02/07/2016 | N0URW

 N0URW,,, en41,,, Iowa

I wanted to test my new 2 meter and 6 meter homebrew yagi designs, what better way then a vhf contest. Saturday conditions were not good at all. Lots of static crashes to the north and east.  The very few contacts made were tough.  The farthest heard were only out around 250 miles max. Sunday was a whole new day. Band conditions improved considerable. I was now hearing east coast stations on 6 meters in the morning. In the afternoon on 2 meters, stations up in Michigan were coming in like they were next door. Even heard a 2 land station on 2 meters. So I thought if east is this good on 2 meters, lets see what west is like. To my surprise, west was also very good.  First station I heard & worked was a rover out in en00. This lead to working stations in em09, em17, em18 & dm98. Thanks for the contacts Kansas! I even heard 2 stations in Colorado, but they went off to the upper bands never to be heard again. I was thinking it was time to point north, but with such good conditions east and west, It was hard to turn the antennas.  But hey this is a test, so north it was. Again, I found conditions were great, working and hearing stations as far north as en37 were no problem on 2 meters. 6 meters and 432, not so good. My last test was pointing south. I found 2 meters  normal conditions, 6 and 432 were not so good. After all of this it looks like my new 2 meter yagi works great. My 6 meter yagi did not and will go back to the drawing board for redesign. My station set up for this test was a single yagi on  3 bands, 2,6,432, running hi-power. When I checked the rules about single operator 3 band,  I found a low power catagory only. Nothing for us hi-power guys running 3 bands. So rather than seeing how many contacts I can make. It was lets just see how far I can reach.  I had a great time and hope to do it again in June. Antennas/power 2 meters: homebrew 13 element/31 ft. boom. 1500 watts. 6 meters: homebrew 7 element/28 ft boom. 1500 watts. 432: M2 432-9wl. 600 watts. 73's,,Dan,,N0URW,,en41,,Iowa -- N0URW