Not one but two Sherriff's vehicles responded to one or more reports of an "SUV with all sorts of antennas" on it.
K9SP demonstrating his rover setup to our visitors.
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Not one but two Sherriff's vehicles responded to one or more reports of an "SUV with all sorts of antennas" on it. |
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K9SP demonstrating his rover setup to our visitors. |
Driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway (FM07/FM08) in Virginia, a park ranger cruiser passed us in the opposite direction. The car did an abrupt 180 and followed us for a mile or so to our destination. When we got out of the vehicle, two park rangers got out of their car and said, "We just HAVE to ask..."
The next day we were in FM19 in Sterling, VA. We were positioned in a shopping center parking lot, making contacts when K9SP looked up and found we were flanked by two Loudon County Sherriff's vehicles. After they ran the tags, they came over and told us someone had called 911 reporting "an SUV with all kinds of antennas and stuff on it." The two officers were very friendly, and enjoyed the "tour" of the rover station.
I'm thinking an investment in a magnetic decal sign, something like "EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS TEST STATION" might not be a bad idea.
Overall, a good time. Looking forward to September.
I was originally hoping to get the rover out for the June test but too much going on for that to happen – so at the last minute it was decided that it might be fun to set up a multi-op station (KBØTHN and myself) at a nice spot on the ridge here in SE Minnesota. Never had any idea of a “serious” operation – just wanted to get on the air and see what would happen. Jim and I thought that keeping the band count down would help so we maxed out with 6 bands this year. Since the rain was terrible here this June (like most other places) we had a tough time getting the antennas up prior to contest Saturday. The WX however seemed to shape up just in time and I was able to get 222 through 1296 up along with the operating tent, 3 transceivers, 5 bricks, 2 rotators and 2 networked pc’s Saturday morning!
As luck would have it we missed some of the opening on six Saturday afternoon fixing the big stack (lost 6MX5) after a burst of wind laid it down (ouch) in front of the operating tent! Had to use the PAR moxon rover antenna (was easy to grab in a hurry -). Even though I felt compromised on 50MHz we were still able to work most stations on the band and was quite happy to get ZF1DC in the log as well as VE5UF later on with the moxon!
Many other highlights for the weekend – working: KØPG/R, K9ILT/R, WØAMT/R, W9FZ/R (many thanks to all the Rovers!). Missed some of the usual crowd this time around (guess there was other things going on besides the contest!). Really enjoyed the first ever sweep with Bill, KØAWU (loud here on 1296!). Sweeps with WØAMT/R to the west and Bruce, W9FZ/R to my east!!! Would have to say that ‘902/3 was the most surprising band of the contest! Also managed to snag K8EB from on 3 bands (all CW) for some badly needed mults!
Many thanks to Jim, KBØTHN for the help -
73,
Matt
Stormy skies at KFØQ/Ø (note broken 6MX5 in foreground) photo by KBØTHN |
Matt, KFØQ working on the 6 meter side of the operating table. photo by KBØTHN |
Jim, KBØTHN operates 144-1296 photo by KBØTHN |
(Dang) Probably missed another Rover! photo by KBØTHN |
WA2IID/R on Mount Equinox in south western Vermont. Spectacular view. |
We started in FN21tq just south of Ellenville NY. Great site to the south and east. Not too bad to the northeast. Then we went through a corner of FN31 near Kingston NY. Not a good site at only a couple hundred feet overlooking the Hudson river, but a beautiful view. We parked next to the fire house not realizing ahead of time that they had a big fair going on (Roving can be full of surprises)! Then up to FN32 where we spent the night at a motel just off the NY Thruway. Again not a good site, but Tom managed to make some contacts while I slept. Then in the AM, up the hill a bit west of Schenectady (FN22) to a bit higher location where we did a bit better. In September we are going to try out a better location for FN22. Then up west of Saratoga to FN23 and over to Mount Equinox in Vermont (FN33kd) to finish up. Lots of RF noise on Equinox these days and the trees are starting to get a bit tall, but a great site nevertheless. I thought I had made arrangements to leave the mountain late so we could work through the evening to the end of the contest, but they never got put into place so we were "thrown off" at 2000 local. Rather disapointing in that we got there very late in the afternoon and only had a couple hours. We will have to take this possibility into account next time.
