A few days ago I had the great fortune to work Japan on 6 meters. Today, I was fortunate again to be at the radio during a brief 6 meter opening to western Europe. I was able to complete QSOs with 5 stations – 3 in France, 1 in Guernsey, and 1 in England. The opening lasted less than an hour, and I decoded lots of other stations in western and central Europe that I was not able to work. I am very happy to get the 3 new DXCC countries and 5 new grids.
I was very fortunate to be at the radio during a very brief opening to Japan on 6 meters during the early 2300 UTC hour on July 20th. It only lasted for about 10 minutes, but the signals were fairly strong and I was able to work two stations. It was very exciting! I had one confirmed 6 meter QSO with a station in Japan back in June, but it was really nice to also get two new grids today.
The CQ World Wide VHF Contest ran from 1800 UTC (2:00 PM EDT) on Saturday, July 18th, through 2100 UTC (5:00 PM EDT) on Sunday, July 19th. I participated for about 8 hours total at various times on both days. The band conditions were not very good, but there were some short openings to New England, southeastern Canada, the Midwest, and Texas. Despite the less than ideal conditions, I was able to make 56 contacts in 40 different grid squares, for a total score of 2,240.
One of my favorite operating events every year is the 13 Colonies Special Event. This year, the event ran from July 1st through July 7th. The object is to complete QSOs with special event stations in each of the original 13 colonies:
K2A – New York
K2B – Virginia
K2C – Rhode Island
K2D – Connecticut
K2E – Delaware
K2F – Maryland
K2G – Georgia
K2H – Massachussetts
K2I – New Jersey
K2J – North Carolina
K2K – New Hampshire
K2L – South Carolina
K2M – Pennsylvania
There are also two “bonus” stations:
WM3PEN – Philadelphia
GB13COL – Great Britain.
All participants can submit their log sheet to receive a very nice certificate. Confirmed QSOs with each of the 13 K2- colony stations constitutes a “clean sweep”, which is a coveted achievement that is reflected on the certificate. Each station also has a unique QSL card. The stations can appear on all bands and modes. The most difficult station for most U.S. operators is GB13COL, especially when band conditions are unfavorable. Fortunately, GB13COL logs special event contacts for DSTAR (Reflector 063B), DMR (talkgroup 31426), and Yaesu System Fusion (room 28173) contacts. This allows U.S. hams with access to one of those modes an opportunity for a QSO in spite of HF band conditions.
This year I was happy find several of the stations on 6 meters during a great opening on July 5th. I was able to work most of the stations via FT8 on July 5th, along with a few CW and SSB QSOs for a clean sweep. Unfortunately, I was never able to work GB13COL via HF, but I did complete a DSTAR QSO.
Over the Spring and Summer I have been focused mostly on 6 meters, but I also enjoy working DX on the HF bands. I woke up really early this morning, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to check the bands. Most of the bands were dead, with lots of QRN (static) as is usually the case during the Summer. There were some strong FT8 signals on 40m, so I decided to see if there were any DX stations to work. The band was open to the west, into the Pacific, and I was able to work stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, Australia, and New Caledonia. I didn’t get any new countries, but I still get a thrill from QSOs with stations on the other side of the world!
I’ve mostly been focused on collecting new grids on 6 meters for the VUCC Award, but I’ve also managed to add a few new countries toward a 6 meter DXCC Award. I started this season with only two countries (USA and Canada) confirmed. I am now up to 26. While that’s only 26% of the 100 countries needed for the award, I am happy with the progress. It’s not bad considering that I am working with low power and an omni-directional antenna.
I’m most proud of the QSOs with JA0RUG in Japan (6,866 miles) on June 3rd and TF8KY in Iceland (3,262 miles) on June 20th.
The Amateur Radio Club of Columbia County held an abbreviated, one-day Class 2A operation on Saturday, June 27th. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend. To help out the club’s aggregate score, as allowed in ARRL’s temporary rule changes for Field Day 2020, I participated as a 1D station from home on Sunday.
