[VHFcontesting] VE3/KC8QVO EN39 operations concluded June 25

[steve d]

Hi All
 
I have been really busy all through Field Day weekend and haven't been able to chime in with an update here. I drove straight through from EN39 back home (21.5 hours including customs, food, and gas) to hit some packing for Field Day and another hour drive to our site. Needless to say, it has been a very busy past two weeks! 
 
First, for those who worked me - I am going to hit my QSL card making here ASAP. I was slow with it last year - I usually have my brother design them and size them correctly then I print them off and do the rest. This year I am going to try and do it all myself, I just need to learn the program. I will post on my QRZ.com listing when I get the cards ready - so check there first. Also, my blog will probably be updated also (www.kc8qvo.com). 
 
Thanks to everyone who worked me and a bigger thanks to those that posted me on the reflectors! I really appreciate the help. 
 
The bands weren't overly great, considering the whole time I was there. I got two big band openings that lasted roughly 2 hours around 0000-0200. In each opening I ran pretty thick pile-ups at times. It was hard to make out call signs at times because everyone was so strong. I did what I could and asked for repeats as needed. At times I hit QSO rates of 4 a minute. I tried to break the pile-up when there was a weaker station also, giving them as good of a chance at getting through as I could given the conditions. Outside of the two big band openings, I worked pretty hard for my contacts. They took a lot of CQ's and a lot of liquids to wet my whistle!  
 
I only made one contact on 2m - with a guy that was two grids south. I worked him on one of my streaks of endlessly calling CQ to a dead band on 6m. Since he was so close I figured we could make it on 2 so we QSY'd over to 144.200 and there he was. Its too bad 2m doesn't open like 6 does. I suppose if I sat by the radio calling CQ 24 hours a day I may have caught some more activity there, but my trip isn't for Ham radio to begin with - I just have the opportunity to take it along. I tried to be around the rig between 0000-0200 as much as I could, though, since that is when 6m seemed to have been hot. 
 
All said and done, I racked up about 8 pages of log entries. The majority of that is 6 meters plus a bit of contacts I made while mobile on the way there and 20 meters (only a handfull of contacts though). As I have said before, 6 meters is the King Band when I am there. I put most of my effort in that one - and the log book shows it!
 
This year I had another rig to use - my FT-857D. When my QSO rate was down in the dumps on 6 I ran the FT-857D on 6 and my TS-2000 (with my Heil GM-4!) on 2. That way I had 100w on both bands and I could call CQ on two bands with two mics and double my coverage HIHI. I could probably have cooked an egg on my power supply but it held its own. It is an Astron VS-35m and I peaked at about 30 amps (as I saw on the meter, it may have been higher). It was a lot of fun! 
 
I took all my antennas down on Wednesday and got as much packed as I could. I left my TS-2000 running on 6m through about 20 minutes before we hit the boat back to the truck on Thursday morning. I made a couple of QSO's Wed night, so it was well worth it. Though, the hard part was flipping the rig off for the last time knowing I wouldn't be there for a year. It is a big effort to do this and I really enjoy it. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it! 
 
Again, thanks for the QSO's and thanks for the reflector postings! Check my blog for more.
 
Steve, KC8QVO
www.kc8qvo.com