[NLRS] [BC'ers] N9LB - ARRL June 2017 VHF Contest Write-Up

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

According to qth.com call sign look up, XE2X is in HIDALGO, TX 78557 
which is on the southern border on the Rio Grande River. He was the 
strongest skip signal I heard both days on ssb and on CW.

There were pileups on every distant station in east, south, southwest, 
or west parts of the US. Typical of a 6m opening. Seems like we don't 
hear across our latitude so well, but they hear stations nearly coast to 
coast from 40 degrees north and further north. There were times when I 
did hear stations from 20 to 35 degrees north nearly coast to coast plus 
a few very northern stations in New England and Montana. I didn't hear 
Washington and Oregon stations this weekend. And not many California 
stations. I have in years past. My fixed position roof dipole is 
oriented east and west so tends to ignore stations at 43 degrees north 
on those east and west headings.

Seemed like the 6m skip was fairly long because in many of the pile ups 
I heard the distant station come back to stations further north or NE 
than me. My 24 foot dipole needs help. Elevation, rotator, and parasitic 
elements.

I did work several nationally known stations, K1TEO, WZ1V, W3EP, K5QE. I 
heard W7GJ but didn't get a strong enough signal his direction to make a 
contact. I wanted to tease him about using my initials carefully.

73, Jerry, K0CQ

On 6/12/2017 2:01 PM, Lloyd - N9LB wrote:
> Gee, I hope you didn't miss the ARRL June VHF Test.
>
> Here in Southern Wisconsin, overall conditions ranged from not bad to
> excellent for most of the weekend.  6M was wide open for much of the contest
> on both Saturday and Sunday ( which obviously drew ops away from the higher
> bands ).
>
> There was 6M "DX" this year.  Worked C6ATA (Bahamas), PV8DX and PV8AZ
> (Brazil), HI3T (Dominican Republic), XE2X and XE2NBW (Mexico), KP4EIT
> (Puerto Rico).  Heard many other DX stations, but the pile-ups were huge and
> I was losing a lot of operating time calling in vain so I moved on.
>
> Domestic 6M band openings experienced here in Wisconsin ran from Maine, down
> thru Florida, across the Gulf States to Arizona, and up into Utah&
> Colorado.
>
> Thanks to the many rovers out there, including:  N9GH/R, AC0RA/R, and
> K9JK/R.
>
> Also, thanks to the big stations out there that resulted in 150+ mile
> long-distance contacts with my little station:
>
> North-East, East, and South-East, worked:   W9VW 50&  144 (284.6 mi),  Russ
> KB8U 50, 144, 432 (255.4 mi),  Stan W8MIL 144, 222, 432 (220.1 mi),  Bob
> K2YAZ 902 (218.8 mi),  Walt N8PVT 144 (182.0 mi), and Val NV9L 50, 144, 432
> (169.7 mi).
>
> South-West, West and North-West, worked:  Mary 144 W0AAT (323.9 mi),  Ron
> 144 KA0RYT (289.2 mi),  John 144 N0JA (264 mi),  Terry W0VB 144 (181 mi),
> Justin K9MU 50-902 (165.8 mi) and Paul W0UC 50-1296 (159.2 mi).
>
> I'm running 100 watts on 6m and 25 watts on 2m and above.  Single Yagi
> antennas at ~60 feet for each band.
>
> Interestingly, on 6m I QSO'd with W3EP Emil Pocock.  I became hooked on VHF
> by reading his "World Above 50 MHz" in QST in the early 1990s.  I need his
> QSL card on my shack wall!
>
> I know I missed many of the regulars, sorry about that.
>
> 73
>
> Lloyd - N9LB EN52hv
>
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