[VHFcontesting] W9SZ ARRL June VHF

[Zack Widup]

                    ARRL June VHF QSO Party

Call: W9SZ
Operator(s): W9SZ
Station: W9SZ

Class: Single Op Port QRP
QTH: Illinois
Operating Time (hrs): 17

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   96    54
    2:   17     9
  222:    8     6
  432:   12     7
  903:    4     4
  1.2:    5     5
  2.3:    1     1
  3.4:    2     2
  5.7:    0     0
  10G:    1     1
-------------------
Total:  146    89  Total Score = 17,444

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

I got a late start in the contest due to some other commitments on
Saturday. I finally got everything set up at about 8 pm CDT (0100Z). I
caught the tail end of a 6 meter opening, working a few W1's and a few
W5's. Then I concentrated on working more local stations on 144 MHz
and above.

Sunday morning I worked a few more local stations. The bands were not
in great shape. I never heard several of the more distant people I've
been able to work on 144 MHz and above in other contests. The only
stations I worked on 2304 and above were K2DRH and W9ZIH.

There was an Es opening to New England on Sunday morning starting
around 1500Z. It was great for about an hour, then the opening
disappeared and I worked some more people on 144 and above. 1600 to
2100Z seemed to be the doldrums of the contest, with a brief opening
on 6m to the west around 1800Z. Then 6m picked up to the west around
2100Z and stayed open; it opened additionally to the northeast at
0000Z Monday (Sunday evening here). I have rarely heard the band like
that before; wall-to-wall signals with a lot of overlapping, making it
difficult to work through the QRM. I spent quite a bit of time calling
some stations that would've been new multipliers and not succeeding.
That's one of the drawbacks of operating as a QRP Portable that I've
come to be used to. 6m was still going strong when I shut down.

All in all, it was fun. The weather was pretty good and I had no
visits from Murphy in this contest. It got a little hotter than I'd
have liked; I need to remember to take more ice with me next year. My
score was about half of what I had in last year's June contest,
probably due to the late start and lack of several people who work the
microwave bands, plus mediocre conditions on the higher bands. Now
let's see what September has in store.

73, Zack W9SZ