[NLRS] CQWW VHF contest report KFØQ EN43 long

[Matt Burt]

Wow what a weekend.  Wanted to participate in the contest somehow as it has been
a year since I have attempted anything serious. The CQWW VHF test is always fun
and has the hilltop category which sounded great to me.   The 6 hour maximum
operating time really adds a twist as well.  So which six hour span is the
best? With the heat and such I decided that setting up on Saturday night would
be good and that way I could operate in the morning while presumably cool for
at least a few hours.  I also checked out the Hepburn forecast which indicated
that Sunday may favor better conditions on the bands - so Sunday it was.

However; by the afternoon on Saturday the reports were coming in about how great
conditions were.  I was in no way ready to go on Saturday... did I miss
something big?

Spent a good share of Saturday re-working my pushup mast, sweating and rounding
up the gear.  Then at 7:00pm I  to went up to the farm to find it quite
pleasant and 82 degrees at the site with a nice breeze. With some help from
Jim, KBØTHN the mast was up and operational by 10:00PM on the knoll of a hay
field not too many yards away from my usual spot. 

I thought that I  missed out on all the fun by picking the second day to operate
for my 6 hour stint in EN43.  My plan was to come up quite early on Sunday with
the tent and radio gear but common  sense prevailed and I drove up Sunday with
the rigs, deep cycle batteries, plenty of bottled water, and a good  share of
my contesting paraphernalia in my air-conditioned SUV ready to go.  I figured
that for six hours the seat of the Toyota would be just fine.

So the contest
 I really had a good time!  The wind overnight had not affected
the temporary setup (the stack was even close to north on the rotator box..) 
so I got underway at 1322Z.  Even though I wanted to get on the air early (no
later than 1300Z) it didn't make a bit of difference when I started  as the
band was open (magic band that is) and q's were going in the log within seconds
of turning the rig on.  As a good friend of mine says "How cool is that ?!"	

 I started slugging it out on six even with some other QRP stations calling CQ
and getting as many as 4 q’s a minute!  In my search and pounce effort I could
see the band was open in many directions .. furthest grid heard was FK68!  I
jumped up to 144 when someone stole my frequency,  but never had more than a
few q’s per visit on that band. The were some great signals from EN’s 37,52,63,
71,and of course Phil, NØPB in EM39.  My low power on 144 wasn’t doing me as
many favors as it did on six, and even though conditions were still pretty darn
good on 144 I think there were a good number of stations favoring the mayhem on
the magic band!

Time passed by quickly; the event really felt like a sprint! Even still many of
the usual suspects were absent and I didn’t have EN34 in the log until near the
end of my shift.  But the great thing about the contest was that I had many
second chances... if for some reason I missed a contact - there was just enough
time to run into the station again and get the call in the log.  Best was when
I gave up calling KB8U on six CW only to have Russ turn the stack right at me
three and a half hours later!

The incredible conditions on six were almost unimaginable.  Typically I see the
band open to the east; or west or perhaps opening east and following the clock
around to the south... But I was able to work stations in almost any direction
all the way up to 50.300 with QRP power!  I am still going through the logs of
which I have several pages (biggest mistake was not having a computer for
instant dupe checking..).  Many new grids for me on six.  The list of states
worked on six for the 360 minutes of operating so far looks like :
AL, AR, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NM,
NY, OH, OK, ON, PA, QC, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY

What a great way to come back and get on the air!  Will bring some photos to the
conference... corn, hay, antennas ... what a combination :)

The Hilltopper portable category is a hoot!  Would recommend anyone to give it a
try.  Took 'till 9:30PM to tear down and still packing the stuff away.  Looking
forward to seeing you all in a little over a week.

73,
Matt
KFØQ