Great comments by Dave K8CC and George K5TR. And thanks Curt for the June
VHF QP summary.
>The first year that a station made over 1000 qsos on 6m was in 1996.
>We had 1160 ast W5KFT that year. - K5TR
Apology to K5TR. I have recently moved and all my QSTs and NCJs are in
boxes. The oldest June VHF QSO Party .pdf on the ARRL web site is for 1997
on, which I based my info on.
>The intresting thing to me about this is that I think the opening in 1996
>was much better than it was in 1998 but by 1998 there were more people on
>the band.
I operated QRP port. in both '96 and '98. From my perspective and resulting
score, 1996 was a far better year for 6M Es.
>In looking at the last few June contests you will note that the years with
>poor E skip - log susbmissions are down.
>I think this is to be expected.
Agree. That was my impression for 2001 and 2002. The Es in 2002 were really
poor. Casual operators are just that - "casual." They turn on the radio
during the contest, and if the band is open they work people. If the band is
dead, they find something else to do.
As for why a causal op would send in a log, club participation and "seeing
your call in QST" are two reasons that come to mind. Now that the ARRL
doesn't list your call in the contest results unless you have a top score,
many causal ops probably just don't care to send in a log.
- Jon N0JK
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