06/12/2006 | N2SE The 10-70 Repeater Association returned to the June QSO Party contest this year at the beautiful High Point State Park in New Jersey. At around 1750 plus feet, this is an ideal spot to set up for a contest; and we setup in the shadow of the monument, a 220-foot structure built in honor of all war veterans. The weather was more reminiscent of a January contest than a June contest and I personally had on a tee shirt, sweatshirt, hooded sweatshirt and winter jacket. I was still cold in the 50 Mph wind gusts that kept us from ever sleeping while on the mountain.

The wind also played havoc to our antenna systems and we could not put up the 5-element 50 MHz beam due to the strong winds; however, we did enjoy the opening on 6-meters using a vertical that we were able to stabilize. We ended working stations on 6-meters all the way to Washington and Montana, so even without the beam we enjoyed making contacts across the country. It was by far the best 6-meter opening I have ever experienced since becoming active on 6-meters.

There were several other firsts for many of the people that operated the N2SE station, including operating on 1.2 GHz for the first time. Making my first contact on 1.2 with N2NK made my weekend because I then knew the new radio and beam were working correctly. With beams also on 432 and 144 the operators were kept busy over the weekend. Because we were in a public park we entertained many park visitors and explained what Amateur Radio was, and how participating in contests help us prepare to offer assistance during emergencies. We also showed the visitors the radio setups witch included an Icom 910H for 70cm and 23cm, a 746-PRO for 2-meters and a Yaesu FT897 for 6-meters. We ran all the bands barefoot, and will work on using amps the next time we setup.

One bonus of operating from the park was watching the moonrise, and the picture of it below the 70cm beam does its beauty no justice. The surroundings and views sometimes distracted you from operating they were so nice. Even the black bears were kind to us by staying away from our site, with help from the park police. With all the craziness of the weather and trying to avoid hypothermia in June, setting up to contest here was a great idea and was the most fun many of the contesters ever had operating in a contest. We will definitely do this again!

73, Matthew K2NUD; (N2SE contest station) -- K2NUD