Only equipment failure was the new 24G WBFM station that had no audio (I guess slamming the car door on the microphone was not very good for it!). Only other failure was in my head, when I tried to work W3CCX from FN21tq on 5760, only later realizing I did not turn power on to the LO! Obviously we didn't hear each other. Sorry guys.
Equipment included:
50 Mhz ICOM 706 to 4 el yagi on front of van
144, 432 and 1296 - Kenwood TS790 with 6 foot boom yagis and a mirage amp on 144
222 TS440 and DEMI transverter, Mirage brick
Microwave IF is a TenTec 6N2 with DEMI transverters
2304 DEMI barefoot 1W K1WHS Yagi 3456 DEMI with 35 wat amp K1WHS yagi 5760 homebrew transverter with small horn 10368 DEMI with qualcom 1W and 2 foot dish
Roving is great fun, particularly on a great weather weekend like this. Hope all had as good of a time as we did.
73
Jack
WA2IID
Interesting trip, Well thats the best word for it. I had one failure, my new 222mhz preamp apparently did not work. You might say I really don't know about the rest of the equipment. Why? Every band was strange. Only 6meters was strange good. 2meters was WAY down, with a bad pre-amp 222 was non-existant. 432 was there but I only worked stations that would QSY up from the lower bands. My longest 5ghz contact was 165miles. I only made contact with one station (1, yes 1) on 5ghz! 3ghz was a little better only on Saturday night at sunset when I made a 281mile contact.
I tried to be different this time. Not a lot of sched's, instead I spent a lot of time on 2m calling CQ. It didn't help. Last January I roved with KJ1K and CQ worked quite well. So what happened? Reports I have heard from other rovers and a couple of main stations seem to think the bands were "flat". I say they were down. On Sunday I gave up CQ and went back to hunt and pounce. My voice keyer was reported to be clear and copyable by everyone I did work.
Only cool thing was bumping into a Rover from Reno Nevada! NR6CA, Randy.
I keep notes on stations I regularly try to work. This is my summary of them: K8GP: only 6meters, 2meters was rarely even heard! much less worked. No microwave attempts. N2PA: good to 903mhz but thats it. W2FU: where were you? W2SZ: the only one I worked 5ghz on but even then only real close at 165 miles. Strange though they are usually so loud in some of my sites in PA that I can hear them even when they are pointing their beams up north. 2 meters was hard, 432 impossible! W3CCX: worked a couple of different sites but none above 222. I was even in eastern FN12 and they were hard to work. I heard they were working microwaves but I never got through even on 432. K3YTL: normally I work them all bands from almost all my sites. This time they were hard to find. W3SO: was there but even when I was in their grid I could not work them on all their bands! (50-432mhz)
Roving PA was a bummer again this time. My plan has been to be in the middle of all these neat stations but last three contests were disappointing. I am open to suggestions!
Cool this time was Roverlog. Like many of you I don't try many logging programs but this one is a MUST TRY! It does everything but drive the car.
73 & GL ,,, KE3HT/r
Microwave rover to 5ghz! Long Live Microwaves!
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And I wasn't even running any smoke! |
But it finally all came together the week before the contest, only to blow up the transverter receiver during my test QSO with K3SIW. It was just amazing how fast Steve and Sandra at DEMI turned it around so I could have it in time for the contest, only for me to blow it up again! This time I was able to cobble in an external receiver bypass. It was good enough for a few QSOs, but was noticeably down on receive. Aside from K3SIW, who is really loud here, nobody else moved the S meter!
