[3830] CQWW VHF K0HA SOSB/6 HP

[Bill Hohnstein KØHA]

K5JMP wrote:
> We had pretty fair conditions in Northern VA...  worked a couple
> of VP5's...  and as far West as Mississippi...

Mike,

I vote for Nebraska (EN10) being further west and further away from you than
Mississippi (we had a 1910z QSO on Sunday).

6M propagation seemed to favor those east of the Mississippi River north of
35º.  Those west of the Rocky Mountains appeared to have it worst.  Only the
relentless activity of a few big stations from Texas made that state show up for
some.  W3SO was the most consistently heard east coast region station heard
here in eastern Nebraska.  WA2FGK was trying to compete in signal level but
the amount he was further east and north appeared to hurt his efforts.

Working VE2YKT FN37 at 0220z signaled the start of an opening to that
area.  A dozen central Quebec/northern W1 stations were worked during the next
2 hours.  VE1YX FN74 called and worked me at 0415z when I had my Yagi
pointed west!  That was my only potentially double-hop QSO.  There were no
signs of that 1645 mile/2648 km contact being via regular double-hop--no stations
anywhere close to half that distance were copied near that time.

I took a break during a reported earlier 15 minute opening to the Oregon/
Washington area.

The band never opened from here to Florida, much less to any VP5's.

The bulk of my contacts came from a Sunday opening to mainly Virginia to
Maine to VE3/VE2's.  The first of those 143 contacts was at 1734z with
N2GDY FN31.  Those contacts slowed down after a 2029z contact with
N1ZN, also in FN31, due to the static produced by my taller 6M Yagi
becoming a cloud static drain point from a local storm overhead.  There
wasn't much of any ground lightning then so I continued on with a lower
Yagi on a different tower that wasn't having the same problem.  My last
two contacts were with K1FUB FN42 at 2050z and W2EV FN03 at
2059z.

As is usual from here, I worked very few stations closer than 300 miles away,
and not many more out to 500 miles.  The lack of diversity of even marginal
openings hurt my grids worked/QSO numbers compared to the June ARRL
VHF contest...

I ended up with just 193 6M QSO's in 59 grids.

73,  Bill     K0HA