculated Signal Maps
I will try to publish these but I still have physical rover work to do..
Previous Results while rovering
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 Sept 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 | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Brrr!! Artic Blast! |
| 2025 | Jun | ClascRovr | DeltaDiv (AR) | 6/33 (raw) | 3/3 (raw) | 37,791 (raw) | 251 | 153 | Good test |
| 2025 | Aug 222 and Up | Rover | Area 8 | 4/5 (raw) | 2/2 (raw) | 7,148 (raw) | Retreated Sunday 4AM from Hail storm |