6 meters was open almost the entire contest. I ran FT8 almost exclusively for the contest. I had a
blast and enjoyed the entire event.
Bill, AA2UK

1ST LICENSE AUG. 2017

First two hours of the contest were hot.  The last few hours had
deep QSB.  FT8 was the saving grace to continue to make QSOs.
This is the best ARRL VHF Contest that I have participated as far
as fair propagation goes.  However, the last day of the contest,
propagation resulted in deep QSB in the later hours of the
contest at my QTH siouthern EM65.  Thanks for copying my 75-80
watts signals.

Another great contest with a few good 6 meter openings! It's always a surprise what you will hear or
work during the ARRL June VHF Contest. I look forward to next year's running of the contest. 73 de
Jim AC9EZ

I think this was my first time in a VHF contest.

My first ARRL VHF contest and it likely won't be my last!

Saturday was very poor on 6m.  Conditions improved from Sunday
mid-afternoon onwards.  I heard one JA on 6 FT8.  Then I was
called by DS4EOI on FT8 but he was not using contest mode. By the
time he fixed this, I lost him.  Contest use of FT8 is a very
mixed blessing. The mode generates lots of activity but is not
conducive to making contacts when the propagation is poor and the
path has rapid QSB on timescales of 10 seconds or so.  Then there
is the perennial problem of "participants" who see lots of
activity and want to join in the fun, but are not using contest
mode.  A signal report is no use here.  I saw a number of very
loud FT8 signals, many of which were accompanied by 60Hz harmonic
sidebands. There were a few really poor FT8 signals, and some
very drifty ones.  Most of my 6m QSOs were on FT8 because you
have to go where the contacts can be made.

NEARLY MISSED THIS ONE. STARTED sUNDAY AFTERNOON AND THEN T'STORMS STARTED NEARBY TO WENT QRT.FUN
WHILE IT LASTED!

WORKED SEVERAL GRIDS
LOTS OF BAD WX SUNDAY
BUT BETTER ON SATURDAY

Once again time ran out on my contest preparation, but at least new Yagis for 6, 2 and 70 cm got
mounted on my low pole (really need a tower!) with mast-mount
preamps on 2 and 432.  My SO2R setup was not smooth, and that cut down on efficient operation.  I
was pleased to work out to over 350 miles on 2m FT8 with
just 50 watts.  The 6m E-skip on Saturday was very strong from Alabama toward New England, but
erratic to the west.  I did hear one station in Minnesota on
2m E-skip but he disappeared before I could call him. I ran two separate WSJT-X instances (one
dedicated to the 6m radio and the other dedicated to the

6M FT8 is where all the action was!  Hard to find a clear frequency many times.  Used new IC-7300,
PW-1 and homebrew 5 ele yagi on 17 ft boom at 50 ft.

Nice opening to W6, W7 around 9:30 pm as sun went below horizon.  FT8 allowed working more new ones
in 200 mile range.

Had a lot of fun using only my 40M loop ant.

SkookumLogger K3S KPA1500 OB40-2 2XA-3B-12L wires

Thanks to all the rovers!

Six meter openings both days made up for lackluster conditions on the upper bands.
Unfortunately, my QTH, buried in tall trees, also seriously hindered performance on the microwave
bands.

RoverLog is terrific!

I ran 100 watts single band, 6M only. It was quite fun hunting but FT-8 really worked well this time
for me.  Next VHF contest I hope to have my new 2M, 430, and 1296 antennas up and running.

K3CCR is the club station at the Collington continuing-care
retirement community at FM 18OW in MD, just east of DC. I (N3UM)
did SO 3-Band in the June 2019 ARRL VHF contest. I was only on 2
and 0.7 meters because we have no effective 6 m. antenna right
now. As always I enjoyed greeting and chatting with some VHF
buddies of long standing.  But, there were lots more I never
heard. SSB and CW activity in VHF contests is down noticeably in
recent years. This decline started well before FT8 and FT4 came.
I only made 35 QSOs, vs 2 or 3 times that many in past VHF tests
with no E skip. At the start Sat. I got 13 Qs and 9 grid mults
in the first 1.5 hr, 18-1926Z Sat, then went QRT after just 1
more Q in 18 min. After supper I got 7 Qs and 4 mults in 1 hr,
Sun. AM 6 Qs and 2 mults in 45 min, Sun. PM 7 Qs and 2 mults in
1.5 hr, and 2 Qs and 1 mult in a final 20 min. 0040-0100Z. In
short: SLOW. I was pleased to work W3SO and W2SZ on both bands,
140 and 320 miles away on mountains in FN00 and FN32. But I
heard no one in FN10, FN11, or FN12 to the N nor in FN06 or FN16
to the S where I�??ve easily made QSOs in previous VHF tests.

2 watts to a 14 inch whip antenna did better than I had anticipated.

