[SCCC] ARRL VHF Contest

[Steve Harrison]

On 6/13/2023 4:55 PM, JOHN SCHROEDER wrote:
>                      ARRL June VHF Contest - 2023
>
>
>
> Call: N6QQ
> .......
> Used FT8 - Did not find much action on CW or SSB


I only operated CW, of course; and since I don't have a 6m beam, had to 
use my 40m inverted vee matched through an antler tuner. Actually, 6m CW 
was so crowded most of the time (just about ALL of the time, in fact: 
from 50.080 up all the way to 50.102+ where, interestingly, on Sunday, 
one could find such as W3IP slowly CQing for domestic QSOs!) that it was 
impossible to be sure one was not CQing on top of others. Both Saturday 
and Sunday produced almost continous openings throughout the western 
states, mostly into Oregon and Washington but also into the SF bay area 
(relatively-short skip: wonder whether any 2m Es showed up along the 
coast??) as well as Utah. I also caught a couple of guys in DM43 but 
those were obviously tropo Qs. Since I operated Assisted, I watched the 
spots and at one point, noticed someone out east post 2m Es on Sat.. On 
Sat, I caught an FM08 and heard FM06 and FM16 but nothing else of that 
range: no W3/8/9s or, curiously, very few 5s although for awhile on 
Sunday, I heard both K5CM and another big gun W5 CQing, their antlers 
obviously pointed east, not hearing those of us in the west who were 
calling. Their front-to-back wasn't good enough to keep them from being 
S9+ back here while pointed east; but they couldn't hear anyone back 
west calling them in the din of easterners; and when they did respond to 
onna us, they didn't then point back west to catch the rest of us 
calling them. Around noon on Sunday, the band finally began extending 
further east with, first, weak W1/2s then around an hour before the end, 
weaker W8s and some 9s plus VE3s, and then lots of VE6s (I heard at 
least four). I managed to work a sample of all of those. What was really 
strange was most of the W1s/2s were weak but were calling me; and I was 
only using my 40m inverted vee with barefoot FT-991A or TS-890S (100w). 
My waterfall showed considerable voice activity above 50.125 most of 
this time but I never checked any of that out since I no longer 
willingly work voice modes.

In short, I thought CW/SSB activity was outstanding, considering how 
many more poor folks musta been stuck up on the computer modes, thinking 
signals would be too weak for the traditional modes. I just wish I'd had 
a large yagi and KW; coulda moren doubled my Qs/grids just on CW. Had 
W6XJ still been here, I bet he would have come close to a thousand Qs 
and way over 250 grids.

Just like in January, I heard lots of guys on voice on 2m, both from the 
LA and Arizona areas. But I never heard anybody else on CW, nor did any 
of them respond to my numerous CQs on 144.2 and 144.195. Late Sat 
evening, I was CQing toward Phoenix and finally, my old buddy N1AV 
called. We worked easily, then K7EME popped up a few minutes later, 
obviously wanting to also log DM24. However, he was a bit weaker than 
Jay had been and apparently just couldn't hear my 50W and 13B2.  Maybe 
in August, if I manage to get the STB-77 tower up in time...

Steve, K0XP