September VHF QSO Party This Weekend

The annual September ARRL VHF QSO Party is this weekend! I didn't get a chance to operate much in the June contest, just a few 6m QSO's here and there. Hopefully I can get in on the action some more this weekend. I would really like to go roving, but I am not sure if that is going to be a possibility or not.

For those that are not familiar, the QSO Party's are contests - make as many contacts as you can in the contest period (usually spread out over two days). What makes the VHF contests special is the propagation. Most of the time the contacts are relatively local through tropospheric ducting and line of sight propagation out to a couple hundred miles or so, especially on the high bands. However, on 6m and 2m long distance contacts routinely occur out to a couple thousand miles with Es. Other more exotic modes such as Meteor Scatter and Moon Bounce can also be used to make long-range contacts.

In short - VHF is a totally different animal than HF is. Atmospheric skip doesn't happen as easily, and as much, on VHF as it does on HF. You have wide-open bands on HF compared to VHF. If 6m opens up wide it is a BLAST - and something that doesn't happen often. If you have never operated VHF, especially in a contest, I would highly encourage you to do so! You may find it just as exciting, or more so, than HF.