The IARU VHF Contest is probably the most important regular event on 144 MHz in Europe. I thought it would be a good opportunity to test the new 5-element yagi and to have some QSOs, since the level of activity during this contest is usually hard to beat at any other time.
I operated one hour on Saturday evening and one hour on Sunday afternoon (the last hour of the contest). I managed to contact 13 stations overall (3 from Germany, 3 from the Netherlands and 7 from England).
The propagation conditions to Britain seemed very good - some stations were even peaking S9 on the S-meter! (on my indoor antenna). I had no difficulty being heard on the other side of the North Sea.
Working with Dutch and German stations was a bit more difficult, even though the distances did not exceed 300 km in that direction.
Having seen reports on dx-cluster I realized there was a tropo to France and Spain during the contest. However, this direction is completely closed for me from my fist-floor appartment.
In summary, I'm happy with the results of these two hours spent at the radio. They confirmed that the antenna works good and that it is possible to take part in a VHF conetst from a space-limited, indoors location. At the same time one can't expect miracles from such a setup.
