The ARRL September VHF contest was from Sept 8 to 11 this year. Our Gil, KM4OZH participated in the Limited Rover class; which mean he was mobile and that he had 4 bands to work with – 50 MHz, 144 MHz, 220 MHz and 440 MHz. Gil spends a lot of time getting his car ready for the contest and he is always refining things. This year, Gil and his adult ham son, Jordan, created an automatic antenna switching system based on an Arduino. When Gil changed bands on his radio, the correct antenna was automatically selected. Here is a photo of the breadboarded antenna switching system before being installed in the car.
Gil always plans his route, including sleep time. He is on the road for two days.
Gil has scored high before, but this time was a personal best and his raw score is second in the nation !!. He placed first in the Southeast Region and also in Virginia.
This is a screen shot of the ARRL contest page:
The OVH helped Gil by giving him a pile up when he returned at 9 PM, Sunday, just before the contest ended. He had all of his multipliers by then, so each contact was worth at least 48 points. I do not have a complete list, but I heard the following OVH members calling Gil: Cat, KM4PBD; Theresa, KG4TVM; Butch, W4HJL; James, KQ4CAX; Wayne, N7QLK; Byron, AK4XR; Ron, K3FR; George, K4GVT; Jeff, WB4TT; John, KG4NXT and Duane, KK4BZ.