Not much, but I did dust off the cobwebs!  Bert

K3SSS operating remote station located FN21 Monticello NY

With the popularity of FT-8 nowdays, it was certainly good to hear all the SSB activity on 6 meters.

Rig: FT-857D  Antenna: Big Ears di-pole
Ran contest from second home in Michigan

RoverLog is terrific!
Really, it worked well.
And we're getting better at roving!

Good eskip openning on 6.

CW and SSB, no digital.

Crappy band condx Sat; much better Sun; lost 10G; bad electrical storm Sun nite so pulled plug;
still, had fun trying to integrate dig modes

Good opening to Asia on Sunday afternoon/evening, working 42 JA and 1 DS, also a few Eu Sunday
afternoon. All Q's were FT8 except 4 SSB. 73, Connie / K5CM

Very little propagation from west Texas.

Saturday was awful!  The only bright spot was 2M EME.  We worked a lot of EU stations on 2M.
Sunday saw more good 2M EME.  We finished with over 100 grids on 2M.
Sunday was slow, but we finally got a good run of JA's in the late afternoon on 6M FT8.
We also had a few hours of good Es on 6M after the JA run shut down.
Without the 6M Es run, our score would have been pretty bad.

Conditions were better on Saturday.

SD was a total surprise. New State on 6m.

Not too shabby for a Saturn 6 Halo @ 15' and a vertical @ 10'

4 Band, Limited Multi Op, Tim- K7XC & Dan- K7CAN
Station- K7XC DM09jh. Operating Conditions 6M - Flex3000, 2M -
IC-746, 222 - IC-706gmkIIg Ukrainian Xvtr Mil Surplus Amp Module,
432 - IC706mkIIg Mil Surplus Amp Module.
Antennas 6M - 6ele 24ft Boom DK7ZB Home-brew @ 27ft,
2M - 16ele 30Ft Boom M2 @23ft,
222 - 16ele 18ft Boom K1FO Homebrew, 432 - 29ele 21ft boom K1FO.
The winds on Thursday & Friday were fierce so we didn't have
the time/opportunity to mount the 6M yagi on its own mast.
Instead we punted and left it on the same stack with the other
antennas but swung it around 180 degrees so one person could be
operating the usual 6M E/NE paths while the second operator could
be on 2, 222, & 432 to the typical paths of W/SW. It worked out
great as we were low power, so the interactions were manageable.
I was very surprised at the beginning that 6M was weakly open,
& that it lingered in there for hours, often barely usable. Great
conditions on the upper bands & the new 222 Xvtr and Home-brew
4WL yagi played well. The effort to install a run of 7/8" Heliax
on 432 helped tremendously as no one was very weak. The
connectors for the second fun of 7/8" for 222 didn't arrive in
time so it managed well using a mixed bag of 3 shorter runs of
low loss CQ-106 RG-8 style coax, kluged together with adapters in
4 places. It was Dan's first time participating in a
multi-op, which he enjoyed greatly. Up early Sunday Morning
starting at 6AM the Rocks Were Fierce! Huge MS burns on 6M for
over 3 hours allowing me to work anyone in any direction well
past 700 miles or more. By not having any real Es it forced
everyone out West to work the closer in grids on MS, Kudos to
K1JT as the latest release of WSJT-X was flawless on FT8 &
MSK144. Then with about 3 1/2 hours left, in desperation I swung
the 6M antenna out East... Poof with in 3 minutes the band went
from limping along to wide open! Soon the second hop was in to
the East Coast and the FT8 spectrum was completely packed past
3000 cycles! Here the adjustable SDR waterfall  display extended
out past 4500 cycles was a huge advantage. I hoped from FT8, to
SSB, to CW, and back 3 or four times always finding new stations
to work... Then BOOM it was 0300X and the band very quickly
became extremely quiet. All in all it was a rewarding
experience. We didn't get everything on the to-do list done in
time but what was up played very well. Back in the 90s for
10years straight my buddy W7KK (ex NR6E) and myself chased the
top W7 score as a 2 man limited multi op from some most awesome
central Nevada Mountaintop locations. We took grids with no
residential activity like DM17, DM18, DM19, DM27, DM28, DN00,
DN10, etc and made them available using KW amps and large
antennas. Between us, NW7O(sk), W7TVF(sk), and a few others, the
most of Nevada wasn't all that rare when the FFMA was born. Fast
forward 29 yrs and those same grids are back in high demand
again. It was pure joy to see folks like AG6EE/R, and other
ROVERs put those very grids back on the air again with KW amps
and huge antennas! Never before (Since I started in 1990) have so
many rare NV grids been available at the same time over a 48 hr
period! LOTW FFMA totals should explode in a couple of days to be
sure! Thanks to all that pulled our signals out of the noise!
Still amazes me what 100W, large antennas, and some persistence
can achieve on VHF/UHF. 73s and GL de Tim - K7XC & Dan - K7CAN,
DM09jgh... sk   Adapt, Overcome, Succeed!

