[VHFcontesting] CQ WW VHF from KC9BQA EN63ao

[Todd Sprinkmann]

  Big contest here -- Wow!  Still am buzzing from it.

  The short story with numbers is this:
  Claimed score:  176,790
  6 meters :  600 Q's and 173 mults
  2 meters:  115 Q's and 40 mults
  In 3 seasons of contesting, this is easily my best score and
most draining/exhiliarating contest.  Couldn't pig out on 6 back
in June due to a wedding on Saturday.


  Soapbox type stuff  -- wish we'd hear more of this from the
folks here, instead of getting bogged down in all of the procedural
stuff -- HELLO.  (said with a mostly good-natured grin)

  Operated all but the final 2 1/2 hours.  Had some late-night activity
on 144, and a few of us even thought to try stirring things up on FM
simplex.  Worked a handful of guys from Outer Minnesota, to Iowa
and down to Terre Haute, IND on simplex to keep things going until
the morning SSB types woke back up in Mich/Ohio/VE.

  I've only been at this for 3 seasons, but this has to be pretty much
the motherlode of propagation for 6 and 2, all weekend long.  And
it fell during a contest weekend to boot -- praise the RF Gods.

  I knew I could work far more stations on 6, so I had tunnel vision
for that band pretty much from the start on Saturday.  Had Es on 6
until about 10-11pm central time.  I knew 144 was very good also
with tropo in the Upper Midwest, but I really didn't want to lose my
spot on 6, when I finally found a frequency I could hold.  So I hoped
that when 6 finally died down for the night, there would still be
hungry 144 ops.  There were a fair amount (way more than a 'test
with flat band cx's), but I still have the nagging feeling I should have
been nimble enough to do more on 144.

  I did pound 144 hard from about 10:30pm until about 8am Sunday
morning.  Q's could be found, but not easily, and not regularly, like
they had been on 6.  In fact, the tropo on *6* overnight was amazing!
I spend a lot of time on 6 and have never heard S3-5 signals out
300-400 miles consistently.  It was that good overnight Sat., even
once the Eskip died out.

  I was bugged that I never tapped into the KS/MO/NE/OK area
on 144.  I know others around here were, but I must have been
zigging when they were zagging.  Still, 40 grids on 144 for any
contest is a good score.  I just know that with the conditions we
had, it should have been more like 50 or 60 grids.  It wasn't for
a lack of me calling CQ, at least overnight.  I did do pretty well into
NW Wis/Minn/IA.  Feel like I missed almost all of the Twin
Cities folks, though.  I think if I had had a multi-op with one
person devoted to 144 and me devoted to 6, it would have been
even more amazing.

  With respect to 6, I felt very fortunate that I got a 2nd chance this
contest season to really try and push the envelope.  I couldn't be
around for the Saturday of the June contest, but this past weekend,
I was locked and loaded.  6 was amazing.

  It was open right from the start, and it took me a while to find a
decent spot.  When I'm just hanging out in the shack, I tend to hunt
and pounce for the grids I need, but in a contest, I want to do what
the objectives state -- to try and work as many amateurs in as many
grids as possible.  So I needed to find a frequency, and just run as
hard as I could.  Even with just 100w, I thought I did pretty well.
I had a run of about 250 Q's during a 3 hour span early Sat. evening,
and another similar run Sunday morning into the early afternoon.

  Also, I would switch between a M2 6M5X beam and a pair of
Par Omniangle loops, and most of the time, the loops were way more
than I needed.  The band was *that* open.  There was a good hour
or two, where I was just CQ'ing away with the loops and after
working dozens of strong FN's and even eastern EN's, I'd have
callers from CN/CM/DM.  Was afraid to commit to the beam, lest
I lose the wide geographical coverage.

  Then it got to where I was just feeling like junk.  I couldn't even 
say
the "Quebec" in my phonetics properly.  I was losing it and I pulled
the plug a few hours early.  I probably should have hunted around
some on 144, but we also had an evening birthday party I needed to
get ready for.  I still can't believe I made it up 36 hours -- good 
thing
my better/saner half did the driving!

  I did have a 2-day spell where I didn't even want to look at the rigs,
check propagation loggers, etc.  But now I think I feel better, hi.
Can't wait for CSVHFS next weekend in the Twin Cities and for the
August UHF!!

  Oh yeah -- I need to make a few changes.  1)  Somehow learn to
utilize whatever those CQ machines are.  It's just too much talking,
calling CQ manually 1000's of times.  2)  Get dialed in with a headset
that has the mike right in front of my yapper -- all hands-free.  I'm
amazed I don't have to see a chiropractor, after holding the mic with
one hand and typing in calls with the other hand.

  73 and let's see some contest stories/observations/feedback.

  Todd  KC9BQA  EN63ao  50 thru 1296 (2304 in August, too)