07/12/2003 | K7MWD Good weather, lots of E, and plenty of activity!

My brother K0CAO and I teamed up for an excellent weekend of pine trees and great signals. We struggled with the six meter beam for the first few hours of the contest. A metal roof made it quite challenging to get the SWR below a 2:1. After some rearranging of the driven elements (older KLM beam w/4 driven elements) a functional combination was found. Fortunately we packed a 6 meter halo which really came in handy as the opening unexpectedly shifted from Southeast to Midwest and Northwest West.

While Chris was busy on six (well into the early morning hours I should add) I managed to work a few stations on 144 and 432. I had hoped for more activity on 2 but the Southwest is a tough place for tropo. It was fun testing the AM-912 (single 250b amplifier) - no sparks or arcs this time but did manage to wear out the t/r relay. Next year I will be better prepared with spares

We are lucky to have such an excellent group of VHFers in the Southwest. Many locals packed up and operated from rare grids and tall peaks. Most being line-of-sight from each other yet considerate - minimizing QRM. Activity and band conditions were significantly better this year. We worked ~140 grids on 6, 15 grids on 2, and a few on 220 and 432. More pictures and information can be found at Chriss web site - www.qsl.net/k0cao under contests.

A special note of thanks to the many people who helped us gather gear, debug problems, and find a place to operate (N1BUG, K1WHS, KB0CIM, K5KWA, and especially Darrell B.). We would not have been so well equipped without your help. I could not think of a better way to spend a weekend in June. Thanks to all!!!

73s - K7MWD and K0CAO - 2003 VHF Contest - DM34 Crown King, Arizona -- K7MWD