[VHFcontesting] June VHF Contest from Out in the Boonies

[David Olean]

Way to go, Dave!

That is an impressive score and you beat me by about a factor of ten 
this time around.  I did not operate on 50 MHz. My shack is still in 
flux and I need to figure out how to interface the50 MHz station into a 
single op setup. I just do not have the room to do it.  I was on 144, 
222, and 432 only.  That suited my capabilities as I just cannot do what 
I used to do.  You are to be congratulated on your efforts on the higher 
bands. Big signals on all those bands is not a trivial pursuit and you 
have succeeded very capably.  The Northeast has a distinct advantage. I 
used to live up the road from K1TEO's CT QTH. There, my brother and I 
took turns winning the single op category by fortune of having all that 
activity near us.  Moving to Maine sure was an eye opener.  It is just 
far enough away from the action to make it almost impossible to compete. 
My solution was insane antenna systems in an effort to overcome the 
distances involved. That can work only up to a point. You are a bit 
farther away from the activity than I am.

It would be interesting to see what grids you worked on bands above 50 
MHz. My hope is to foster activity in those rare spots with no activity, 
but it is a hard sell today for sure. N2CEI has been pushing VHF 
activity in EM80, and has assembled a great station at the local club. 
No one there ever seems to use the gear. He is thinking of removing it 
and using it at his place.  I have a portable EME system here on 432 and 
23cm, but cannot even get anyone to operate it. The system works great 
and all one has to do is turn it on. The local club has had almost no 
interest. It sits idle most of the time. Not sure if it is too 
technical, or maybe something else, but generating interest on our 
higher bands is an uphill battle.

Keep up the good work and I will look for you on Tuesday nights!

Dave K1WHS

On 6/16/2025 3:38 PM, K3SK at buckwalter.co wrote:
>
> Like they say LOCATION-LOCATION-LOCATION.
>
> If you want to place in the Top 10 nation-wide in a VHF contest, you 
> have to live in the NorthEast.   Although this was a decent contest 
> and I hit my all-time highest score ever in 45 years of VHF 
> contesting, I'm sure by the rummers I've heard, the multi-band guys in 
> New England cleaned up again.     Out here in the boonies of 
> south-central Virginia working nearly 30 QSOs on 222 & 432 is 
> monumental.     However, it doesn't help much against stations that 
> are located 100 to 200 miles from 3 to 4 times as many on those same 
> bands.   Not to mention all the close-in 1296 and up stations in those 
> over-populated home-owner association run neighborhoods of the NE. 
>   Even with my first ever 6-digit score, it would have been much 
> better had there been any enhanced propagation on the 2m and up bands. 
> Sporadic E propagation on 6 meters was great most of the contest, with 
> a European opening in the beginning hours.
>
>  Band      QSO    Grid
>
> 50M          265       156
>
> 144M         102       36
>
> 222M   28       17
>
> 432M   28       18
>
> 1.2G            3         3
>
> Total          426      230
>
>   Score: 112,240
>
> de K3SK
>