09/29/2009 | N6NB/R The September VHF contest was a lot of fun for everyone in the Southern California Contest Club who participated. We had eleven different 10-band stations in the field, including nine rovers and two DXpeditions to distant grid squares that we didn't have time to visit.

As in August, we remained within SCCC's 175-mile radius as required for the club competition. This caused us to go inland from the Southern California coastline instead of going to Northern California as we have many times before. This time we visited 11 grid squares, adding a site in Joshua Tree National Park (DM23) to the 10-grid route we followed in August. We visited no grid corners and remained on paved roads throughout the entire weekend, covering about 700 miles during the contest period. Our route was amazingly varied and picturesque, ranging from hilltops with spectacular ocean views to rugged, isolated regions in the California and Nevada desert.

Fortunately, we had no mechanical or electrical failures after the contest began, although one 2.3 GHz transverter decided not to work before we even got started.

One operating highlight was very good tropospheric propagation up and down the Southern California coast. After working K6VCR on Mt. Soledad near San Diego (DM12) from coastal hilltops in DM13 and DM03, I worked Tom on all bands through 10 GHZ (except 222 MHz, ironically) while mobile in motion on a freeway in west Los Angeles (DM04). At our first stop in San Clemente (DM13), we also worked K6SVG and KI6PXI, a young husband and wife team mentored by N6TEB, on 10 bands while they were at Gaviota State Beach (CM94), about 175 miles up the coastline.

It was a great weekend! -- N6NB