01/23/2006 | KC4PX One can realize that this IS the "bottom" of the sun spot cycle and conditions on 6 meters alone was as poor as one could expect. My XYL was happy to see this because the house was full of visiting relatives. As for the weather, beautiful 80 deg Florida sunshine. Activity on the higher bands (144-2304Mhz) was surprisingly high for Florida. Although we would like to see more, it is encouraging to see new operators getting on 432 and 1296Mhz. The highlight of my activity at KC4PX was working W4WA on 1296 (EL98-EM84) and K4RX on 144Mhz (EL98-EM64) with excellent signals. More of you contesters up north should look to the south periodically. Six meters was dead, dead as a door knob with hardly any scatter and NO E's at all. I compare these 6 meter conditions to working with 1.5kw into a dummy load. As Murphy continues to rule, the previous weekend was fastastic with an all day 6 meter opening Sunday. Murphy gave us a tease then and called the Contest Weekend a dud. One thing for sure, IT WILL GET BETTER!! -- KC4PX