Last year in 2013, pressed for time and too much regular work week to get anything serious going, we only worked 6 meters, so it was a single band contest event ...

This year, still pressed for time and wanting to do more than just a single band again, I let my aspiring "Ham" daughter, Kira make the decision on what to go after ... After reading the current contest rules, her question and reply was "What about this new 3-Band category?" ... and away we went.

The regular M2 6M7-JHV on six meters, the regular Cushcraft 13B2's stacked on two meters, with the addition this year of a pair of M2 432-9WL's stacked (for a total of 56 elements on 432)  in between the 13B2's were what we ended up using this time around.

Radios in play, Icom 746-Pro and Yaesu FT-847 for the long haul stuff and digital. For "closer in" the Icom 7000 and Kenwood TM-D710 filled in for the FM contacts ...

We were as we always are, late to the start of the contest, but we were plesantly surprised that the band was open on six meters when we got started, and while it wasn't even close to what most of us would call a "good" contest weekend, the steady pace of contacts for many hours made it easy to help my daughter get her parallel logging going and show her more of the radio operations things we contesters do.

All in all, not a bad weekend, and i suspect scores will be down a bit overall based on band conditions. Only a few tropo openings were found here on the left coast, and the Es openings were very unpredictable. So, if you made points, at least here, it was through persistance and LOTS of calling CQ.

Thanks to all that did participate. It's always fun to find the rovers that are in shock the band opened up in an unexpected way and to grids squares not usually found. Also fun to work contacts on FM longer distances (my best FM contact was almost 200 miles on two meters, then around 150 miles or so from my location on the hill to N6AA at his home on 432), even with the polarization "wrong" on one side or the other.

Looking forward to more effort and bands next year ... until then, thanks and '73 KG6IYN