As hoped, I had a great weekend working the ARRL June VHF QSO Party (AKA the June VHF Contest). Band conditions were not as good as last year but we had some very good sporadic-e propagation on 50 MHz.
I operated from the cabin “portable style” in DM78av, near Trout Creek Pass. It was a two band effort (50 MHz, 144 MHz) but I did make a few Qs on 440 FM. Everything worked pretty well except my portable mast struggled with the high winds we experienced.
I kept my Yaesu FT-847 on 2 Meters the entire time, using its 50 Watt output to drive a 180W Mirage amplifier to a 2M9SSB yagi antenna. My FT-950 was put to work on 6 Meters, with its 100 Watt output driving a 6M5HP Yagi.
The contest started out slow with just a few local contacts on 2 Meters. About 3 hours into the contest, 6 Meters started to percolate and I heard east coast and midwest stations popping up. Soon, the sporadic-e was in high gear and I was working stations at a decent clip. Later in the day, the band swung around and I worked quite a few stations in pretty much every part of the USA. Sunday started out in the morning with a few contacts to the south, including XE2X in grid EL06. Later the band flipped over to the east coast, then hovered over the midwest. Later in the day, the VE stations from Canada were pounding in and it seemed they were having a blast working many different states.
Band QSOs X pt = QSO pts. X Grids = Points --------------------------------------------------------------- 50 398 1 398 126 50148 144 38 1 38 13 494 432 3 2 6 3 18 --------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 439 442 142 62764
Note the CW keyer and paddles in the picture. I am not a great CW op but I end up making a few CW contacts “when the going gets tough” during VHF contests. Not shown in the photo is the Heil Pro Set headset with HC-4 microphone element and optional PTT foot switch. I have really come to appreciate how effective and efficient this headset is for contesting. I’ll also give a shout-out for the VHFLOG contest software by W3KM. I’ve tried a number of logging programs and really like this one for VHF contests.
73, Bob K0NR
Bob, we had a great time up here in the Northwest as well. Looking in the log, I see I did work you on Saturday evening, though your “new” call didn’t click at the time. Sunday was the banner day up here as well. For a while it was open to the IL/IN area, CO/NM/AZ, and also double hop into GA, all at once. I think it’s the best Es during a contest I’ve ever seen up here. I worked 36 *new* grids! See you in the next one!
73,
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Great to hear from you. Yes, I see KX7L in the logbook so I we did make contact during the contest. The sporadic-e was actually better here last year but I am not complaining.
Fun contest….see you next time.
73,
Bob K0NR
Bob,
FB job on 6 meters! Lots-O-Magic on that band when you can squeeze it out.
73, Jeff KE9V