01/21/2008 | WB2AMU As I have done for the past ten years, I operated as QRP portable from a hill in Long Island in Grid FN30 for the January VHF contest.

It was nice that the temperature was moderate for this time of year at 35 degrees F. And it was even nicer that when the contest started, Six Meters was open to Florida. I was able to work 14 stations in Florida in 8 different grids over the next two and a half hours using primarily SSB. Stations were as far south as NJ2F and KE4WBO in EL96 and as far north as AC4TO in EM70. It was the longest Sporadic-E opening that I had ever experienced during a January VHF contest!

Sunday was different story with regards to both temperature and band conditions. The temperature was about 25 degrees F with very strong wind. Six was not too crowded at all and I was lucky to catch a moderate tropo opening on Two Meters into FM18 when I was able to work K8GP. 220 MHz and 432 MHz were good only for working stations in adjacent grids. At some point both the wind was too much and the bands were sparse with activity and I shut down earlier than usual on Sunday. Still fun! -- WB2AMU