[VHFcontesting] Final report on the EL84 DXpedition....

[Marshall-K5QE]

Hello to everyone interested in 6M grids and / or FFMA.....

All of the group that drove down to the Florida Keys, were able to 
return home late yesterday afternoon--those flying got home Monday 
afternoon.  We drove a bit less than 2200 miles on this trek, so I am 
pretty well washed out.  Here is my final report on the EL84 grid 
DXpedition.

We logged 1401 QSOs on 6M with only a few dupes.  Actually, I did not 
log a few contacts because they were duplicates--mostly people just 
passing us information or something like that.  We worked Lance-W7GJ, 
Hal-N7NW, Paul-K7CW, Frank-W6BBS, and Mark-W7MEM via 6M EME.  We also 
worked Brad-WQ5S and Bud-N7CW using JT65A when were trying EME.  These 
last two QSOs were terrestrial in nature. Maybe something like Es and a 
bit of tropo???

On 2M, Bill-K5YG worked 50 contacts, one of which was a 2M EME contact 
with Joop-PA0JMV....this with a single 2M12 and 350W. There were a lot 
of guys that were able to make contacts with K4N on both 6M and 2M 
thanks to Bill.  Well done there, Bill-K5YG.

Several of our group have wondered if a VHF Grid DXpedition has ever 
made 1400+ QSOs before??  All of us think that we were able to grab the 
brass ring on this one.  Our previous DXpeditions worked 300-400 QSOs, 
so this one is really special for us. Everyone involved wants to thank 
all the dedicated Amateurs out there that spent time listening to the 
white noise trying to find us on the air.  We really do appreciate all 
those that worked us.

Please remember that our QSL Manager is Joey-W5TFW.  Please send him 
your card + an SASE and he will get you a QSL card in return. It will 
take me at least 4 weeks to design the card and then to get it printed.  
Please do NOT send QSL cards to the traveling members of our group, as 
we will not have any blank cards to send back.  JOEY is the QSL 
Manager....please help him do the job. This time with 1400+ contacts, it 
may take him a bit longer, but he will get the job done.  Please give 
Joey a break.....DO NOT hassle Joey about the cards.

Also, remember that this DXpedition was a joint effort...a lot of people 
helped us get this done.  I personally want to thank the other 
operators.  This was a somewhat difficult enterprise to pull off.  They 
made it happen.  So a big THANK YOU to:

George-NR5M
Pete-K9PW
Jason-N5NU
Dan-N5TW
Bill-N5YA and
Bill-K5YG

73 es GL to all.....Marshall K5QE