Fun to try out my new IC-9700 during this contest. It did not disappoint.
6M blessed me with some weak E-skip late on Sunday.
FT8 is now an unavoidable part of this event. I used it sparingly.
Lots of weak signal ops here in the Pacific Northwest.... we use mountains as reflectors to obtain
more local grids.
See you in September.

This was a fun contest.

For the June VHF contest, I submitted two logs. My error, the 1st log only had partial information,
the second log is correct. (k8jhcor is the correct log)

My apologies for the work. 

Tom Bosscher K8TB  k8tb@bosscher.org

1st time VHF contest. Had fun, learned a lot, had to troubleshoot equipment during content. Looking
forward to portable in Sept! 73 de K8OI

Enjoyed the Es openings, northeast on Saturday, west/southwest on
Sunday. Some nice runs. Was called by EA8DBM on 6M. W9RM, Chuck,
your signal was splattering 14 kHz wide on 6 from 50.127-141. My
request for you to turn down your processing was ignored. Way
over processed. How much power you REALLY running????? Otherwise
test was lots of fun. Thanks for the Qs!

6M antenna: 3L @ 24 feet AGL

144 MHz FT-847 to 8877, 1.5 kw out to 16 elements at 68 feet. 432 MHz FT-847 50
watts to 23 elements at 70 feet. Tower is 3200 feet ASL. Thanks to all for your
participation. Hope to hear you again on the bands soon. Dedicated to Nick,
AB4CQ SK, you will be missed my friend!

two meter ssb/cw rig was kenwood TR9000 at 25 watts to a three element yagi at 55 feet.

Good contest used Ft-8 only digital

We are Der Funkwagen
Visit ka5d.com

I haven't been a regular VHF Contest participant in many years. It seems as though the use of FT8
has made the June VHF fun again. 6m was in excellent shape, with conditions at times almost like 20m
during a RTTY contest.  Great fun, and looking forward to more FT4/FT8 use in the future.

All digital despite multiple attempts on CW/Phone... all 2m despite multiple
attempts on 440.  Nevertheless better participation/coverage than past years as
heard by my station.  Attempted assistance via web but all QSOs wound up random.

Gone camping for most of the contest, only five contacts Sunday evening.

First time using SO2R setup.

I seamed to have goofed somewhere.  I operated 50, 144,100watts and 432 with 50 watts, Only, and i
don't understand where i goofed.  Please let me know where i goofed as i am learning how to do
SO2R.

Thanks
Steve Wendt
KB9RDS

Found a golf coarse in Hinckley, MN that
was open (few trees) to the SE (rare in
Pine County). This allowed contact on
six bands from EN36ka to EN44hr, W0UC.
Paul said this was an all time first on
at least two bands to EN36 and to a
mobile at that. Rover antennas were
working well.

50W

Condx here seemed less favorable than last year.  Still plenty of fun with some good openings.  
Thanks to all for the contacts.

This contest should be re-named "The ARRL June 6M FT-8 Contest"

This was a first contest, did a 10 grid rover trip with 6 bands, will remember to start in the South
and move north so the antennas are pointed North when moving!  A great contest, missed most of the
band openning while driving, work got in the way of my contest and had a fixed time to arrive in
EL17 to offload the rover gear and start work for the wek.

It was unexpected interruption for my operation from Winnemucca Mountain in Nevada. Before the
sunset on June 8th local sheriff arrived and asked me what I am doing. Then he asked for my ID, took
ID to his car and checked something on his computer. After this he asked me to explain what I am
doing exactly and who I am contacting. I showed my paper log and I explained the best I can.
Fortunately, another sheriff arrived shortly, and he new about HAM radio. Next time I will print
ARRL June VHF Contest rules to have an exact explanation.

Casual trip across part of MO.  Operated FT8 only on vertical antenna.

Time was very limited this weekend but I managed to catch an
opening on 6 meters.

RoverLog is terrific!
First contest, fun to try !

Operated from FM29jw

CW Contacts: 10
Unique Grids: 8

10 CW QSOs x 8 Unique Grids = 80 CW QSO Points

Thank you for the ARRL June VHF Contest.

had fun in the contest on FT8, as a casual op I didn't put total effort in but the M2 antennas
helped. This was a first for me in the vhf contest and the Kenwood 990 and the IC-9700 ran
perfectly, the Beko amp on 2m sure got a work out. Here the 6m band was fading in and out all day,
you could see how the signals changed over the course of just one QSO. late in the contest the 6m
band stretched out to AK and the west coast, what a pleasant suprise.
73 to all.

This has turned into an FT-8 Contest!  Very few contacts on SSB or CW despite my calling CQ there.

I had a great time this year, Thanks for all the contacts! I did way better
than
in the past due to the combination of a new radio and finding the LED fixture
that was generating HUGE amounts of QRM. I could hear so many more people than
I
did in January and September. Also I made my first ever contact on 6M (K7VIT) in
this
contest.

