WA7JTM operated from the Grand Canyon National Park this year, operating from DM46. I  went up early to put on DM36 before the contest, arriving on Wednesday. I had a few small openings from this square on 6m, but the best was being saved for Friday and the contest weekend.

Friday morning was a sign of things to come. Our day started out with lots of east coast DX, followed by an opening to Europe where we  worked PA2M, DL1MAX, and OH2MA in Finland on CW. Signals were 559 or so most of the time. Our first contact to Europe was at 1640, and the opening lasted until after 1732. Later that day we worked PJ4E and C6AKQ. Nice to work some new ones before the contest from our portable location.

Saturday the band was open all morning before the contest began. At 1800 the fun began and continued non-stop until 0430 or so that night. We worked 618 stations on Saturday in every call district. Sunday morning 6m opened up around 13:30 and stayed open until the contest ended at 0300, when we ran out of time, and had to apologize to the pileup that was still on frequency. We worked 628 stations on Sunday, for a grand total of 1246 QSO's on 6m, a new all time June record for us here in Arizona.

Saturday and Sunday were two of the best openings we have ever see in all of my years of contesting, with virtually all call districts in both days from all call districts in the US and Canada. The hourly QSO rate on 6m peaked at over 140 for us on Sunday morning, which is a record for us also.

This contest was unbelievable form start to finish. It will be the new standard all other contests will compared to for years to come. It left us exhausted, the computer smoking, and the batterys drained, but we were still smiling at the end.

Can it possibly get any better than this?

73

Pete (WA7JTM) and Tom (N7AMA)

Portable in DM46