[50mhz] June VHF QSO Party 6m recap from New Mexico

[Bill W5WVO]

Whew! What a barn-burner from down here in the Land of Enchantment! I think I was in the right place at the right time this go-around. Nice for a change (compared to last year). The activity level and duration of Es on 6m rivaled that of the 2006 contest, though I approached it this year with a different strategy.

Trying to balance running Qs and search-and-pounce for new grids, the results...

Single Op Low Power (90 watts) from DM65:
301 Qs
144 grids
43,344 points

Real simple to calculate when working just one band!

Only a couple very spotty Es QSOs to the Pacific Northwest during the contest proper, but I was able to work Robin W6DWI in DN02 the day before the contest when there was good Es to that part of the country. For the other rare one up there, DN03, I worked Bruce KI7JA using WSJT FSK441 meteor scatter Sunday morning on a sked made the previous week. Altogether worked three new grids on FSK441/JT6M modes, two of which I could NOT have worked any other way during the contest.

Other than the PNW being MIA during the contest period, the rest of the country was booming in here like gangbusters most of the weekend. The Es was so strong at certain times, producing so much backscatter and sidescatter, that it was difficult at times to know where to point the beam. Mostly, it didn't much matter. Worked several stations in CO from NM on backscatter while they were working to the northeast. Unlike most instances of Es backscatter, which tend to be very weak, these backscatter events were relatively strong -- not strong enough to break a pileup, of course, but strong enough to be noteworthy.

Very little double-hop to the northeast (1 and 2 call areas), which differentiated this year's experience from 2006, which is still the best I can remember. Double-hop was in strongly to the southeast, however, with very good signals and lots of activity. As usual, still nobody activating EM87/EM97 that I heard. Last two grids I need in EM.

Seemed like a much greater amount of CW activity this year, which warmed my heart -- and gave me several new grids, including the WØETT expedition to DM87. Forward-scatter signals very weak, couldn't have made it on SSB.

Looking forward to the CQ contest in July. 

Bill W5WVO
DM65 / NM