E-skip was fun. Nice to hear from so many grids.

equipment=TS570S and UV-5R, portable from Orkney Springs, VA.
Thanks for the fun!

Conditions were alright. Moxon built out of pvc pipe at 10 feet

Go VHF and Up club!

THIS WAS MY FIRST CONTEST, I OPERATED FROM ELYSIAN PARK IN LOS ANGELES AT
34°04'57.1"N 118°14'12.4"W 672FT ABOVE SEA LEVEL.

RIG WAS A YAESU 897D OPERATING VIA SOLAR/BATTERY POWER ON 50 (100W) 140 (50W) AND 440 (20W) BANDS
USING A 6 METER EFHW WITH TUNER AND A 2 METER/70CM ROLL UP SLIM JIM. THE 6
METER
ANTENNA WAS DEPLOYED IN A SLOPER CONFIGURATION DIRECTED AT ~10°

HAD SOME CLEAR QSOS FROM SAN DIEGO, ABOUT 100 MILES AWAY, ON 2 AND 6 METERS.

THE 6-40 METER EFHW HAD NOT YET BEEN TUNED, AND THERE WAS SOME TRIMMING TO DIAL
IT IN TO 50.125 HOWEVER DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS A PERFECT MATCH WAS NOT
ACHIEVED, THE BEST SWR BEING ABOUT 2.1 FOR 6 METER. I WILL NEED TO EXPERIMENT
WITH VARIOUS LENGTHS.

I WANTED TO GET SOME QSO ON SUNDAY BUT DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TIME, UNFORTUNATELY.

Enjoyed the test, needs to be longer.

Log correction uploaded 2019-06-11 03:44:26
K8GP FM19 = FM09

Casual off & on operating just for fun.

Pretty calm contest here until the last 3 hours or so.  6m was
pretty dominated by FT8 this year, 63 QSO's in that mode, and
only 6 on SSB.  Lots of fun, thanks for all the contacts!

Hope everything is correct! My first contest!

Fun to be out and about in the rural
county where I was born and raised. Nice
Memorial Church service and pot luck
lunch at Rush Point Baptist Church.

What a shame to have so many stations on FT8 when the band is WIDE OPEN.  Can make so many more
contacts on SSB or CW.  Thanks to those that came down to SSB and CW end of 6 MTR band.  Bob, N0IS

Happy with the station improvements, what a great 6m opening for the last 2 hours.

RoverLog is terrific!

Sure was nice when the band was open, hope
All enjoyed.

My first time in this contest ever as I now have a 2 el
add on my HF beam.  That was not possible the
many years I had a quad up.

Most stations I called were able to hear me eventually.
The exception was K3ZO. Sad. I did manage a new state -
VT,

It's been 21 years since I did a full Evert in this contest. I truly missed it. Things are a little
different from the past but still great fun. FT8 seems to be dominant on 6 meters but did manage to
work many on CW. It's great to be back on.

Portable setup for single day using 3 beams and battery power.

IF THIS IS THE FUTURE OF vhf CONTESTING, (ft8) IT'S TIME TO TAKE DOWN THE VHF/UHF ANTENNAS.

2019 ARRL VHF Contest June

50 MHz - MFJ 9406 to TE Sys. 0510G amp to PAR Elec.
OA-50 omni antenna up 21 ft
144 MHz - Kenwood TR751A to PAR Electronics OA-144
omni antenna up 24 feet

RoverLog is terrific!


RoverLog is terrific!

Back on the air after 10 yrs off. Was a nice contest. A few band openings on 6 Meters, I wish more
OPs were above 50Mhz.

Just got on for a few minutes at the end with ONE HALF WATT
to a 20 foot wire thrown into a tree out my window.
Worked 3 locals, 2 on CW and one on FT8. Maybe more time
next year!!  TNX for the QSOs, Glad to work some outlaws
during the short time available.
GO ARIZONA OUTLAWS!  73, John N6HI

First VHF contest!

RoverLog is terrific!

I REALLY DESPISE CABRILLO!

Only ten mults on 6m vs over 50 last year tells the story.
Is this the price of being 100% analog nowadays?
I did manage to sweep six bands with three stations.

Fought head cold all weekend: operated from home QTH on 6 meters only: i.e.: SO
1Band. Only made 10 QSO on SSB, 33 QSO on FT8. Still learning about FT8 use on
6m: heard lots of Midwest & East Coast 2x Es during last couple of hours of
contest but only was able to work a couple!?, but was nice to hear bunches of
familiar East Coast callsigns from my past! Rig: FT756Pro2 (50w on FT8), 5 el
M>2 only 15 ft above ground level.

I had a lot of fun on 6 meters.

Yaesu FT-290RII, 1984 Saab 900S, 1/4 wave mag mount. Olympic National Park.

