[VHFcontesting] Contest report from Maine

[Bill Olson]

Wow, well this was certainly an interesting contest!! I knew I only had a few hours on Saturday to operate and chances of being able to get on Sunday were slim (ended up being none).. BUT what the heck I got on pretty much at the start and since there was e skip started on six. Holy smokes, all of a sudden I was running stations some times 3-4 per minute (I am running 90 watts and a 4 el beam so I am NOT a big gun!). Stations were single hop mostly to the mid-south EM and FM a few EN.  After 2 hours I had around 140 QSO's !! This was all on SSB of course.. I suppose I could have picked and chosen new grids on 6M FT8 but the Q rate was so high I never even looked there!! The skip shortened up around 1900Z and I was working a few FN10/FN20/FM29 stations so started looking for skip on 2M but nothing,.. in fact the band was empty except for a few locals on FT8.. back to 6.. After 2000Z my time to operate was short and spotty but I did manage a few more 6M Q's and get this.. 7 QSO's on 2M all on FT8 (all stations I would normally work on SSB)!!! (I heard no one on 2M SSB/CW at any time)..

here are the totals:
50  -  160 Q's  55 grids
144 - 7 Q's 6 grids
total operating time 3 hours

I don't even know what to say about that!! BUT, it was fun and thanks to all who got on..

bill, K1DY in Maine