I’m looking forward to the CQ WW VHF contest this weekend, July 18-19. I’m planning to activate EM24ea on Saturday and EM03xe on Sunday. Depending on activity levels Sunday, as well as my energy level, I may activate EM13ae and/or EM12kv.
Instead of my usual seven hundred mile 10 grid route with rooftop rotator antenna set up, I’ll be using a 25 foot push-up mast, an M2 6M-3SS Yagi, and a Directive Systems 2 meter 6-element rover Yagi.
My goal will be to help Fred Fish Memorial Award (FFMA) chasers put EM24 and EM03 into their logs. That’s why I’ll spend Saturday at EM24, hoping to catch at least one opening. I’ll do the same on Sunday in EM03.
I had been planning a rover operation in the Texas Panhandle around my daughter’s home in Amarillo, similar to my rove in the June 2019 ARRL VHF Contest. There I could activate a number of FFMA needed grids (DM85, DM86, DM94) as I’d done last year. However, the COVID-19 case rates are such that it’s best for me to stay near the Dallas-Fort Worth area, avoiding personal contact and returning home on Saturday night.
For rigs, I’ll be running an Icom IC-9100 on six meters along with a TE Systems amplifier, which will give me about 150 watts. I’ll use an Icom IC-910H on two meters with about 100 watts. I’ll be running SSB, FT8, MSK144, FT4, and ham-fisted CW if needed. All that will be inside my air conditioned car with my backseat operating position.
I hope to put you in the log and run up a reasonable score along the way.
[…] I noted in my rover plan I activated EM24 on Saturday and EM03 on Sunday. This was in sharp contrast to my ARRL VHF rover […]