[NLRS] June VHF Contest report for W9FZ/R and KA9VVQ/R

[Bruce Richardson]

We had a good time and the 6m openings really added to the fun.  Outstanding
weather was a real treat. Cool, dry, and just the right amount of breeze
kept the bugs under control.

Our equipment worked most of the time but we sometimes had an intermittent
222 amp that was frustrating.

We loaded the radio equipment in Woodbury on Wed night and Thursday and then
headed to the cabin in Hillsboro, WI to load the antennas on Friday.
Saturday morning, we headed northward to the "Wausau" grid corner.  Two
detours on unexpected road construction slowed us up a little. We had a nice
picnic lunch in the town park of Stratford, WI.  We got to our first spot
with about 15 minutes to spare which let us get all the equipment turned on
and some pictures taken.

John K9JK/R travelled all the way from the Chicago area to the grid corner
with the intention of getting some activity and some grid activations for
his Reverse VUCC (VUCC/r) award chasing.  We spent our planned time in EN44
working the Twin Cities and Milwaukee and south but felt that the conditions
were frustratingly tough.  After we finished our EN44 time, we dedicated a
few hours to grid-circling with John K9JK/R.  The actual operating only took
two hours.  But pictures and standing around talking took another hour or
so.  If you are ever driving to Wausau and points beyond, you should stop by
the 45degree(latitude)/90degree(longitude) marker that is about 15 miles WNW
of Wausau.  There is a parking lot with a 200 yard trail to the actual
intersection. There are flower beds, benches, and a marker set into the
concrete.   You can't take a car to the actual intersection--but you could
take an HT and some satellite antennas.

We continued with EN54, EN55, and EN45.  We got the best 6m action while in
EN55. We continued to find regional conditions tougher than expected. We
noted that the higher the frequency, the better the conditions. By that I
mean that 432 and 902 worked better than 2m and 222.  We operated until 11pm
at night!!! A full hour later than originally planned and a long drive back
to our cabin required. We pulled in at about 1:40am.  We hurried to sleep
and pushed back our start time for Sunday morning by about 45 minutes.

Sunday, we started with EN43tq right near the cabin in Hillsboro, WI.  Then
we drove down to the Dodgeville grid corner.  We tend to operate within
about 10 miles of the actual corner to get locations that we think work best
for us.  Our EN53ba spot is just a couple of miles from WD9BGA's house.  We
found a new spot for EN52 that is EN52aw right near the Hollandale repeater
spot.  I'd never been there before but it is our new "go-to" EN52 location
out in that corner.  

We tried 10 GHz with W0GHZ from EN52 but it was a no-go.  We tried again
from EN42 near the end of the contest and this time found success.  We are
most proud of those Q's.  They were CW only but there Gary was.  It was a
325km path.

We thought that VHF conditions continued to be average to below average.
Again, we thought 432 and 903 actually played pretty good.  We sure
appreciate fixed stations like W0GHZ, W0ZQ, N0AKC, W9GA, and N9LB being
there and looking for us.  They supplied many of our Q's and they were easy
to work after all these years and qso's in our history.  We worked a few new
callsigns and I will reach out to them about local VHF clubs like NLRS and
Badger Contesters and the CSVHFS conference in La Crosse in July 2021.  It
was nice to work Kermit, W9XA.

We are uploading our logs to LOTW and are getting our scores in to the ARRL.

We each made 300 Q's.  On 6m sometimes we both work the "DX" action and
sometimes we just let one operator roll.  Our scores are about 45,000 but
different because I got some mults that Janice did not get.  We finished
tired and satisfied of a very full contest weekend.

73
Bruce W9FZ/R and Janice KA9VVQ/R