Actually once the contest started , six meters was pretty spotty at best on
Saturday from CM87 and rather disappointing compared with the morning opening
and other years.
Tim - NU6S
--- On Wed 06/14, curtis roseman < croseman@usc.edu > wrote:
From: curtis roseman [mailto: croseman@usc.edu]
To: vhfcontesting@contesting.com, vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:30:21 -0500
Subject: [VHFcontesting] How Good was 6 Meters in the 2006 June Contest?
As many have already noted, on this reflector and elsewhere, Saturday was truly
a big day for six meters in the June contest. To obtain a preliminary measure
of how good six meters was I have compared 2006 high claimed QSO and grid
totals (that I have seen so far) with those from past years. Here is what I
found: Up until now [in the post 1984 grid-square era] thirteen stations have
worked at least 1000 QSOs on 6 meters, nine from Texas, and two each from New
Mexico and Colorado. At least two were added this year: K9NS in Illinois
(1282 Qs) and K9MU in Wisconsin (1108 Qs). 1000-plus QSO totals by year:
1996 (2); 1998 (6); 1999 (1); 2000 (2); 2003 (2). Ten stations had worked
between 950 and 999 Qs in the past; at least two were added this year, K1TOL in
Maine (989) and K5AM in New Mexico (954). Some pretty high grid totals were
racked-up this year too, but only one reported so far in the top echelon: The
258 grids claimed by K9NS will tie for the eleventh all-time
high total. At least ten stations worked over 200 grids this year, from a
variety of locations, including Maine, Delaware, Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas,
New Mexico and Colorado. I have the historical high QSO and grid totals in an
Excel file that I would be happy to send to anybody who is interested. These
data suggest that the overall biggest years on six (in the grid square era)
were: 1987, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, and now 2006. (I also have records
from the pre-grid-square era that would show some spectacular June contests on
six before 1985.)This year I operated single op portable (QRP) in southwest
Michigan, and almost got VUCC (98 grids) on six running ten watts to a
5-element beam 7 feet off the ground. Most of those grids were worked on
Saturday. The openings were good for me because they were geographically
widespread, allowing me to maximize the number of grids worked. [The name of
the game in a multi-band QRP operation is to work as many grids as
possible on 6; spend time getting QSOs on the higher bands where they count
more.] I worked lots of relatively short skip, to grids such as EN93, EM58, and
EN21 (consistent with the 2 meter Es that was going over my head). Also, at
one time or another, the band was open wide areas in New England, the South,
and the West. So I was able to steadily pick-off new grids, by searching and
pouncing (along with some begging).Sunday was relatively quiet on six, although
I did manage twelve new grids that day. The good news is that this allowed us
to spend most of the time on the higher bands, which were nearly empty on
Saturday because of the six-meter openings. Another fun contest.73, Curt
Roseman k9aks_______________________________________________VHFcontesting
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