144mhz May Contest

2E0IJK'S S 2nd Vhf Contest

After my first taste of a vhf contest I checked on the rsgb website to find out when the next one was as I enjoyed it and was all ready looking forward to it. For my 1st contest I used a dual band mini beam 3 elements on 2 meters and 5 elements on 70 cms the results I had were very good but I was keen to better my antenna. After looking on various websites I spoke with another local ham Graham G0HPA who lives less than half a mile from me. He had an 8 element cross yagi he didn't use and was kind enough to give me it to further my interest. The same day I lowered the scam 12 I have my antennas on and removed the little dual band beam and replaced it with the 8 element cross yagi. The s.w.r was just right and I proceeded to 144.300 to check out the bands. As usual not a lot happening here always the story when you put up a new antenna. So whilst in the shack I just left the yaesu ft847 I use for 2m ssb monitoring 144.300 usb and I heard G4EHD Bill put out a cq call so I gave him a shout. Bill is located in Halifax around 30 miles away from my qth so I knew at least it would rx and tx. The morning came of the 144mhz VHF May contest 

(18-05-13) I had my log, pen and paper to hand. To be honest it was a bit slow and band conditions compared to the last contest I had experienced were not so good. I thought there may be a problem with the antenna I had recently installed. I give Chris M0RSF a call who I knew would be taking part and he said also band conditions were poor. So carrying on looking up and down the band whilst having calling cq a few times I went to bed early and hoped the conditions would be better the next day. After a slow start the first day I was up for an early start in the contest and worked 35 contacts in the end which I was pleased with giving me 4784 points and 33 multipliers making a total score of 157872. My best dx contact was G3XBY/P in Exeter a distance of 371 miles away from my qth. . Bellow is a map of my contest qso's. I will also post the results of the contest here when they are announced. Thanks to all the stations that I worked in the contest I look forward to the next one.