06/13/2005 | WB2AMU I was only able to participate during Sunday as family obligations filled my day on Saturday. I operated as single operator portable, running QRP on four bands (Six, Two, 220 and 432)from a hill in central Long Island (FN30). Beginning at 8 AM, local thime, there was fairly strong tropo working on Six as a number of stations from NJ, MD and Pa area were coming in very strong. Two Meters was fair as well but not like it would be during a September contest. It was very warm here on Long Island and by noontime, activity was down and I decided to leave. I did monitor the band for the next few hours and when I heard some aurora coming in, I went back to my portable location, shortly before 4 PM local time. I set up the Six Meter beam at 15 feet on an umbrella stand and pointed due north. Even with only ten watts on CW, I was able to work a number of stations, such as VE3RM (FN25), VE3SPW (FN04), VA3KA (FN15) and W1CX (FN34). Signals were quite strong and the aurora activity lasted for over four hours. I tried Two Meters but the QRP setup that I had was not sufficient for working stations via aurora. I worked ten stations on Six Meters via aurora running QRP. Some signals were coming in via direct and via aurora at the same time, giving the signals an eerie sound quality to it. QRP via aurora is possible if the opening is fairly strong. So instead of Sporadic-E as one would expect in June, we were rewarded with a rare aurora opening!!! It made the last part of the contest a lot of fun with CW signals completely dominating the band! -- WB2AMU