6m was only open for about an hour and fifteen minutes. All but one of my Qs occurred during that
time. I only had 6m available to me.

Icom IC-7300 at 100w output,Heil Pro Micro Headset,and a home brewed 2 element cubical quad up 25
feet pointing N/W from 6,053 feet elevation.My recently repaired IC-706MK-IIG was still sitting in
Boulder,CO. when this contest started,so this was a 6 Meter SSB only effort for me in this event.I
worked one XE station in Mexico,but no other real DX.I am still new enough at 6 Meter SSB contesting
to feel my heart racing during some good runs! I was sitting in church when the "big" opening Sunday
morning occurred,but did hear reports of a 6 meter opening between CO. and Japan.Great to work local
Ops WY7HR,Bob WY7KY,Tom and fellow GMCCer Dale,WC7S who found a mic long enough to give me a SSB
contact! Thanks Dale! I had a few NIL contacts due to missing the other Op's grid square and/or call
sign due to rapid QSB. Just the nature of the beast I guess.Thanks to those that "pulled teeth" at
times,in order to finish a tough Q.The outgoing audio CQ file in my new IC-7300 really helped to
save my voice. A special thank you to some very dedicated rovers,including one Op who drove from LA
to the CO and WY area!I owe you lunch, at the very least! I picked up several first time ever new
Grid Squares,and as always had a great time with just 100 watts and a wire from my Apartment QTH
here in Cheyenne. I am already looking forward to next year's event,and hope to have some better
antennas up for 2 and 440 meters by then.Thanks to all that managed to hear and work me. November
Seven Many Zebras Walking.

Worked hard for the few CW contacts.  Looks like I had to leave for dinner when the band finally
opened.  It was still lots of fun and enjoy it each year.

My first time to contest. Was a lot of fun and will try more.

Added 222 for a new band and new antennas for 2m and 432 for a great improvement
to my score.  The 6m opening late in the contest was a very nice bonus.  A big
thanks to all the rovers for their effort too.

I didn't have time to devote fully to the contest but did what I could.
6 meters was crazy crowded. Lots of participants locally as well as some DX too.

Decent openings6m, lots of FT8 action but still made a respectable number of Q's on SSB.

RS-HFIQ radio with 2m Ukrainian transverter and homemade 4 element yagi. 
7 FT8 and 1 SSB QSO.

Just a casual effort. My first venture into 6 Meters.

Great Conditions, 6m open almost all weekend!

Thank God for 6 meters

ALL WAS WELL UNTIL THE THUNDER STORM CAME THRU.

Never before I have repaired a rotor control box so quickly.

A great time. Casual operations centered on working new grids. 75 watts into an LFA6 at 35'. Check
Log.

LOVED BEING IN WYOMING

The Saturday enhancement was very welcomed in the face of a drop in participation.  FT8 was a bigger
part of our overall strategy than last year and produced a number of grids we would otherwise not
have been able to work.

Preparation for the rove took many more days than anticipated due to changes in our station make up
and added software programs.  Always  lots to do with a 10 band rover.

Great weather in EPA for the entire weekend with cool temperatures.

At times two meters was as quite as a ghost town, and six meters seemed to be a copy but for the
high level of FT8 activity.

73 from K3WGR  for NN3Q/r

At 13:30 CDT on Sunday, T-storm hit this area and the rest of the contest time became a volunteer to
clean up the storm debris.

RoverLog is terrific!

Yaesu FTdx1200 es Mosley Pro67a at 70-feet. Thank you for an enjoyable contest. Enjoyed all the
QSOs.

Only could work 2 hours managed only 3 contacts my pea shooter signal didn't get
out far.  Thanks to all the operators and rovers

432MHz was my magic band - 355km with W3SO was a new best for me.

Lots of short meteor scatter which did not allow me to copy a lot of final RRRs...so I could not log
the QSOs.

Worked rover in Ontario East

BAND           QSOs              MULTS

50             76                36
144            70                17
222            48                13
432            45                14
902            28                10
1.2G           30                10
2.3G           19                9
3.4G           7                 2
5.7G           10                9
10G            7                 6
24G            9                 9
LIGHT          10                9

RVHFG eligible score is 75746 (end of EN92)

This was just a very small effort while doing other things as well.  Six m  did
not open up much when I was checking.

My transmitted mode is shown for cross-mode contacts
Log includes 3 duplicate contacts, not included in claimed score.
Portable QTH: Kerns Road, Burlington, ON FN03bi
Equipment -
144 MHz: FT-818 6 W, 5 el. Yagi
222 MHz: K2 + XV222 10 W, 7 el Yagi
432 MHz K2 + MM xvtr 10W , 11 el. Yagi
903 MHz K2 + rx conv + tx 5W, 7 el. Yagi
1296 MHz K2 + internal 2m xvtr + MM xvtr + amp 6W, 10 el. Yagi
2304 MHz K2 + internal 2m xvtr + homebrew xvtr 1W, horn/9 el.  Yagi
3456 MHz K2 + internal 2m xvtr + homebrew/DEMI xvtr 1W, 15 dBi horn
5760 MHz K2 + internal 2m xvtr + homebrew xvtr 50 mW, 15 dBi horn
10 GHz   K2 + internal 2m xvtr + Kuhne xvtr 2 W, 2 ft dish
300+ GHz Red Laser 0.5 mW, 2" Rx Lens

RoverLog is terrific!

