2008 ARRL June VHF QSO Party

WB9FOL -- Nov 24, 2008 22:30 ET

WB9FOL, FT817 & whip, and the trusty Kubota 7100!

I went Kubota tractor mobile with my new FT817 while working on my property in remote Parke county, Indiana. Not too many contacts running qrp but at least I got a few 6 meter openings. Next year I'll try a real antenna! -- WB9FOL

WB7QBO/R -- Aug 17, 2008 19:14 ET

I changed my whole route plan from previous contests; had high hopes for this one. This year I decided to go BIG. Spent months planning this route that would include 5 peaks;3 over 8,000 ft and 2 over 9000 ft with one of those being about 11,000 ft (turned out that road was closed.) I knew I was going to drive a lot and with gas prices at over $4.00 a gallon I decided to ride my bicycle to work to make up for this trip. Started riding in early April. If I knew the results would be this dismal I would have quit riding in early April. What a let down. Saturday, while driving to my first peak (about 150 miles) I scored 6 contacts covering 2 grids all 6 from K7XC -- 2 of them dupes; all from down in valleys. Finally making it to the highest peak just over 10,000 ft I scored zero contacts -- NICE! Great view though. Returning home -- 0 contacts --EVEN NICER!. Total miles just over 300. That's okay, I had Sunday yet to come. And yes Sunday was better. Covering 4 grids, driving about 240 miles I scored one up from Saturday. That's right, 7 whole contacts but this time from other stations. The highlight was a contact with WA6DWI/r in Oregon, my farthest contact. Some things I don't understand. Why were all contacts made in valleys not at the highest points on my route? 9 of the 13 total contacts were made within 60 miles of my home QTH. Those wondering what my antennas were. I used An 11 element yagi for 2 meters, an 18 element yagi for 70 cm and a three element yagi for 6 meters all hrizontal. I'd like to thank K7XC for trying to help me by giving me directions to some places he used to do well at. Turns out I don't follow directions very well. I did read his web site after the contest. Very interesting, should have read it before the contest. Am I going to try this again in the September VHF contest? Depends on if I ride my bicycle to work from June to September. -- WB7QBO

KI7JA -- Aug 14, 2008 01:07 ET

This will be remembered as the "Incredible Sunday" contest for me. I went to the same spot I operated from last year in DN03bk (SE Oregon) and had everything set up on Friday this year. The weather was much better this year with temps in the upper 80's during the day and down to 40 at night. Saturday, the contest started out somewhat slow. In the afternoon, there were a few short double hop openings to the East Coast but opened and closed quickly. Sunday started out pretty much the same way, then suddenly opened up wide. I was working California to Nova Scotia, and Washington to Cuba and Puerto Rico. Being in a somewhat rare Grid square, I had many stations calling me wanting a contact for a QSL. Especially with the addition of the Fred Fish Memorial Award (FFMA). At times, the pile-ups were so intense that I could not pick out any call signs. By the end of the contest, I had worked 324 stations in 128 Grid Squares on 6M alone. I operated 6M, 2M, 222, 432, 927, and 1296. But once 6M opened, the higher bands were ignored. I was too busy on 6M. The 58,135 claimed score is the highest score I have ever achieved. This will be a contest I will long remember, and the "Incredible Sunday" will be hard to top for me personally. Hope everyone else had fun as well. 73's.

Bruce -- KI7JA

This is part of the road up the hill	Here is the same shot zoomed in
This is the camp site at 5700' on top of Sheep Mtn. The 5 element yagi did not work well, so I replaced the yagi with a two element Moxon antenna.	This is an evening shot looking SE. The moon was rising that evening.
Operating conditions are a little cramped in a 10' x 10' tent when there is a cot, the chair, the cooler, and the radios and other equipment.	As the sun sets on another June VHF QSO Party, this is one I will long remember, especially the "Incredible Sunday". This was a fun and exhausting contest. I hope that everyone else had fun as well. 73's from SE Oregon

WR0I/R -- Aug 3, 2008 19:21 ET

Highlight of the contest was while roving in EM18 using a M2 halo a TS-2000 and working three Idaho stations on 2 mtrs -- WR0I

WA0GUD -- Jul 10, 2008 20:54 ET

AEA HALO AT 20 fT.

Band conditions in West Central Iowa were up and down besides an interruption to mow the grass. The the last few hours before the contest end no propagation. I operated the contest with an old AEA Halo at 20 ft. -- WA0GUD

KB7ME -- Jul 10, 2008 13:28 ET

KB7ME/7 Sunrise, Grid CN93.

Here is picture of the KB7ME/7 camp. Activated Rare Grid CN93 from Green Mtn @5200'elev. Lake County, Oregon.

Xyl and myself, slept in the truck canopy, surprising how comfortable. Great time, beautiful weather, gave out CN93 on four bands, 50,144,222,and 432. Big opening on 6 meters Sunday, FUN! Portable generator worked outstanding, xyl even brought a small microwave oven! -- KB7ME

N2YTF -- Jul 9, 2008 22:08 ET

I operated the contest from the old anti-aircraft site in Cougar Mountain Wildland Preserve at 1430 feet. This marked the beginning of my first trip to the west coast. The XYL and I flew into Seattle, rented a car and drove to San Francisco over about 2 weeks...what fun! Thanks to all of the Seattle area hams who worked me in the contest and gave me insight into vhf/uhf opps on the west coast. Equipment was my ft-817 whith arrow and pac-12 antennas and vx-7r (for 220). 73 de Tom, N2YTF -- N2YTF

NØURW -- Jul 7, 2008 15:07 ET

::::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.. (Ø¿Ø) -- N0URW

As you can see the high water kept Rovers away.	This highway was built to with stand a 500 year flood...No match for mother nature...
The Storms came and went along with a F1 tornado	8-11 element on 2 meters (front) & 4-5 element on 6 meters (rear)

AH8M/R -- Jul 7, 2008 10:53 ET

AH8M/R Set up in EL94 upper keys at contest start

Had a blast rovering in the June VHF contest. Went out with KD4VRY in my 4 door Toyota with the back set PACKED with gear, 50 Mhz to 2304 Mhz. High bands took a back seat ( pun ) when six meters opened. Finished with claimed score over 140,000. We ran horzontal loops on SSB while underway on 6 meters thru 70 cm as well as vertical on FM for these bands. While fixed we had beams on all bands. Really glad to see some activity on 222 Mhz and 902 Mhz. This was a great opprotunity to get some activity on those bands. Activated South Florida grids EL 86, 87, 94, 95, 96, 97. Sure was hot in June setting up each time. -- AH8M

KI6MPQ -- Jul 6, 2008 21:14 ET

...comments to follow -- KI6MPQ

KI6MPQ on 432mhz	N6GKJ on 50 mhz
KI6BEW on 144 mhz	WA6OSX on 10 ghz using CW to work K7NOM
KI6BEW, WA6OSX, N6GKJ, Adam, W6MRM, KD6MOO and K6GKJ

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