ARRL June VHF Contest - 2023
Call: K4HQK
Operator(s): K4HQK
Station: K4HQK
Class: Single Op-All Modes LP
QTH: Alexandria, VA
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 80 30
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 80 30 Total Score = 2,400
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
My participation was only on 6 meters, mostly S&P, pushing 100w into a
3-element Yagi. I used all three modes.
Slogging through a swamp would have been easier than this contest. Here in the
D.C. portion of the Mid-Atlantic, many hours went by when my only DX was New
Jersey. New England was totally out of reach and remained there for the whole
contest. Eventually there were a few openings to the middle of the
country--mostly Texas and neighboring states--but they were not easy to toss
into the QSO bag. Finally, at 2211 EDT, a very brief opening to 7-Land brought
me W7MEM/Idaho, one of the four remaining states I need for 6-meter WAS. (The
others: RI, HI, AK).
Sunday was a bit better than slothful Saturday, bringing in a batch of EL EM and
EN grids, but it was around 2100 EDT that I got an Es surprise. Several nearby
stations began working California. Suddenly I was receiving them too, and worked
N6ZFO. Then the "Eureka" state stations disappeared as quickly as they
had appeared in this opening of only a few minutes.
Much of my time in this contest was spent looking for new stations to work. When
I spotted a new one and called, I would often have to get in line. Many stations
with strong signals often didn't hear me at all despite my repeated calling. So,
my hourly QSO rate was disappointing. I spent more productive time helping with
the laundry than staring at WSJT-X.
That said, I still enjoyed spending two days on the coy 6-meter band with its
fickle nature and sudden rewards. This time, however, in the supposedly best
month of the year for E skip, it just didn't meet my hopeful expectations.
John K4HQK
Alexandria, Virginia
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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