After reading some of the other Soapbox posts, I'm almost ashamed to say this, but we had terrific weather for operating portable or roving in Southern California during VHF SS.  Activity was low and there was no propagation enhancement except for some over-water tropo from San Diego to Santa Barbara, BUT:  we had clear, sunny weather with high temperatures in the low 80s.

As in September, I was in the single operator (QRP) portable category, this time atop Signal Peak near Newport Beach.  The Southern California Contest Club rovers were active again and did quite well, providing a huge boost to my score as they roved from San Diego to the southern San Joaquin Valley while I stayed put on Signal Peak.  My final score will come in somewhere around 170k, well above the current January record in the QRP portable category.

This time the SCCC rovers included K6AH (+Sally), K9JK (+N6MU), KE6HPZ, N6HC, N6HD (+Evelyn), N6TEB (+K6WCI), N6UWW, W6TAI, W6YLZ (+KG6OKB) and WB6BFG (+"K9DOG").  Of this group, only three rovers were together all weekend.  WB6BFG and N6UWW began the contest in Del Mar Heights and quickly handed out the DM12 multiplier on 10 bands before joining the group.  Several other rovers were with the group for part of the weekend and also operated in other places.  This time most of the group gathered at Signal Peak (DM13) at the start of the contest to work a contingent from the San Diego Microwave Group who were atop Mt. Soledad (DM12).  The San Diego group included KB5MU, KD0IF, N6IZW, W5NYV and W6OYJ.  Thanks to them for so many microwave Qs!

Certainly a highlight for me--and probably for many SCCC rovers as well--was a visit by W6TAI/R to Gaviota State Beach in CM94, 152 miles northwest of Signal Peak (DM13).  The SCCC rovers were still on Signal Peak when Carrie activated CM94 (surely the rarest grid within low power range of Orange County).  Within about 20 minutes, she worked all of us (the rovers and me) on 10 bands.  As the Hepburn forecast had predicted, there was just enough over-water tropo to make this possible.  Carrie also worked other stations from Los Angeles south to San Diego quickly, but there weren't many others to work.

This was a fun contest, a great way to spend a beautiful January weekend.  Um, were there some football games on TV?