For once I was prepared to operate four bands. All the systems were working
as designed. At kickoff I made two 2m contacts, yahoo. 6m was open
sporadically from different directions keeping me on my toes. Sadly and
quite unusual, propagation to my north, was nearly non-existent. I
patiently waited for the moon to rise with hopes of catching a few
contacts, only to see no one on 222, only W5N (Marshall K5QE SK contest
station) on 2m and 70cm. I tried for nearly an hour to copy active 2m
activity until K5N moved to MSK and the moon was too high for my
non-elevated antennas. Later, I realized that I was on Q65 and 2m still
uses JT65. On 432 neither of us had any decodes no matter the polarity.
Sleep took priority over moonset, and try as I may, I made no additional 2m
contacts and logged zero 222 or 432 contacts. 6m remained sporadic through
the end of the contest. All in all, from the bottom of the cereal bowl of
Myrtle Creek and the 100 Valley's of the Umpqua in southern Oregon, I feel
like I did pretty well.
2m 2 qso's 2 grids
6m 57 qso's 28 grids
73, Roger
W7TZ
CN83ia
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