06/18/2003 | K0BJ Ive operated this contest 3 years with different rigs each time -- Ten Tec transverter, old FT-620 with intermittent rx, and now an FT-847. The antennas arent permanent so I just put them on a 10 mast for the weekend and run the rig from our sunroom. This is a nice, casual location (good to have scenery while tuning a dead band hoping for E-skip) with 25-step access to the Armstrong rotator. Hmmm.. the ambiance is almost a precursor to Field Day. Logging is on an old 486 laptop with CT v9. Running C2A and importing to WriteLog/DX4WIN on my real computer generates a Cabrillo file and makes for easy QSLing. With renowned VHFers N0LL and N0KQY each in an adjacent grid, DM99 is still rather rare unless someone has logged WA0GBN or K0GBZ. I own a 90 light-duty self-supporting tower (horizontally polarized). MAYBE my antennas will be (up) on it next year..

From the center of the US, Junes contest seems to have settled into a pattern nice openings at start and finish with a couple in between, but the preponderance of propagation occurring to the west. The closing foray was a little weak this year; the cloud just wasnt strong and not much fresh meat was around at that point.

Most welcome were the large number of cw stations this year, apparent low clouds that provided many all-time new, close-in grids for me both west and southeast, and fun eavesdropping on 2M. This was my first time on 2 and while I had just 3 Qs in 2 grids, I SWLed both sides of N0LLs QSO (for an all-time new grid for Larry) with western CA on 2M Es.

Three bummers were hearing 7s working the Caribbean but no propagation here, hearing but not working W1XE 240 miles away on both bands, and spending an hour after a lunchtime thunderstorm tuning for signals .any signals..to finally discover openings are much more likely with an antenna connected.

6M 105 Qs 62 grids
2M 3 Qs 2 grids
69 SSB 39 CW DX VE/XE
6912 points SOLP
DM99 nw KS Thomas County -- K0BJ