Hi Alex,
Welcome to the VHF world! Lots of great feedback. Like many of us who get
hooked on VHF contests, you may have to wait for the propagation Gods to
reward you.
I've been operating from W2SZ, a very big VHF+ contest station, for more
than 30 years. We operate portable from Mt Greylock, MA in FN32jp, at
3491 Ft ASL. I'm pretty sure we worked on 2m in the contest.
This was a very average contest - no real propagation enhancement, only
the short opening on 6m Sunday night.
However, over the 30 years of operating June and September VHF contests,
I've witnessed:
- Two meters open to Kansas and beyond with 20/9 signals, almost all day.
-- On that occasion, there were no weather fronts across the entire US. It
was incredible.
- 1296 tropo QSO With Chicago, IL
- 10 GHz tropo QSO with North Carolina
- Amazing Rover contacts out to 400+ miles with not huge stations.
- Working W5FF in New Mexico on 222 -- the NA DX record on 222 for many
years.
- Many, Many amazing auroras with great propagation
Those exciting propagation events keep me coming back!!
If you don't want to wait for the propagation Gods and if you want to work
around the world, get a pair of 11-element Yagis and a 150w amplifier. You
can have a blast using WSJT doing 2-meter EME (moonbounce) You can also do
great things with meteor scatter and computer software.
VHF contesting requires patience. It's not like running Europeans on 20
meters. I'm an HF contester as well -- this is a different game.
You seem to be in an awesome location -- you'll be very popular when the
band is open ,and even when it is not. You have lots of close by stations.
GL with your VHF endeavors..
73, Gerry W1VE (also WR1ST)
6 n 2 meter op @ W2SZ (www.mgef.org) FN32
Gerry Hull, W1VE | Hancock, NH USA | +1-603-499-7373
AKA: VE1RM | VY2CDX | VO1CDX | 6Y6C | 8P9RM
<http://www.yccc.org> <http://www.yccc.org/>
<http://www.facebook.com/gerryhull>
<https://plus.google.com/+GerryHull/posts> <http://www.twitter.com/w1ve>
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 9:29 PM, Alex <alex@kr1st.com> wrote:
> I worked the ARRL June VHF QP to gauge what the activity level is in order
> to determine if I want to bother investing in larger VHF/UHF antennas. I'm
> in NEPA and live very near the top of one of the highest mountains around
> here and should have a clear shot to many areas with high participation
> rates. However, I was rather disappointed by the number of stations I could
> hear and work.
>
>
>
> My question is, especially to those in the North-East, do you think that
> participation in this contest was especially low compared to other years,
> or
> was it about the same?
>
>
>
> 73,
>
> --Alex KR1ST, FN21
>
>
>
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