As many know, a week before the contest our group lost one of its original founders, Dr. Gene Zimmerman W3ZZ.  Gene was a great friend and motivator of the group.  We will miss him dearly, but always keep him in our memories, especially on VHF+ contest weekends.

This year the Grid Pirates Contest Group entered the unlimited multi category from northern Virginia, grid square FM19bb.  We'd last operated U/M back in June 2008, our last operation from Spruce Knob, WV FM08fq.  Over the past 3 years we'd been operating limited 50-432 MHz from here in VA.  In 2012 we'd finally pulled enough man hours and hardware together to give the microwaves (902 MHz - 10 GHz) a try.  We've gotten a decent low 4-band setup running and had little to no problems there this contest.  We had rough start on the high bands and we sure have our work cut out for us over the coming years, but I think we can say we're back in the U/M category for the long haul.  So, fixed, portable and roving microwave stations...get on the air!

This contest was heavily dominated by 50 MHz ESkip activity, though we did manage to work some 144 MHz ES to the north, mid-west late Sunday.  There was a small bit of tropo enhancement on some of the VHF+ bands, though conditions weren't as good to New England as we'd had in the past few years.  Overall we're pleased with our efforts and already have a long list of to do's to take us through the next 12 months.  If you'd like to read a complete write up on the year leading up to and including contest weekend, including pictures, audio and some analysis, please visit:

www.k8gp.net/contests/june-vhf-2012

73

June VHF 2012 ops:
Rich K1HTV, Andy K1RA, Ty K3MM, Mark K4SO, Jason KJ4EOO, John KX4O, Mike N2NAR, Gary NW5E, Chuck W4XP and Terry W8ZN