Most of the 2017 September VHF Contest soapbox items, including mine, seem to have disappeared.  I guess I should resubmit this.

As weak-signal VHF activity continues to decline in Southern California (and to a lesser extent in Northern California), I've concentrated more and more on the microwave bands. That was certainly true in the recent September VHF Contest.

After working W6TAI/R in the four L.A. Basin grid squares on 11 bands (50 MHz through 24 GHz) and working W6IT from the four L.A. grid squares on most of the bands through 10 GHz, I once again headed north.  I had agreed to meet a very dedicated group of VHF+ enthusiasts at the Kettleman City grid convergence. On Saturday evening we worked DM05, CM95, DM06 and CM96 on all bands through 24 GHz. On Sunday we went further north to work DM07 and CM97.

The real highlight for me was again having W6TV, a well-equipped multioperator station on Bear Mountain, to work on all bands through 24 GHz. There must be at least a dozen hilltops named "Bear Mountain" in California alone, but this one is east of Fresno at about 3,500' elevation in the foothills of the High Sierras. It's about 90 miles from Kettleman City. The W6TV operators, Rob and Pat, are consistently workable around Kettleman City all the way to 24 GHz (although this time their 5.7 GHz setup was giving them trouble until our very last grid stop). I worked them on 24 GHz from six different grid squares, as did K6MI/R, I believe. That means they qualify for VUCC on 24 GHz from this one contest--twice over. It also means we qualify for the Central States VHF Society's "reverse VUCC" award, which is for rovers who work one fixed station from the requisite number of different grid squares (five on 24 GHz).

Overall contest scores may be gradually slipping downward, but there's always 24 GHz to make this fun.