06/12/2007 | N2SE A Monumental Effort!

The VHF contest crew of the 10-70 Repeater Association had such a wonderful experience last year at the High Point State park in NJ; we decided to return there again for this years June VHF contest. The overnight crew from last year, Mike W2MLS, Rocky KC2HRG, and me K2NUD, were joined this year by one of the 10-70 clubs CW enthusiasts Bob N2SU. We had nice weather on Saturday with a spectacular sunset looking west to the hills of Pennsylvania. Sunday brought in the clouds but the sun ended up winning the weather battle for us most of the day.

There were many first for our club last year and we continued to make progress this year by adding the 1.25m band this year. We setup two towers with 5 beams with the War Veterans Memorial Obelisk serving as a backdrop. After strong winds forced us to use a vertical antenna on 6m last year, we setup strong towers, masts, and rotors so the big 5-element 6m beam could be used without issue this year. One tower had the 6m & 2m beams and the other tower had the 1.25m, 70cm, and 23cm beams.

There were no tremendous 6-meter openings this year, just short ones here and there, and one lucky one to Puerto Rico. What surprised us was the spectacular contacts we made on 2-meters. We talked to Ohio for the first time, and a couple of international contacts to Canada. Not bad for a little 9 element beam; it must have been the good operating. We used a Yaesu FT2000 on 6m, an Icom 746PRO on 2m, an Alinco DR-235T with mirage amp for 1.25m, and an Icom 910H for the 70cm and 23cm bands. We will end up submitting 4 bands for the Limited Multi operator category and send the other band in as a check log.

All in all we had a great time. The barbeque food for lunch/dinner and the eggs with fresh cut bacon for breakfast kept our hunger in check. Sleeping this year was much more pleasant without freezing temperatures and high winds. We also were able to wear shorts and t-shirts instead of winter coats.

A few short years ago the club was not participating in any VHF/UHF contests. We are not only competing now as a local affiliated club but we are making the effort to go out to remote sites to contest competitively. Id say in the past two years we have made a monumental effort to try and participate competitively.

Hope to hear from of you in September, and especially June next year!

Matthew, -- K2NUD