08/17/2009 | W1AUV First Weekend

Sunny and hot is the best way to describe the first weekend of the contest in New England. Conditions? Well, regardless of propagation I define conditions in terms of people. We had what seemed like more people than we did last year. I guess maybe good weather brings them out. I will say that I still wish we had more.

I went to Mount Greylock on Saturday. I mad a lot of contacts on the Eastern Overlook but I had to go up to the parking lot on top to work towards the north. I picked up VE2JWH in FN45bp and N1JEZ, W1GHZ and W1AIM in FN34om. Good thing I moved! After lunch I worked one more station from one of the western overlooks (WA2FGK) but after that I had to move. I picked up a few more contacts from FN32hi but missed with K2KIB from my 'hole in the trees' spot in FN32ii. We'll get that one next time Jim.

On Sunday I went to Hogback Ski Area near Wilmington VT. I bounce my signal off the roof of the building when I need to work north but Hogback has a great shot to the south. I wish it was a little better to the west though. I had an eyeball with KK1CW which was very nice. Always nice to meet another ham on a hill.

I made all the contacts I could at Hogback before heading to Mt. Equinox. I made a lot of contacts there including repeat contacts with VE2JWH and WA2FGK. I almost got VE3FN on rain scatter. I'm sorry I missed that one.

I have full sized panoramic photos that I'll stick up on my googlepages site as soon as I can finish them up. For now I have posted them here where they will likely be too small to see real details.

I am looking forward to the next weekend! Thanks to everyone who worked me. Special thanks to my to the newlyweds on Block Island AF1T and W1MKY. They make this contest fun!

Second Weekend

I took a chance on Saturday of the second weekend of the contest and went to Mohawk Mountain in CT. Conditions were pretty bad. I had a lot of trouble even trying to communicate on the liaison frequency. I managed to make a 303 km contact with N1JEZ on Mount Mansfield and a few other decent contacts.

When I arrived on Mohawk I was pleased to see W1RT. He stayed on Mohawk for a while but moved further south mid morning for a better shot to the south.

On Sunday with my buddy Alan in tow I went to Mount Wachusett. Things started off good and just got better. I wasnt alone on the mountain: besides the gaggles of bird watchers, hikers and sight-seers, there were at least half a dozen hams including K1OR and his 5 foot dish. He and I were up against the south wall of the parking lot. I made a lot of good contacts including a 360 km with WA2FGK and a 420 km with W3SZ. I also made another near (personal) record contact: a 571 km contact with K1RZ in Damascus MD. These sure made up for the bad day on Mohawk. Conditions were very good at the end of the day but I had to head home around 5:00PM.

I would like to thanks everyone again for a great contest and for hanging in there for the tough ones. Im looking forward to next year. 73 Tommy
-- W1AUV