My HF wire antenna was down after an unexpected and strong thunderstorm on Saturday evening took down the limb holding it. That left me with just my 6 meter antenna. Thankfully, there were some decent 6 meter openings to Texas, the upper Midwest, New England and southeastern Canada for most of the morning and afternoon. I was able to complete 56 FT8 contacts during about 4 hours of operating time, with a preliminary score of 274. That’s not an impressive score, but not too bad for working a limited period of time only on 6 meters. My score will be combined with the club’s 2A score, as well any scores submitted by other members who participated from home and included ARCCC in their submitted results.
This morning, my 250th grid was confirmed for 6 meters! Now I’m starting to believe I can reach 300.
I’ve worked a good chunk of the eastern U.S., but still lots of empty grids to fill!
In yesterday’s mail, I received my first VUCC 50 MHz Award certificate. The award is for confirmed contacts with 100 stations in different Maidenhead grid squares. There are endorsements for every additional new 25 grid squares. When I applied for the award, I had 127 confirmed grids, so the endorsement sticker at the top left of the certificate is for reaching 125 confirmed grids.
Since applying for the award, I have confirmed 115 additional grids for a total of 242, so I need 8 more confirmed to reach 250. Once I get those, I’ll apply for 150, 175, 200, 225 and 250 endorsement stickers for the certificate.
I have participated in several ham radio contests over the past couple of years. I have a modest station, so I don’t achieve high scores. My goal is to learn and improve my operating skills with each contest. Wikipedia explains amateur radio contesting as:
Contesting (also known as radiosport) is a competitive activity pursued by amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contesting
There are lots of contests throughout the year sponsored by various organizations. This weekend, I participated in the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) June VHF Contest. The goal for this contest is to complete successful contacts with as many stations in as many different 2 degrees x 1 degree Maidenhead grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz. The contest ran from 4:00 PM Eastern on Saturday through 10:59 PM Eastern on Sunday (or 1800 UTC Saturday, June 13th through 0259 UTC Monday, June 15th). I only participated for a few hours on Sunday.
For this contest, participants are allowed to make contacts via SSB (phone), CW (Morse Code), or various digital modes. I chose to use the FT8 digital mode on the 6 meter ham band (discussed in my previous post – “I’m hooked on 6 meters!”). The 6 meter band is known by hams as “the magic band”. Although it is located in the lower portion of the VHF band, it sometimes has propagation characteristics similar to the HF bands. That means long-distance communications are sometimes possible on the band. During the late Spring and early Summer months, there are frequent band openings from Sporadic E propagation. Under normal conditions, the band is limited to local, line-of-sight communications. When there is a Sporadic E opening, communication becomes possible over much longer distances – hundreds and occasionally thousands of miles. It can be hit or miss, and the openings can last from seconds to more than a day. That’s the magic of the band, and the challenge is to be at the radio when the band opens.
This weekend, hams in many parts of the U.S. were in luck. There were several Sporadic E openings on Saturday and Sunday, so high scores were possible! I only participated casually on Sunday. During the early morning, there was no Sporadic E, so I was only able to contact stations within an approximately 150-mile radius from grid EM83 (where I’m located). Later in the morning, we had Sporadic E openings from the Southeast to New England and southeastern Canada, and eventually to the Midwest and Texas. The band openings lasted into the evening, with several lulls. The map below shows all of the stations that received and decoded my FT8 signals. I did not complete contacts with all of them, but at some point during the day lots of stations east of the Rockies were receiving me.
I finished the day with 106 contacts, and a score of 6,360. The score is calculated by multiplying the number of contacts (106) by the number of multipliers (60). Multipliers are determined by the number of unique gird squares worked. This will not be a competitive score, but this was my first time in this particular contest. I’ll try to improve next year if the magic happens again. I would also like to try my hand at CW for this contest. In a few months, ARRL will publish the contest results, and I can see how my scores compares to others.
