07/07/2008 | N ::::N0URW EN41go::::
:::Hope:::
With 6 meters open for over a month to somewhere,,, I had high hopes for this to continue on into the contest...It Did !!!!!!!
::: Preparation:::::
My main reason for getting on during the June ARRL vhf contest is to test my 2 & 6 meter setup in preparation of the July CQ vhf contest.. Collect some new grids and hand out many points...Testing went great...2,,,6,,,222,,,432,,,1296 are working great ,,, Ready for contesting...
:::Saturday::: Day 1 :::: At the contest start,,, I decided to hit the bread and butter 2 meter band first... What I found was tons of S-9 static in all directions...Only stations that could be heard were within 100 miles...After 10 minutes of that mess I switched over to the other bread and butter band 6 meters... I was pointing South and heard one station immediately...It was AC5TM inEM40... After working them I could tell the band was trying to open to the Texas area but wasn't quite there yet... As I turned to the East I heard only one station out in the distance... It was W3CCX in FN21...After working them I looked for more but heard none... I looked North and West,,,nothing but high noise levels so it was back to the South/Southeast... Now 6 was starting to open to the Texas area and I could hear several Texas stations working Florida stations... I could not hear Forida at first....After an hour it widened to Florida and I could hear everything from Texas to Florida... It took a while even with 1500 watts & 4 yagi's to get alot of the Texas & Florida stations to look this way... I'm not in a high population area here in the corn fields of Iowa... Everything was going great until a thunder storm rolled in and I had to shut down for 2 hours... When the storm had passed,,, I found 6 meters still open,,,but now Florida stations were gone and I was hearing 7 land stations out west to New Mexico,,,Arizona area... It was wide too... All the way up to Colorado... A couple hours later it really streched out with contacts all the way to the San Fransico California area CM87...
It didn't last more than 30 minutes out that far...Things really opened up after that... I had stations from Florida to New Mexico and everywhere in between all the way up to 50.300 mhz....... This lasted until midnight when it slowed fast...I switched over to the long forgotten 2 meter band and it was open Southwest to Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas area.. Not a lot of stations on after midnight so for the next couple hours I worked locals that were on 6 all day and wanted some of the other bands logged...
:::Sunday:::Day 2 :::: Unbelievable !!!!!! 6 meters is still open... I was hearing several Florida stations again... Going was slow as most I had already worked on Saturday...Then as it did on Saturday,, 6 opened all the way over to Texas...Again slow as I had already worked most....
Then boom!!! The long time no hear Northeast stations started coming in... Now I was hearing Northeast area stations one way and Southwest Arizona & New Mexico stations the other way... Plus I was still hearing Florida to Texas...I think it is time for me to put up more 6 meter antennas and just point them in different directions... Would sure help the rotor...
Then I'm told there is yet another thunder storm coming this way fast... Another 2 hours off the air while lightning crashes and 70+ mph winds along with rain came and went...Plus a small F1 tornado passed just 4 miles north of me... No one was hurt from the tornado,,, Just some trees and a garage were destroyed.. When I got the station back up and going the Northeast stations were not heard from again on 6 meters...What a bummer!!!!
I found 6 was open again from Texas to Calif.... It kept moving farther and farther north too..
Towards the end I logged stations in Oregon & Washington.... It all went away with about an hour to go so I worked the other bands to the end..
:::What happened :::: This was a clear case of 6 meters being the dominate band due to propagation from my qth... The other bands were left in its wake...
It was all 6 meters!!! 2 meters was good at times but with so many on 6 it really suffered...With all the flooding going on here l did not work any local rovers...I did work several rovers on 6 meters in far away grids...
What's next?????? The July CQ VHF Contest...( 2 & 6 meters only )...Wouldn't miss it for the world...
Think Big Amp+ Big Antennas = Big Score!!!
73's all.. (ؿ -- N0URW