The 6 meter Summer Sporadic E season has been absolutely fantastic. I’ve been able to pick up a few new DXCC entities and a whole bunch of 6 and 2 meter grids.
Fred Fish Memorial Award
While the conditions have been superb from here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I’m primarily blaming the attention placed on earning the Fred Fish Memorial Award for the huge increase in rover activations of rare grids on 6 meters.
ND0B and KV5W have been maintaining a listing of FFMA chasers, setting the bar at 400 grids confirmed out of the 488 required to be listed on the “leader” board. This system has considerable information on who needs each grid and the rankings of each grid.
That’s been followed by rovers getting out into those grids and providing much needed QSOs for those chasing FFMA. Helped along the way by FT8, MSK144, and Q65, several hams have been able to complete the FFMA this year. That is one awesome accomplishment.
My 6 Meter Grid Chase
I signed up for the FFMA leader board in November 2019. Since I had 450 grids on 6 meters I thought I must qualify. ND0B was kind enough to list my paltry 351 FFMA grids in a “nearly” leader board category.
By the end of 2020 I still hadn’t made the grade to leader. However, that’s when the rover activations started in earnest and some overall great conditions came into play.
Equipment and Antenna Upgrade
At the beginning of the 2021 season I added a TE Systems 0552G amplifier along with a Directive Systems 5-element Yagi to my home station. That was followed by an incredible opening to the Pacific Northwest that added four new grids, bringing my FFMA total to 402 grids.
Since I’m running the amp at 200 watts only, I’m reasonably confident the 5-element Yagi made the big difference in my station. Before I was running an M2 3-element Yagi.
6 Meter Rover Activations
Here’s a partial listing of the incredible rover activations in the past month or two: KG5CCI, KI5P (KG5CCI & AC0RA), AG6EE, K5N/KV5W, N4EME, WB8LYJ, W0W, NA6L, N0LL, and I’m sure there are others that I’ve forgotten. I also appreciate K4XSS for his activation of rare grid DM02.
I followed nearly all of them on VHF-Chat on Slack. This helped me find when they were active, what mode, frequency, and direction. That in turn got me pointed in the right direction. Many of them were incredibly encouraging — notes like “keep sending K5ND” helped keep me from giving up a few seconds too early.
As a “limited contest rover” myself, I can empathize somewhat with their challenges. But some of the activations were incredible, in a few cases by the length of their drive and number of grids activated, in others by their willingness to go to the extremely inaccessible grids, and others by their long stays in one grid to make sure conditions would eventually cooperate.
My FFMA Grid Count
As of today, I have 424 FFMA grids confirmed with a few open QSL cards to be collected. That’s fairly remarkable for my somewhat limited station and how difficult it gets to find new grids.
Almost all the credit goes to the rovers this season who worked so hard to get in my log and the log of so many others. Thank you!
2 Meter Grid Chase
One of the reasons I like 6 meters is the small antennas, which is pretty important in my yard, where I use a push-up mast. Well, considering that, 2 meters is all that much better. However, there are not that many openings.
2 Meter Opening on Sunday, 27-June-2021
I’ve written about one of my happy recent experiences from September 2020 with an exceptional tropo opening on a Saturday and Sunday that brought my 2 meter grid total to 72. Over the past few months I got that total to 80 from another opening in December. My very first 2 meter opening was in 2016 across the Gulf into Florida.
The fun hit again this past Sunday. Someone on VHF-Chat reported a Sporadic E opening on 2 meters. I connected my eggbeater and worked a couple of people. Then I ran downstairs and swapped out the 6 meter antenna for the 2 meter Yagi. That’s when the real fun started.
Here’s the APRS map of what was happening.
I was able to add 20 new grids on 2 meters that included Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ontario. It must have helped a great deal that most of these stations were running ARRL Field Day.
I’m now up to 99 grids worked but still chasing quite a few QSL cards. 2 meter VUCC isn’t too far away for K5ND.
Thanks everyone for the grids. 73.
I missed that late June 2m opening because I was working our club’s Field Day setup in the local park and we topped out at 6m, but I now hold our club’s record for most SSB QSOs made on 6m in one Field Day (140). I was using our club’s call, so those don’t count for my personal call, but it was still a blast.
I did actually catch a short 2m sporadic E opening on 7/13/21 which netted me several grids in Florida. The funny thing was, I didn’t have my 2m yagi built or put up yet, so I got those QSOs on my 2m/70cm vertical. DX just is, I suppose.
Great work on the 6 meter club record, Mike. I’ve always been skeptical of the “horizontal only” mantra on VHF and above. I’ve proven it wrong many a time on 6 meters but figured that was Es and a bit of rotation going on. Exceptional work on 2 meters with a vertical. Congratulations!