06/21/2006 | K9MU What a blast! I was fortunate to operate from the W0AIH/W0UC contest shack (EN44) again this year. While I was getting all my gear setup, I was listening to W4s on 6m. Stations were S9+. I knew the contest was going to rock. I found a somewhat clear spot on 50.171.3 at the start of the contest and called CQ a couple times. I instantly had a small pile-up. I had 10 Qs in the first 3 minutes. The two antennae I used were the 8 element @ 40 feet and a 5.5 element fixed to the SW. I turned the 8 element SE and alternated between yagis during CQs. I was running CA, WA, and ID stations from one yagi while working east coast stuff on the other. I felt loud and continued to run stations. The west coast stuff petered out and at 1900z the band shifted from the SE to the E. The band sounded like 20M during a WPX SSB contest, just how I like it. My best 10 QSO rate was 314 Qs/hour (6 Qs a minute) and my 100 QSO rate was around 230 Qs an hour. The highlight of the afternoon was having FY1FL call me! VP2MRT and FM5JC were also worked.

I was monitoring 2M while running my pile and heard some commotion at 2213z. I switched my main rig to 2M and heard some EN34 guys working W1s. I quickly swung my yagi around to the east and worked 12 Qs from W1, W2, and VE2. K1WHS was 30 over! The 20-minute opening supplied some awesome mults but really hurt my rate. I stuck to my motto, If youre not CQing, youre not winning and jumped back on 6M. I was already over 500 QSOs on 6M and was shooting for 200 more. K2DRH, N9ISN, and N0AKC would occasionally jump in and we would exchange QSO totals. Both were right behind my heels. This pushed me to contest even harder. Rates were continually above 100 Qs an hour up until around 0100z when the band started to fade. I was at 900 Qs by the end of the night. Would 1000 Qs be possible?

Sunday was never quite like Saturday. 6M opened early at 1300z to the NNE. The VE2YAT/B in FO40 was in for most of the morning. I worked new stations in VE1, VE2, VE9, VY2, and northern W1. K7BV/1 and W1JJ operating portable from FN64 as W1VHF were especially loud! At 1600z, the band shifted from the NNE to the S and SE. Signals were loud from those directions but there were few new stations to work. At 1640z, I worked WB4ZXK EM66 for QSO #1000! Since new stations we few and far between, I hit the high bands hard on Sunday afternoon. My 902 and 1296 systems were not working properly. The only QSO from out of EN44 was with K2DRH on 1296. Bobs system is amazing! 6 meters remained open for most of Sunday night. K5AM, WA7JTM, W5LCC, and AA7A were S9 up until the end of the contest. When the clocked ticked 0300Z, I had an incredible 1107 QSOs and 229 grids on 6m. I crushed my previous high and was the first Single Op LP to break the 1K Q barrier! Simply amazing! Thanks for all the Qs and see you in September. -- K9MU EN44