CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: EN41
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
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6: 490 146
2: 222 82
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Total: 712 228 Total Score = 212,952
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This was one of the most fun contests I've worked in a while. After last year's
short lived attempt with only half a 6M beam and patched together rotor loops, I
was in much better shape this year with stacked 11el 6M2.5WL m2's at 105' and
130', and stacked 2M 18XXX's at 140' and 154'. I was called in to work for 12
hours about two hours into the 2002 CQ WW VHF and had only made about 100 Qs so
I never turned in a log. I'd taken vacation time and the station was at 100% so
everything was ready to go this year! Since there was no low power class, I
decided to dust off the 8877's and run high power for the first time in a VHF
contest from this QTH (I'd won SOAB in the 2001 CQ WW VHF contest with 150W
bricks!) With 6M Es in multiple directions for two solid hours right from the
opening gun, wonderful tropo from the Dakotas to the Carolinas and even a little
Au thrown in for good measure it's obvious that the CQ WW VHF contest organizers
picked the right weekend!
I?d thought the June VHF QSO party was good but we were smiled upon with even
more delightful propagation in July! Things were so good on tropo that I often
took out time to work stations on up to 1296 despite the two band focus of the
contest, just because I could! Even 6M was really excellent. It was a real
kick to hear W3ZZ on 6M tropo again Saturday night after working them on 6M Au
in the afternoon. I asked Gene to QSY to 2M when I suspected we were working
tropo on 6M . Gene was skeptical at first and said he'd try CW, but after I
called him on SSB, he came back with an S9 signal that absolutely delighted both
of us. After that I heard them on 2M for the rest of the night and all the next
morning too, sometimes 20 over 9! Conditions were so good that I worked Bill
W3IY/R in FM19 on 2M tropo, then QSY'd him to 6M where we worked too.
On Sunday 2M sounded like 20M and it was hard to find a clear run frequency, so
I wound up running stations on 6M then QSY?ing them to 2M instead! The high
point was when Ivars KC4PX in EL98 called me on my 6M run frequency late Sunday
afternoon to tell me I was 60 over. The band had been open to FL for quite a
while and new QSOs were coming slowly, so I let him talk me into trying 2M. I
knew the tropo opening didn?t extend that far south, but we qsy'd anyway and
after a false start I was amazed to hear him on forward scatter, weak with a lot
of rapid QSB, but workable! Gary NW5E in the same grid heard us congratulating
each other, so we tried it and worked too! It was really great working lots of
old friends from AL, TN and GA that I used to work all the time when I used to
live in EM64. Both bands were still going great when the contest ended at 2200.
I was sad to see it end!
73 de Bob K2DRH
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