2025 RSGB IOTA Contest As N4C With N4YDU

Photos from 2025 N4C IOTA and POTA activation:  http://w4kaz.com/images/iota2025n4c/

The 2025 IOTA was run from one of the cabins at Cape Lookout(Iota NA067 and Pota US-0683) using the call sign N4C.  Ops N4YDU and W4KAZ. N4YDU made the decision to tag along for the 2025 Iota contest outing.  As always, having  a world class operator means the radio will get a lot more actual use than it would have had I been alone.   I am betting the log accuracy will be better too, at least for the YDU QSO’s.  😮

After returning from Field Day a month earlier I gave a bit of consideration to canceling the IOTA trip to Cape Lookout.  Then decided to go ahead and keep the trip as scheduled.  I’m not even sure if I nudged N4YDU or he asked if I was going, but after the first contact I made sure Nate knew there was plenty of room if he chose to make the trip.  And plenty of operating time to fill if he chose to do it.  “Highly motivated operator” is not a label I would ever apply to myself.  My own interests are more about seeing what works and what does not.

WX es environmental konsiderationz

As luck would have it the weekend of the contest brought a few days of clear weather.  The “weather tax” this time around was sticky-hot-humidity.  Not only was the temperature elevated, but the wind was very mild for the NC outer banks.  There were a couple of points where we even had dead air, drawing out the biting kritterz of the insecty sort.  Gnats and green-head biting flies.   At one humorous point, a literal cloud of gnats.   Bitey-bitey!

Spraying the cabin window screens helped limit the gnat incursions into the cabin.  Ants were present but thankfully not into the food and refreshments.  Battery fans provided some moving air overnight to help permit sleeping in the ick.  Even the rudimentary cabin was much more comfortable than setting up in and living in a tent in the style of a tropical DXpedition.  Window screens, running water and a flush toilet beat the shit out of roughing it like the days before industrialization.

Antennaz?  We are doing WHAT for Antennaz?!?

Maybe that’s how the conversation got started with ‘YDU, because I know I texted him to see if he had ever dorked around with a 40m OCF dipole.  I had already decided to experiment using a 40m OCF fed directly with 300 ohm window line run back to the shack into a 4:1 balun, and a short coax jumper from balun to a tuner.  The second antenna was to be a 59 foot doublet(K2AV suggestion from 2010) from FD and (failed)WPX.  Once YDU jumped aboard ship he verified function of his butternut vertical and that was added to the list.  For backups I had along a selection of other things(trap dipole, EFHE, linked dipole, etc)  that we could have used in a pinch.

The OCF and the doublet were set up favoring Europe, parallel to one another and about 80 or 90 feet apart.  The modeling on that seemed ok, but in hindsight I doubt I would do it that way again.  The vertical was deployed in a mostly clear area to the NE of the doublet.  The wire antennas were supported by 30 foot telescoping masts that are self supporting when mounted in the screw-in ground anchor bases.  All of the exterior work got done Thursday afternoon after catching an empty slot on an earlier boat than the 2pm ride booked.

Since the OCF was fed directly with the 300 ohm window line and the balun located just a coax jumper away from the radio, I presume without actual measurements that the feedline was radiating in random directions along with the antenna itself.  Probably not ideal, but the QSO’s got logged anyway.  In practice there was little difference between the doublet and the OCF, while the vertical showed occasional improvements on some signals.  FWIW the doublet had marginal less static/white noise/QRN than the OCF.

Radio?  Where the hell is the stupid adapter?  Why is this an RCA jack??  WTF????

Setting up the station was an exercise in “where is that cable”, since the last couple of times had been with the K2 instead of the K3.  Everything needed was there…somewhere.  The Elecraft K3 was used.  Logging under Writelog, which took YDU a while to adjust to his preferences.  The wire antennas were both routed from their baluns to an MFJ tuner that was used as an A/B switch in the tuner bypass positions.  The tuner’s antennas routed to the K3 antenna one position and the vertical was routed to the K3 antenna 2 position.  The K3 internal atu was used for matching to the wire antennas, and not generally needed for the vertical.  After pulling a bad set of headphones everything was working.  Too easy.  It is NEVER that easy.