I started the contest with a 6 band sweep with K0PG/K9ILT rover. Tim and Pat provided me with 9 grids on 6 bands during the contest, quite a lot of QSO's! I was able to find and work W0AMT/R on 7 bands in a few grids on Saturday too, but never heard them at all on Sunday. 6M was spotty at best, alternating between Texas and Florida with very short openings. I was thrilled when I found ZF1DC on 50.125, and Ron W4WA told me it was him at the mic. I kept hoping for a good run like last year, but none ever materialized. 2M was in reasonable shape, and things seemed enhanced on 432 and above so I proceeded to work it more like a January contest. One QSO at a time.
WSJT was really good and I managed to work most of my skeds. I missed completing with W2FU on 2M when we ran over into the next time slot and K9NS started up a schedule on the exact same frequency we were already on. It's getting so popular there's QRM! Despite what I've said before, I tried FSK 441a again on 222 with W2SZ and never heard a ping. Low percentage 222 skeds are just not a good option for SOLP stations! W1TEO on 6M was in several times every sequence and we completed in less than 2 minutes on 6 using 15 second sequences, then again a few minutes later on 2M. Likewise W3CCX and K7BV/1 were a breeze with several good bursts every sequence. I worked W2SZ on 144.170 and unfortunately that was also K0PG/R & K9ILT/R's com frequency, but they were kind enough to QSY for a while. Need to schedule those WSJT QSOs lower in the band or I can't accept them anymore! I don't know how they survive in the crowded NE corridor.
6M was open even less on Sunday, and the openings were to pretty much the same places and were even shorter. I concentrated on 2M and moving everyone I could around the bands. Seemed like there was fairly weak, but really nice tropo enhancement 2M in the afternoon. I was really happy when K4XR in EM64 AL came back to my CW CQ. He was really light and I had ask for his call a few times to make sure it wasn't KY5R in EM64 whom I also worked! Of course Goose K1LH in EM76 TN was there on 2M , 6M and even on 432! Wish more of y'all had your antennas pointed up my way!
The last hours of the contest ended with the usual flurry of local stations on 144.200, many of whom I'd not yet worked. Yet calling CQ on 144.197 usually yielded only receiver noise in return! Only by getting right on the call could I get anyone's attention. I wish more stations would tune around a bit rather than just listening on the call. Repeated scans of 6M for a last minute Es burst were likewise disappointing but I did find a lot of local stations there too. In the end I worked a lot less QSOs than last year, especially on 6M, but was able to bring up the score with a good showing on the higher bands. It was more work than most June VHF contests, but I'm very happy with the final result.
73 de Bob K2DRH EN41vr Illinois
After living in Providence, RI for 23 years there is a certain pull to go back there for roving. As the weekend grew closer, our plans changed, as we realized that it would be over 7 hrs of highway driving to get to our furthest stop, FN51aq, in Chatham on Cape Cod. I actually took 8 hrs. We took off at 6:40PM and made great time until we hit the end of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, where a 4-car pile-up blocked the route for an hour. We sailed on across CT and RI to the Cape, finally arriving in West Yarmouth at 2:40AM. We sank into our motel beds and slept til 9, got going after breakfast and headed to our first stop on Harding Beach, FN51aq. We chatted with a few locals on the bands before the contest, a station at the Marconi site and another on Nantucket, but heard very little else. Even as the contest started, things were quite slow. No doubt we were in a marginal QTH, as few would be pointing this way, despite having announced our plans far and wide. Everyone was in the first few hour frenzy on 6 & 2. An hour later, we heard K1TEO, and promptly ran him on all 10 bands with ease, followed by K1GX for 10 bands also, but still no sign of W3CCX. We finally heard the Packrats on 222, and were able to work on 5 bands, but were disappointed that the highest band worked was 1296.
