01/18/2007 | KG6IYN Well, late posting, but what a wonderful wrap to the 2006 VHF Contesting Arena.

Weather was great, no winds to speak of this time around for set up or teardown (Unlike all of my January Contests from this location).

Limited work on the bands above 2304 as I'm still trying to get a functional setup for those bands that I can "steer" from within the vehicle. Hopefully all in time for June as it's generally too cold to even try this in January from the hill with typical temps in the high 20's to low 30's during the day.

New this time around was stacking a pair of Cushcraft 13B2's, with the 6 meter beam in between the two antennas. I ended up working several stations almost at the California / Oregon Border with this setup. Not always a big deal for the folks along the coast shooting over water, but a big deal for me pushing the signal on 2 meters over rocks and dirt (AKA - Mountains).

Signals were great in to Phoenix and the few rovers I had contacted were workable on almost all bands over a very large number of grid squares between East San Diego, along the border of Arizona, in to Las Vegas, and back thru the Southern Claifornia High Desert to the coastal routes back in to my area.

Also new this time around was tinkering with the digital modes on both 6 and 2 meters. I burned about two and a half hours on my first mobile EME attempts, with only one contact, but hey - Italy isn't bad from Southern California on 144 mhz from a portable setup.

Looking forward to January, only a few days away, to test and try out a few more things in advance of the June event.

Hope to hear you all on the bands ... Unlike the East Coast and Central States (and scores respectively) we have only a limited workable radio population along the sliver of the Pacific Coast, and all "other contacts" are pretty much to the East, so remember that we're out here in the "lower left" corner of the states looking for contacts !!

'73 -- KG6IYN