START-OF-LOG: 2.0
RoverLog is terrific!

June 2019

BAND           QSOs              MULTS

50             44                30
144            12                9
222            15                9
432            12                9
902            9                 9
1.2G           11                9
2.3G           9                 9
3.4G           0                 0
5.7G           9                 9
10G            5                 5
24G            9                 9
LIGHT          9                 9

144               116

144Qs  334pts x  116mults = 38,744

Portable station was used on the summit of Missing Link Mountain (VE6/RA-023) a
SOTA summit. The summit was an hour hike from the car.
A special effort was made to activate using 23cm equipment.

I managed to work a few statioms with my FT-897D and vert antenna
and simple 1/2 Square on 6 meters.

Another enjoyable contest.

6m:   FT8 and 1 lone CW with F4HEC!  BIG opening to Eu Sunday morning.  It was bedlam for a couple
of hours but many repeats required.  Heard nothing from US on Sat .  Late Sunday the band opened to
US NE but very unstable.  A station would call CQ and then disappear .  A station would call me and
then was never heard again.

Fighting static and weak s1gnals on 160 was less frustrating!

TS590SG  80-90w:  Innovantenna 5el LFA at 50ft

cc

2 meters was essentially deserted. Everyone on 6. Another year of surprising conditions. Openings to
E/NE Saturday and Sunday evening W/NW. almost no Fla and Az. (SE and SW) which is very unusual from
this location. Decoded a few CM/CN stations Sunday evening but unable to work despite high power.

After 55 years, this is the first contest log I have submitted. All 6 meters, all FT8.

My best contest activity since I dismantled my Minnesota station and
moved to Texas. Only had 3 bands working at this time, but more bands
are going to get connected before my next contest. Had a blast picking
up E-Skip into Minnesota and working several friends on 6M SSB that I
haven�??t talked to in months to years!

Thank you for sponsoring the contest.

First time operating 6 bands 6m thru 1296...
Band condx were pretty good and I had a blast
73, W1TR

Best contest in recorded memory, lots of new ops who will
hopefully go out and get their own licenses now, a newly updated
station, and lots of QSOs. Only sad thing was we lost 222MHz
early on and don't know when we'll get it working again.

73, and thanks for all the Q's
KC1EPN

The Rochester VHF Group is aiming to pass the MILLION POINT mark in the June VHF Contest as we
continue to celebrate our 70th Anniversary year ... perhaps making us the longest continuously
active VHF oriented amateur radio club in the known universe.

To that end, we have both activated and encouraged activation from regional amateur radio clubs
(both with and without a VHF orientation) with the goal of having on-the-air fun in mutual support.

Part-time only for this one again.

Saturday was The Pits -- much like the ARRL SEP VHF --
pretty much a 2M contest.

Sunday seemed to start the same way -- nada on 6M in
my first grid.  Then the 6M band blew open in my 2nd
grid. Nice! 6M then laid down when I arrived in my
3rd grid -- sadly DM87. But, 6M showed its Magic again
in my 4th and final grid of the day.

Actually made 3 446mcs FM contacts this outing, and ALL
my rovering is far remote from any "metro" environment.
Without the 446 FM contacts my total score would have
been 631 points less.
The new'ish 432/446 addition to the rover lashup was
worth 3,179 points in the total score. (There's been
contests when my TOTAL score was lower than that.)

WX was good all weekend. Clear skies on Saturday.
Sunday started out with heavy overcast -- quite
concerning because I rely on solar panels to keep my
battery alive. But, by 10 AM it started burning off
and the rest of the day I had plenty of "solar".

FT8 appears to be the go to mode for VHF contesting so there where less CW & SSB contacts to be
made. More time in the chair (5.3hrs) would definitely add to my score.

using KT34XA beam at 60 feet.