Onto the next grid, almost a 3 hr drive back to FN41 at Watch Hill, RI, where we would set up right at the lighthouse—at sea-level again, but a great water shot to the west. It took circling around three times to find the driveway between the bushes that leads to the site—we had notified the local police that we would be there, and no one came to visit. We were able to easily find lots of contacts, now that the first 6 hours of the contest were over, and folks were actually taking some time out to track us. We easily worked Camelback thru 10G, as well as K1TEO and others, and headed to our next grid, FN31 near New London, CT. We really didn’t have a specific spot in mind, but we sought a waterfront location. The best spots were all closed, as they are in the state parks that are closed at dusk, and it was about 11 PM when we arrived. We did find a parking lot for a beach and amusement park, but the waterfront view only looked south and there was a slight hill and a stand of trees to the west, but we were able to work the gang thru 1296 again, knowing that K1TEO would supply the mults for FN31 on the higher bands. We took off to head up toward the MA state line and find a motel room for the night.
Mt. Wachussetts, FN42 is a spot similar to Camelback, a ski area, drivable to the top, loaded with commercial communications, and a breathtaking view of the countryside. It opens for visitors at 9AM, and when we arrived at 9:20 W1FKF and KA1OJ were already setting up their microwave dishes for 10, 24 and 47G, aimed north to N1JEZ in FN44. I set up our dishes also, and very quickly had them all in the log on 10 & 24G. Leon and I were quite surprised with our first 24G SSB QSOs at 20db over S9 on a path of about 130 miles. After an hour we find the W3CCX gang and worked them on all bands, although the QRM was rough, especially since we use 144MHz IF, and the other stations close by were on 2m as liaison for their micro contacts. KA1EKZ/R and his rover partner arrive and set up their multi-feed dish for their contacts with W2SZ. They had spent the previous day in 4 Maine grids. We also made contact on all bands thru 5G (their top end). It was nice to share some roving experiences with Justin and give each other a tour of our respective rovers. Time to move on….we stow the dishes and lower the main mast and head down the mountain, I stop at the lower parking lot to check directions to the next stop, and then we head for the Mass Pike West. A mile or two later we both get a nose full of something burning, quickly turn off all the gear, charger, and open the windows to try and sense where the odor is originating. Two miles later we finally come to a spot in the road where we could pull over, turn off the engine and lift the hood and make sure the rover is OK. Well, the engine looks fine with the hood up, but, “Hey dad, look at this smoke coming from the wheel…did you leave the emergency brake on?” Luckily, that was the issue; I need to get the brake light warning fixed and the linings checked.
It seemed like too long a drive to get to our next planned stop in FN32 on the MA Pike, and after we arrived, it was difficult to find a decent parking spot in which to operate. The usual car lot was very full with folks coming and going, and the truck side of the area was lines with 18 wheelers, about as high as our antennas, and in the direct path of our most desired directions. We did work a bunch of stations thru 1296, but nothing higher, as the trucks, trees and a close-by ridge seemed to keep the microwave RF contained.
Onto the homestretch, we headed down to Rte 8 thru Winsted, CT, where we had spent many happy summers in camp. I was even the ham radio counselor there back in the 60’s. Great memories… We continued making QSOs on the lower 4 bands as we passed thru FN31 and FN21 on our way to the next stop in FN20. This was a new spot for us, and as time was running low, we decided to use the west-bound rest stop, rather than spend the extra time to get to the east-bound stop. Although we were able to make QSOs thru 10G, we missed 24G, and we’re sure we could have done better from the other side, about 60’ higher. Ran into that buzzing noise mode again as the battery voltage was low for the FT100D IF, but it rapidly cleared when we switched on the engine and charger for that marine cell. Crossing again into FN21, we completed our last stop in Tannersville. Eleven hundred miles for this weekend rove, but the QSO rates and multipliers were not spectacular. We had great weather, reasonable road conditions, and only the minor issues mentioned---and accomplished most of our goals. K1DS/R & N1XKT/R
Harding Beach, FN51aq, Cape Cod |
Watch Hill, RI FN41 |
Mt Watchussets, FN42bl |
From bottom to top: 15 element 70cm Quagi (ARRL website), 6m moxon, 7 element 2m yagi (DK7ZB design), and copper J-pole on top. Worked well, but needed to be much higher! |
My antennas were all homebuilt, I used a 7 element yagi based on the DK7ZB design on 2 meters, a 15 element Quagi from the ARRL website for 70cm, and a moxon rectangle from www.cebik.com for 6m. The antennas worked quite well, the narrow beamwidth of the 15 element 70cm beam made pointing quite critical. The antennas were all located about 25 feet up on a mast bolted outside of my bedroom window. Unfortunately, that low height really hurt me, I really needed to get those antennas up higher. Sunday I didn't hear anything except for a few stations on 6m.
