[VHFcontesting] W1AW/0 VHF contest report

[jon jones]

Saturday morning before the contest I found out I could sign W1AW/0 for VOTA in the contest. Thanks, K3PA! I operated single op QRP portable from our farm in northeast KS. Saturday was slow. It snowed Saturday night, and I almost didn't go back out Sunday morning due to icy roads. But I went ahead and was set up by 1500 UTC. Was hoping for maybe a meteor scatter contact...

I was surprised when I turned on the radio after setting up and the FT8 band map screen was full of strong traces at 1505 UTC. Wow! There was a surprise sporadic-E opening Sunday morning. Es open to W1, W2, W3, VE3, and W8. The Ontario stations were booming in and I had a pileup calling. Even some F2 with PJ4MM FK52 peaking at -8 dB at 1554 UTC.

Even more amazing MM0AMW decoded several W9 stations on 6 Meters. Several stations I worked like KW9A were spotted into Scotland Sunday morning.  Unsure if the propagation mode was multi-hop Es or F2 ?

The W1AW/0 6 Meter contacts will be uploaded to LoTW. Pics of the setup on the ARRL Contest Soapbox.

 - Jon N0JK