ANOTHER ONE FOR THE BOOKS.  NOT AS GOOD AS LAST YEAR, BUT THE UPPER BAND BEHAVED BEAUTIFULLY.  LOOK
FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE.  BEST TO ALL.
73 DE THE CONTEST CREW AT W3RFC

The Lone Gunmen W4AD Contest Team, Woodbridge Amateur Radio Club
FM08 @ Big Meadows Campground, Shenandoah National Park

Our June tradition was interrupted by the Forest Service. They
closed the road to Flagpole Knob in FM08. So our group split up.
One gang went to Blue Knob in FN00 and the other went to
Shenandoah National Park in FM08. We operated as W4IY and the
other group (calling themselves the Lone Gunmen) used W4AD.

was a good thing. We lost our 2M W6PQL amp after only an hour of
operating. A big spark shot out of the side. Turns out one of the
FETs in a switch circuit shorted to ground. So that left us with
7W from the Elecraft 2M module in our K3S.
expirement for us in downsizing. We used KM4KMU's famous rover
rig, which appeared in QST after he set the FM record. We had one
station instead of 2. We had to learn a new operating plan of
moving people up the bands.
hard to figure out when to shift to USB. We decided to move when
we saw high S/N reports in FT8. I enjoyed the Sunday opening to
FL on 6. I worked W4DC, who was working back into VA at the same
time on 40M.
most of the time. Our group stayed at the resort. Friendly staff,
but nothing to write home about.
Flagpole in September. We'll run the same scaled down station to
see if demand is higher than the supply.
people on the VHF contest reflector. Their info about the site
was invaluable.

Watching big red blobs in northeast  on maps but not reaching me(sob).

As usual, I got to my first spot in EM56, near a grid corner, about an hour and a half after the
contest started. I had been up to nearly 2am the night before wrangling my Win 7 laptop....I was
running low on space on the SSD and opted to do a disk cleanup. Saw a bunch of old Windows Update
files and decided to get rid of those.  Windows took over and hour and a half to complete the purge
and cleanup!  Then I spent quite a bit of time trying to get WSJT-x and N1MM+ configured correctly. 
Got everything working except PTT!  Gave up and hit the road for the 4 hour drive to EM56. I had
hoped to be able to do 6M FT8 while in motion to make some Qs during all my solo driving time.
Quickly determined I had zapped the front end in my 2304 XVTR. Need to add an isolation relay.  The
remaining six bands worked well. Had lots of Qs with my buddy, Steve, AG4V/R. Best DX was over 400km
on 902 and 1296 with Steve...Rover to Rover. Nothing quite like the weak, watery sound of CW on the
microwave bands! Feel like I missed a lot of Qs by not being on FT8. Activity seemed low on
2M....perhaps due to 6M openings.  After the Test I loaded a new N1MM+ version and FT8 PTT started
working. It was probably cockpit error on my part all along! Lots of fun. Hope to be out and about
in September.

Time to reconsider the scoring rules and allow one QSO per MODE per BAND or risk the contest  become
a defacto digital only event

Nice Opening at 0115 Sunday

Just playing in the contest, hoping for an opening to finish my WAS. Had fun, but band didnt
cooperate at all. Saw all locals.  Only opening was for the 2 hours I was gone at church.   Maybe
next year.  Whats sad, I had a great opening to JA the night before the Contest.

Had only one small opening to East coast.

6m Only

Brief time available.

1st contest

New rigs (IC-9700, IC-7300) great incentive to bet back into VHF/UHF contesting!

Need more than 1 PC to handle all this new digital communication.
1 sound interface
2 logging

This was a great time especially on Saturday and the end on Sunday working the West Coast.  Working
EA8 was clearly a highlight.  I used an Icom 7300 100 watts SSB only my own stacked turnstile
antenna up 30 feet.  73  Jim  WA3FET

I wish more ops would try the phone and CW sections of the band when they are
hearing lots of strong sigs on 50.313 mHz. That part of the band does still
exist! Although FT8 is an effective means of racking up contacts, and indicating
if the band might be open, the world is not all FT8.

There was so much lightning and thunderstorms around the entire weekend, I
finally gave up.

Yet another dead-band scenario. Contacts were few and far between.

After reviewing it further once I sent it in, I don�??t know why the �??Mode�?� field says
�??Mixed�?�. I made all these contacts in FM mode.
Thanks,
Michael-WA5AZQ

144 MHz: Rig: Kenwood TR-751A into RFConcepts RFC2-417
Power output: 100 W
Antenna: Homebrew Horizontally Polarized Omni-Directional
Antenna, Stack of two 3-dipole arrays with dipoles @ 120
degrees (see photo). Parallel feed to 3 dipoles, homebrew
phasing harness made from 50-ohm coax.
50 MHz: Icom IC-7610 @ 100 W  Antenna: vertical dipole
mounted on side of tower
Note: I didn't really work the contest as much as I wanted
to test new homebrew 2-meter SSB antenna. It worked pretty
good for an omni.
There were no band openings except for the 6-meter contact
from EL09 -> EN74

Operated at home QTH, using 6 element 50 meg beam,
Icom 7610, 150 watts SSB, 50 Watts FT8.
Was pleased to see the band openings, but severe QSB.
In prior years, I operated as Rover on way back from
Ham Com, but could not make it there this year, so I
did the next best thing - home QTH!
Thank you.  73, George

Good band openings.  Had other activities planned.  New 6m beam
will be raised before July contest.  Bad local noise source here
- heavy QRN.  Thanks to all that worked me.

