2M opening from North Carolina to Nova Scotia

 It started yesterday, September 7th, I got a text from Jeff, AJ1L that 2m was open to North Carolina. I worked my way down into the shack to hear K1ISR S9+20 in North Carolina, grid square FM06. I had a quick chat with him and then looked for some digital signals. I found Dave, K1RZ, in FM19 Maryland on FT8. I then worked a few other coastal stations, all with great signals. 

I left the radio on and when I came down into my office to start work the morning of September 8th, I heard some activity on FT8. I quickly nabbed Bill, VA1WV in FN75, Springhill, Nova Scotia. FN75 was a new grid for me! VE1SKY was next in the log, to the south of Bill in FN74. 

Later that evening, after the kids were put to bed, I came into my shack to find the band wide open up and down the coast. K1ISR was back on to the south and VE1SKY was back on to the north! I had a great evening and worked a number of stations, including:

VE1SKY in FN74

AB4SF in FM17

K1RZ in FM19

KD4AA in FM17

W3BFC in FM28

N4ASF in FM27

W3BJ in FM27

KD2QED in FM29

K1ZE in FN31

NG4C in FM16 (although WSJT went braindead)

KD8UD in FM17

All of these QSOs were armchair copy, very easy to work everyone. Most signals were S9+

Here is what the APRS map looked like:

And here is what Hepburn looked like (it's gotten better over the years!)

I think it's safe to say that the big excitement for lots of folks down south was that the opening was really from the NC/VA/MD coast all the way up to Nova Scotia. Roger, VE1SKY was the Belle of the Ball and had folks calling him from every grid between FM06 and FN74. I took a quick video on my phone and posted it to Youtube here:

It would be great if this could hold out for the weekend, as this coming weekend is the ARRL September VHF conference. Experience tells me that the band will be EXCELLENT on Friday and will die about 1pm on Saturday (the contest starts at 2pm).