[VHFcontesting] Where's Maine?? (Future dxpeditions?)

[Bill Olson]

Walter, There are active VHF/UHF stations in FN43,44,53,54,55. They will be 
on the air this weekend, but you have to keep you antenna North where there 
is very little activity, rather than southwest where there is a LOT of it. 
The additional grids (FN45,46,56,57,64,65,66,67) have no home station 
activity in Maine that I know of but are often represented by rovers but not 
many of them! Keep in mind FN57 and 67 are over 300 miles from Boston and 
are really hard for us to work even from K1WHS (unlimited multiop in 
southern Maine). There are only a few "good" roads up in Northern Maine and 
for one rover to cover all the grids in the state would take WAY more than a 
whole contest period. In fact FN46 alone is about a 10 hour job, honest,... 
plus when you get there there are no real good locations for stations with 
small, low antennas! Many rovers with modest stations go up to northern 
Maine and work NO ONE, nada.. honest! To have  even a 50-50 chance you need 
BIG power and BIG antennas on the rover. This does not make for great 
incentive to go up there.

In the September contest, K1WHS has enlisted the help of a few rover 
stations that go to these grids. They ARE NOT so called "captive" rovers, in 
fact they DO work whomever they hear, but the logistics of roving in 
Northern and Eastern Maine require them to stay at one location for only a 
short period. If they linger, they will not get to all the grids. Long 
distances, poor roads and not very many stations in range are the reasons. 
In the June contest (you know.. the SIX meter contest) these stations will 
not be up there so there will be even less activity, to the point that it is 
almost not worth taking the time to point your antenna that way... But you 
could get lucky and pick up a rover in FN64, FN65 or FN66 as well as the 5 
grids that actually have home stations in them. The other 5, probably not 
until September unless you work a Canadian station (see below).

Few people understand the problems of roving in an extremely rural area on 
the ABSOLUTE EDGE of all the activity. Think about this: from FN67 every 
workable station is in the SAME direction (SSW +/- about 20 degrees) and all 
those "workable stations" are a minimum of 200 miles away and looking THE 
OTHER DIRECTION 99% of the time. This is why it's hard to entice rovers to 
go there. Question: "Hey, wanna drive 400 miles each way and maybe work NO 
ONE?  Answer: "Nah."

If it's grids you're after, there are a few of the "Maine" Grids 
(FN65,66,45,46,56) that are represented by VE1 and VE2  stations, at least 
on 6&2. There may be more and probably are since there is a LOT more 
population just over the border in many of those "border" grids.

Finally, keep in mind that many stations that get on the air - rovers and 
home stations alike and only work 3-4 or 10-12 contacts do not send in 
logs.. That's a whole other subject, but it doesn't mean they are not on. 
There has certainly been a modest amount of activity in the 5 grids I 
mentioned above in all the recent VHF contests. Why there would appear to be 
only 2 is beyond me.. but maybe they don't send in logs.

Hope this helps.

bill, K1DY (with K1WHS, Unlimited Multiop in FN43mj, Southern Maine, 
50MHz-24GHz)