This is the first time that I�??ve ever entered any ham radio contest!  I�??ve operated before, but
I�??ve never sent in a log before.  I didn�??t make many contacts, but it was all I could manage.

�??

Operated from Josphine Saddle (elev. 7080 feet) in the Santa Rita
Mts south of Tucson after 2.5 mile hike.  Not the best operating
location due to trees but good line of site north towards Tucson
and Phoenix and south towards Mexico.
approx. 200 milliwatts output.

QSOs for the short operating time during my hike, but it was fun
seeing if I could make any contacts during the contest with 200
mW and the 1/2 wave whip.
from Queen Creek near Phoenix which was 111 miles NW.  He had
difficulty receiving me but a few repeats completed the contact.

very good reception.
Wrightson (highest peak in the Santa Rita Mts) if I can get back
in better shape.

WB2CUT June 2019 recapSTART
Usual new equipment:  FT897 D and Mirage B5018 G.  13LBA
antenna still not fully repaired.
Strange contest, and it started well before it, with the QST
announcement of it mentioning that paper logs were accepted.
Haven�??t seen that in YEARS!  The weekend weather forecast,
after being uncertain about possible showers, predicted a
precipitation-free weekend - and they were right.  Haven�??t
had THAT in a contest in years, either.  (They didn�??t do so
well about the next day, calling for pockets of rain and it
was raining when we got up in the morning and still raining
when we went to bed at night.)
The conditions were not very good, though the noise level
was low in most directions.  And, continuing a trend that
started long before digital, it�??s not �??where WAS everybody�?�
- on 6, most likely, on Saturday, but �??where were people
calling CQ contest�?�?  I noted ONLY the following few:
K1TEO, N2NT, K2BAR, N3HBX, W3CCX and W2SZ, as being heard
frequently here.
In fact, I only called 10 stations.  Not that nobody was on
on 2 SSB; I was called by 80.  I couldn�??t find W2GEZ/MM in
FN40, though at least I had the grid confirmed.  (WA2GFN
DID find him on 6 for a new grid for him.)  Nor, most
annoyingly, could I find an FN10 despite much calling in
that direction.  And I only heard W3SO once or twice.
I did not hear KA1ZE/FN01, but his rotor or antenna may not
be functional.
But I did get called by 2 FN41, FN43 - not AF1T; never heard
him - FN33 - WB1GQR called ME and I never heard him again,
FN12, FN22, FN23 - W1EP is now usually there instead of
FN22 - FM09, and TWO FN27s.  (No FM28)  I�??m getting a
little old for this (I�??m 71) but as long as I keep getting
the NNJ 2 meter SOLP certificates I�??ll keep trying.
I also got the pleasant surprise as I typed up my logs of
discovering that I had 19, not 18, grids, having forgotten
to count FN21!
Even stranger, for the first time ever I worked MORE
stations on Sunday than Saturday - 46 vs 44.
On digital, I really think that at least the 4 main
categories - SOLP and SOHP, and unlimited multiop low and
high power, should have 2 separate awards - classical and
all-mode, the latter including digital (which would
continue to give primarily digital operators the continued
incentive to drop down to SSB/CW to hunt contacts, as they
do now, at least in the last few hours or when it gets
slow up there).
Awards should also be changed.  Mixed mode is mixed mode,
with or without digital, but there should now be an
additional �??classic�?� mixed mode award.
Sorry, but having my computer work your computer, though
wonderful for showing exotic propagation modes, especially
on 6, seems to be taking the ham out of ham radio.
Surprisingly, though it�??s put a nice dent in 6, there are
still plenty of 6 meter SSB operators, and most still
exchange QSL cards.
Tuesday I heard WA4GZK and N4ETN in QSO and they share my
feelings about digital.  So do others, especially about
taking the ham out.
CU in September  WB2CUT

Fun but 6M open only about 3 hrs to NE

Unfortunately, I heard no signals on the 432 MHz band - so my score was not so
high. The 2 meter conditions were quite poor - The 6 meter band had several
short openings, thankfully. TNX for the contest.

FT8 frustration when the band is open ops need to go to phone or cw! Wasting way too much time on
FT8. If the band isn't open to phone or cw then use FT8. 
The E clouds were stuck overhead and no communications until they moved, it affected my score, even
though there were plenty. Score not as good as last year, at times it was slow going with sharp
fades and the signal gone. I'm  hoping FT4 will be faster. It was fun to see 6 open, es tnx for all
the Q's.

Myt first VHF contest ever.  Greeted by a short opening toward
the end.

6m was great, 4 Japan, and 3 Mexico contacts! Conditions were below normal on all other bands.
Thanks to the Rovers!!

TNX TO ALL THE ROVERS FOR THE NEW RARE GRIDS!

Elecraft KX3 (10W) and a wire loop at 15 feet

Attic dipole and barefoot IC746