Contest?  There’s a Contest today?

N4YDU started out hot from the gates and chased mults and called CQ.  15m was the big surprise for me, as the 15m band has seldom been open during this contest for this QTH over the past several years.  The low USA activity levels make the first 8 hours of the contest somewhat of a challenge.  The EU stations tend to concentrate on working other EU.  Since the Cape Lookout QTH is also a POTA entity, for my part I alternated calling CQ for IOTA and POTA.  The self spotting rule change allowed us to post spots in the POTA system.  This resulted in some decent rate hours that have been really dead in the past.  I hit 15m and 20m hardest for POTA, and neglected 40m entirely.  Probably left a lot of POTA Q’s on the table by never getting to 40m.

As the afternoon grew longer it sounded like 20m was ready to open pretty well to Europe, so I wanted YDU to have a shot at the possible higher rates.  Also better to have the better op on the radio when 40m opens. While it was nothing like a major contest rate wise, the best rates we had were centered on local sunset on 40m.   YDU pulled the plug for the evening around 0400Z.   The early morning/local sunrise hours did not produce any JA, KH6, ZL or VK, much to our disappointment.  80m over-performed beating out 10m by 16 QSO’s and 4 mults.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good:  As always, enjoyed have N4YDU along for the trip.  We had a bit more time for setting up as we were able to catch and earlier boat to the island than the one scheduled.   That alone gave us an extra two hours to set up antennas and such.  All of the antenna systems functioned as expected and no repairs/redo’s/debugging was required on the antenna systems.  The radio systems were “mostly” ready to plug and play, but I will need to repack/review/reequip the radio set ups with the goal of having each radio packed individually as a stand alone unit.  WX goodness was complete lack of thunderstorms, a rarity over the past 10 years.

The Bad.   The worst part was weather related.  Although we were spared any electrical storms, that was all due to a high pressure system sitting over the region that also drove the temps into the mid 90’s (95F/35C) with the associated oceanside high humidity.  Just like being in Louisiana again!  Except I’m no longer acclimated to the norms of S. Louisiana weather.  Nathan took to dunking his shirt in ice water to get some relief.  Normally Cape Lookout has a consistent breeze blowing that helps mitigate the heat, but we caught a couple of spells of nearly still air.

The UGLY:  Bugfest 2025.  The other downside to the still air is that it gives the biting flies and gnats(“Gnatzi’s”) freedom to roam.  Just like being in Louisiana!  Humorous anecdote reserved for in person grinz.

Addendum(2025-08-09): What Next?

The question naturally arises: “Is this 2025 Iota antenna plan how I would do it again?”.  The answer that intermediately comes to mind is “NO”.  But that would be the case just out of the curiosity of trying something new.  If I were to deploy the same antennas again, I would have put the two wires at right angles based on how similar they functioned this year.  Also, after some more research and modeling, I think the OCF needs to be rebuilt.  It seems like feeding at 40% point makes more sense, giving a better match on 15m and 10m while keeping 20m and 40m at a low swr. (TO BE TESTED, 40m OCF with 27.5′ and 41.25′ legs[8.38m and 12.57m]).  LINK: “Off Center Fed Antennas” W3TB youtube presentation, April 2023 WCARES.   Also thinking about how and 80m OCF would fit into the favorite Iota QTH.  Then there are the permutations and combinations yet tried(OCF and EFHW, doublet and EFHW).  The grass is always greener, aina?

Contest Results:

N4YDU’s 3830 2025 IOTA Contest write up:  https://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=RvYizV77LDDxJU

3830 scores for Multi stations and band breakdowns

POTA Results

POTA hunters came in for the Q’s, and there were 42 P2P Q’s confirmed so far in the POTA system.  Just guessing, but it looks like about 150 to 200 Pota hunters checked in, and that is probably a conservative estimate.  Thanks fer the Q’s hunters!

Pota from Calo this year:

Screenshot 2025-08-07 – POTA activations from US-0683, Cape Lookout National Seashore