But it was fun, highlights include 6m openings to Texas/Missouri/Louisiana on Saturday, and Florida on Sunday. One of my goals was to work more CW, which I did do. Working K8MM over in EN83 was exciting, coordinating bandchanges all in CW. I heard him on 432 when I got the beam pointed right on him, but I still had the power turned down to less then 5 watts from before by accident, so he couldn't hear me. Of course it was nice running into W8LON again and having a chat with him Saturday night.
I knew that K8DOG was out roving, but I didn't hear him until 15 minutes before the contest was over.
In the picture you can see the Quagi on the bottom, barely above the roofline, the moxon just above it (warped a bit), the 2m beam above that, and a copper J-pole on the very top of the mast.
Marten
KC8HZM
http://www.goshen.edu/~martentb
1953 Studabaker Duce & 1/2... I needed a big winch to raise my tilt over towers... This one was dirt cheap & it came with wheels... |
Sunday ::: Not much of anything out of the norm on Sunday... 6 & 2 pretty much dead all day... Occasionally a distant station would pop in outta nowhere on 6 ,,, this was very welcomed as it was almost always a new multiplier... 222 seemed to be very good ,,, signals were up,,,,but,,,,the only way to make a contact there was to bring someone up from 6 or 2 ,,,, 432 was again average along with 1296.........
Big thanks goes out to the rovers.....keep up the good work....
I would also like to thank all the suppliers of ham radio & associated equipment ...
And of course a big thanks to the ARRL for hosting these vhf contest..
Look for me next in the July CQ WW VHF Contest July 17th , 18th...
I haven't decided yet if I will run in the qrp section or kick on the 8877's... Tune in to find out !!!!!
73's all.... Dan (Ö¿ø)
Back row, left to right: W3PAW,W3YOZ,W3TEF,W3BTX,K4VV,AI3M Front row, left to right; K3IXD, WR3Z,W3SF Missing; W9NET |
The team presnted Marty, W3YOZ, a birthday cake after the contest. (That is a tower and VHF antennas on the cake.) |
For this contest, we installed another 6m beam that was fixed on New England. The 6m ops said it helped. We experienced a number of 6m opening to FL and TX; double hops to CA; and to C6ANC, T49C and ZF1DC for our DX QSOs (plus the VEs).
We used CT 9.81 again, networking 4, DOS 486 computers, and there were NO crashes.
Being able to participating in the fall and spring sprint helped. It gave the equipment a shake down and the operators became more familiar with the bands and with CT.
Thanks to AI3M's XYL for cooking us lunches and dinners. And to W3SF for bringing his camper.
Unlike Jan. we had beautiful weather both days.
QSLs to W3TEF, station details at <www.qrz.com/w3so>.
W3SO will be on as Multi-op in CQWW VHF (CW-SSB).
For the W3SO, FN00sn, Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators
Ed, K3IXD
The innovative "shove all the gear into the back of the SUV" operating position. |
My rusty CW skills helped squeeze out a few of the weak ones. This really helps compensate for the QRP power levels.
73, Bob
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