vhf plus

his year, in part because of my responsibilities to you, the reader, I tried to be better prepared for the June VHF contest. So, I was checking out antennas, rigs, and transverters in advance and I even updated N1MM+ on Friday before the contest and set up the correct information. There had been several good 6-meter openings in the previous days, so I, and many others, were hopeful of similar openings during the contest weekend. After a lunch date with the XYL, I was on the air by 1:30 central time, about 30 minutes after the contest started. Here in EM55, the first few hours were slow. I called and listened on 6 and 2 meters periodically, and was finally rewarded with a contact with Tor, N4OGW, in EM53. We worked each other on 6 and 2 meters and tried 432 MHz with no success. Still, a new grid on two bands was in the log. Another highlight was working one of our Memphis area rovers, Steve, AG4V, who was mobile in EM35. I). On the phone segment of 6 meters, stations were so spread out I worked several above 50.200 MHz!