06/12/2006 | N6VMO Once again, I had a great time operating in this contest.

This year, I added a second M2 2M5WL yagi to the 144Mhz station equipment. I believe this additional antenna increased my 144MHz QSO count from 83 to 105 over last years contest.

We enjoyed some small 6M openings to the north and a few quick openings to the east.

'Murphy' hit at contest start, my Mirage 432 amp would not key up and acted more like an attenuator than an amplifier. So I ran 'barefoot' on 432.

My azimuth indicator was not working, and I could not directly see the antennas from my operating position. So I installed a mirror on the dash that allowed me to view the array via the reflection. A small lamp mounted on the tower illuminated the array just enough for me to see the array at night. Photo #2 shows the mirror setup and photo #3 shows the lamp and remote 902MHz equipment.

Visit www.n6vmo.com to view the event photos. Look in the June 2006 VHF QSO Party folder.

73

John
N6VMO -- N6VMO