06/25/2003 | K2DRH Had a killer June VHF 'test this year. 6M Es all day Saturday well into the night. It was variously open to FL, the SW and the NE, and occasionally the Q rate exceeded 200/hour for short 10 - 20 minute bursts. I was glad that I had two independent 6M antennas (I also have a 5 el up at 18') since I had to switch directions several times to follow the E clouds and sometimes it was coming in from multiple areas at once!

On Saturday, calls on 2M were met with mostly silence since everyone was hanging around 6M. Daytime absorption was high and there seemed to be a brick wall between 903 and 1296 with stations more than one or two grids away. 6M kept moving around to the same areas over and over again. By the time I finally got to sleep a little after 3 AM I'd worked VUCC and to spare on 6M and had almost 100K points, but had very few 2M and higher QSO's in the log.

Sunday morning 6M was dead, but 2M was really quiet so I played catch up on 2M and above and racked up a fairly respectable total by 10AM, already closing in on my previous best LP score for a June Contest. When 2M slowed down I went to 6 and called CQ, hoping that the Es would make a sudden reappearance at any time; but it was not to be. Sunday afternoon, calls on 2M went practically unanswered but calling on 6M was working out pretty well for me. Everyone seemed to be waiting there for something to happen during the doldrums, so I stuck with it. I encountered a few familiar rovers and followed them around, working them in several new grids. It was like Sunday afternoon during a January contest, except with a lot more background noise. The noise level got higher and higher as the day progressed, and was particularly bad to the North and West.

Later on during the evening 2M kept getting better and better as more stations got back on the air to finish the contest. Propagation was average with no real surprises as it got cooler and the band stretched out a bit. Six was still working well locally and occasionally I'd catch a small e-cloud, but with the notable exception of a few Caribbean DX and a handful of West Coast stations it was only open in short bursts and mainly to the same areas in FL and the Southwest that I'd beat to death the previous day. I was closing in on 275K in the last minutes of the contest when the aurora hit and the band went crazy. I didn't quite make it to 275K, but it was close.

After several rounds with winter storm damage and antenna problems, I recently revamped my entire tower and antenna system. I now rotate 50' of 45G on top of 80' of 55G with two K0XG rotating guy rings. Bigger, higher, stronger! And its a lot more stable too.

Bob -- K2DRH EN41vr