[VHFcontesting] FM Activity in Milwaukee/Chicago Areas

[Bruce Tobias]

I have to agree with Todd, FM activity in the Chicago/Northern 
Illinois area increased considerably.

Last year out of the 112 qso's, 29 were on FM. This year I only made 
119 contacts on the lower 4 bands, and at least 3/4 of those were on 
FM. I even heard a few "I haven't used this 220 rig in years" 
comments. Activity was almost exclusively on 146.55, 223.5 and 
446.00. Up until somewhat recently 146.58 was a repeater output in 
Kane County.

We had a couple of brief 6m openings, and oddly a 446.000 opening on 
Saturday night from the Southwest. No 6m FM activity I'm aware of.

SSB seemed pretty noisy all weekend. Even stations that are normally 
Q5 were down in the noise no matter what band. Maybe it was the high 
winds we had.

All in all, the FM category was a success. Now we just need to get 
our local ARES/RACES more involved.

Bruce
wb9woz