[VHFcontesting] CQ WW VHF 6 m condx

[Ellen Rugowski]

Hi Zack,

Nice to hear from you again. I still remember our 432 QSO during last year's
UHF contest, where I ran a couple of quick and dirty homebrew stacked loops.
Condx were awful then (we had rain), and we had to use CW.  I'm right in the
extreme northeastern corner of EN52 (in the southwestern Milwaukee metro
area).  From what I've read on the reflector, those with the best results in
the 'test were either south, or west of me.  It was definitely all or
nothing for me.  And, I'm not even sure how much of a factor my antenna was.
Its physical size (my apartment building's rain gutter with a T- match -
it's 125-150 feet long, and up 3 stories), certainly gives it some gain
characteristics.  I worked Bob, K2DRH on SSB with it , without much
difficulty, and that's probably via tropo.

I only heard some weak ones out of the east coast.  I wish people on 6,
would do like people on 2 & above do when condx. get marginal - go to CW.
But that's hardly ever been the case, and I've been on 6 off and on since
the fabled June 1987 VHF QSO Party, where we had non-stop Es.  Still, condx.
were better than the June contest, where I only had 2 Es QSOs, and the rest
of my 6m QSOs were brute force tropo (tropo's tough to do on 6).

73,
Ellen - AF9J

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zack Widup" <w9sz at prairienet.org>
To: <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] CQ WW VHF 6 m condx


>
> Wow, I thought the 6 meter opening on Saturday evening made it up that
> far.  I started hearing and working East coast stations on 6 at 2300Z
> Saturday and the opening continued till 0130 or so.  At that time the band
> shifted and I was working DM69-DM79 stations in Colorado on 6.  At 0230Z
> there was another opening to the east coast and I was working both
> directions simultaneously, with the east coast stations off the back of
> the beam. 6 meters finally died here at about 0300Z.
>
> It was nothing like the tremendous opening we had last year but it wasn't
> too shabby!
>
> I thought I heard the eastern stations working as far north as EN55 during
> the main opening.
>
> I was also QRP. All in all, 51 QSO's in 28 grids on 6 and 13 QSO's in 6
> grids on 2 meters, for 2618 points.  I only had 7 hours of operating time.
> Wish I could've managed more.
>
> Looking forward to the next one!
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On Sun, 22 Jul 2007, Ellen Rugowski wrote:
>
> > Oh well Eric,
> >
> > I must have been in a bit of a semi-dead zone myself.  Condx. were
spotty
> > here on the very northeasternmost corner of EN-52.   It was better than
the
> > June contest was on 6m, but I didn't feel like staying glued to the
radio,
> > so I'd listen every 10-15 minutes or so, and then tune for 5 minutes or
so.
> > I lost 6m capability with the sale of my FT-897D, 2 1/2 weeks ago, to
help
> > pay for car repairs. But I was able to get my hands on a FT-620B for
peanuts
> > at a local swapfest 2 weeks ago. It only has 10W output but the receiver
is
> > pretty good.
> >
> > I lost time on Saturday, due to the need to finish rewiring the mic that
was
> > given to me with my FT-620B.  I also had to run errands (I had to
deliver
> > two older kittens to their new home on Saturday afternoon for a local
animla
> > shleter I volouteer at).  No long openings.  They were very short (maybe
> > 5-10 minutes at the most), and very specific geographically (in other
words
> > I heard the same 2 stations or so for the entire opening). Some signals
were
> > strong, most weren't.  I only made 8 QSOs. Part of it was antenna
related,
> > but it seemed like Joe, N9UX (who some of you may have worked during his
> > rover ops on other contests) who lives in the neighborhood, was working
them
> > at a higher rate than me, but it was not on the level of an order of
> > magnitude higher than me, considering that he uses a TS-2000, and a 6m
yagi.
> > I did have a highlight late this morning - I worked the west coast: K7CW
> > (CN82 [Pacific Coast of Oregon] on CW [once I learned how to turn down
the
> > sidetone level, which was ridiculously loud]); and W7CE (CN87 [Pacific
Coast
> > of Washington] on SSB).  I also worked W5WVO (DM65 , in New Mexico) last
> > night.  It just seemed really spotty for me. Most of the time, I would
hear
> > nothing, and occasionally a very weak one down in the noise.  I
submitted my
> > log in the QRP class, just to say that I submitted a log.
> >
> > 73,
> > Ellen - AF9J
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Eric Smith" <kb7dqh at donobi.net>
> > To: <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 8:13 PM
> > Subject: [VHFcontesting] CQ WW VHF 6 m condx
> >
> >
> >> Well, glad to hear the rest of the country had decent DX on
> >> 6...  Out here in the PNW, there were some brief, weak
> >> openings into EN and FN,  which kept those of us serious
> >> about working it scrambling when it would appear.
> >>  Otherwise, local participation was up over previous years.
> >>
> >>
> >> This was the first time in a long time I simply parked on a
> >> rock and worked it... started late, but still managed 106
> >> QSO's on both bands...  The FT 450 performed marvelously on
> >> 6...
> >>
> >> Eric
> >> KB7DQH
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