It's been a lot of years since I was able to do more than a few hours in an ARRL VHF contest. Family life has taken priority for a long time, and since time began to open up for radio, it's taken quite a bit of effort to begin to get back on the air in a good way. It's coming along.

For this contest, I had only three bands on the air (50, 144, and 432 MHz), with low power, but it was sure good to be back. It's foreign to me to be using FT8 and MSK144 in addition to SSB and CW (and FM, though I didn't do any of that this time around), but they definitely helped me work more people and grids than would have been possible otherwise. Many things have changed, but one thing that hasn't is the great fun of working people, old friends and new, in grids far away. I love the activity that these contests generate!

All the antennas are staged for the remaining bands, up through 10 GHz, and I expect to have them all back in operation by the June contest. Great to see so many old friends still at it!--73, Rus, K2UA, FN12fr