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To start off, I think I have convinced most people that I am stark, staring mad. At least my non-ham friends now believe this! I think a lot of ham friends now do, too.
The night before the contest I set up the 9-band station (144 thru 10368 MHz) in my car on shelves I built to set on the driver's seat. Station is completely homebrew by me including all antennas except for the IF rigs (two HTX-100's). One of them has been extensively modified to be a 144 MHz IF for the microwave gear. I drove to the hill in EN50rl I have been using for QRP Portable operation for a couple years and started to set up at about 2 PM CST (an hour after the contest had started). The temperature was 20 degrees and the wind was gusting up to 50 mph with blowing snow mixed in. I hadn't expected the wind or snow. It normally takes me an hour to get all the antennas set up but this time it took 2 1/2 hours. There are some things I just can't do with gloves on (like tiny screws and SMA connectors) and my fingers kept freezing, making frequent trips back into the car necessary to thaw them out. I think the wind chill factor was minus 20 degrees F.
Once I got everything set up, I had great difficulty getting anyone's attention with my 10 watts. Everyone except Bob K2DRH seemed to be ignoring my direction. My own antennas use "Armstrong" rotors and getting out to rotate the antennas was painful every time, with the 50 mph winds and the snow. I made a number of QSO's by about 9 pm but nowhere near what I had expected. The antennas were very difficult to keep under control and the antenna masts were thrashing around vertically as well as horizontally. I almost lost them several times. I did have the tripod with my dish for 2304-and-up blow over and it bent the dish. Fortunately it didn't damage the feed. I just took that part of the setup down for attempted repair later.
I decided Saturday night at about 9:30 pm to head into Gibson City, IL, about 10 miles east of where I was, to rent a motel room for the night. I secured the antennas the best I could and hoped they would stay up overnight. At the motel, I managed to bend the dish back into something pretty close to straight. I also recharged my battery. Seems they run down faster when the temperature is around freezing!
I got up the next morning at about 7 AM and made my way back to the hill. I think the temperature was about 15 degrees then and the wind was still bad, but not quite as bad. Maybe gusting to 35 mph. Being outside in it was still painful. The antennas had survived the night and I got everything set up again.
I managed to make some more QSO's on Sunday but it was rough. There were times when I sat for almost two hours without a QSO. My average number of QSO's was about 2 1/2 per hour when I figured it out later. I managed to make one QSO on 2304 and one on 3456 on Sunday with K2DRH. The people I usually work on 5760 and 10368 were nowhere to be found by me, so I didn't get to try those bands this time. Band conditions to me were pretty dismal for the entire time I participated in this contest; I have never seen them worse than this.
At about 4 pm I decided I'd had enough and packed everything up and headed home. It took as long to get the antennas down as it did to put them up.
A couple of notes I made to myself were: (1) Find some pens that write in temperatures below freezing. The typical ballpoint just won't do that; and (2) try to figure out how to keep the stakes that hold antenna mast guy ropes from freezing into the ground in winter operations. I managed to get them loose by putting on vise-grips and rotating while pulling till they came out.
When it was done, I'd made 36 QSO's total and had 1850 points. It took a couple days to recover from finger frostbite. I may or may not do this again; if we'd had phenomenal conditions like we did in the August UHF contest it would've been worth it. At least in June I don't have the same weather to contend with. Just thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.
73, Zack W9SZ
We had a rocky start that drastically reduced our time on the air for the maiden voyager of the new W8ZN rover and call sign. The uWave rotator died about 20 minutes into operating from our first stop at Reddish Knob, VA (FM08). The 5 and 10 GHz bands weren't working at all, the 2 and 3 GHz receive was way down and 1.2G wasn't transmitting. Turning the truck to point for the uWaves was not going to work for us and working outside in the 0 deg wx was not an option, so we bagged it and went back to the W8ZN QTH after operating for a few hours on the bands that we could muster some QSOs.
Amazingly Terry got everything working by Sunday, including replacing a bad uWave rotator, finding and fixing the bad keying line for 2-10GHz bands and fixing the 1.2G transverter. We ended up meeting again around 3:30pm Sunday to do a 4 corner grid at FM08/09/18/19. We managed to capture some pictures from Reddish on Sat. and one of the grids near the four corners on Sun., a commercial uWave site we stopped at. Everything worked fine until the end of the contest. It was great to work those that we could in the short period of time we were on the air. Only about a 50K point effort, but not bad considering all the issues and only about 6-7 hours of operating time.
Lessons learned? Its hard to build a complete 10-band rover in a few, cold, winter nights before a contest and expect it to all work the first time out!
Check out some 360 deg. panoramic pictures here:
Reddish Knob - http://www.k1ra.us/?page_id=16
uWave site - http://www.k1ra.us/?page_id=17
Check out the rest of the W8ZN/R Jan '09 VHF picture album here:
http://www.k1ra.us/wp/v/200901-w8zn-r/
73
Terry W8ZN (ex-K8ISK) and Andy K1RA
Terry W8ZN at home with rover mobile |
Batteries, batteries, batteries! |
50, 144, 222 and 432 MHz amps |
uWave mast mount and rotator |
Reddish Knob, Va. FM08 |
Sun. uWave site setup |
Terry W8ZN Sun. eve uWave op |
Night shot at commercial uWave site |
4 bands including 10GHZ dish |
There is a group of us in Utah, who set the goal to also have our 10GHZ base stations up and running by the contest. None of us wanted to go portable and fight the snow and ice in the Utah mountains to work the contest.
After substantial testing right up to the start of the contest, my 10GHZ station went offline 2 hours into the contest. Ron, K7RJ and Clint, KA7OEI (the "Red Light" guys - MAR09 QST), left their operating positions, to aide my recovery....what a team! We quickly discovered an issue with the switching on a coax relay. Clint did his usual magic and I was back on the air in a few hours.
I was able to operate 6 bands and make some interesting 10GHZ contacts by bouncing signals off the Wasatch mountain range to connect with my fellow Utah Microwave operators.
i will not be entering a log or participate in roving until the arrl fixes the roving rules. How can one man with 8 statations be allowed to dominate a contest and the ARRL see that as fair.
My son Christopher and I participated in this, our first-ever VHF contest. The event was promoted locally by Todd Sprinkmann, KC9BQA and he succeeded in mobilizing quite a few locals to participate. It ended up being a real blast.
Of course, lots of obstacles had to get between us and the contest. Just about an hour before it started, a frozen water pipe burst in our house (thank goodness I was sitting in the shack and heard the snap! and then water gushing down into the basement!) But I got the water shut off, the mess cleaned up, ran to the hardware store, got what I needed to fix the pipe, and we got on the air a mere twenty minutes late. The problem was, the pipe had thwarted my intention to get our 10 element, 2 meter beam on a rotor prior to the start of the contest. We started without it, but it became apparent quickly that rotating that dude was going to be essential.
So in true ham spirit, Christopher and I got out there and did what needed to be done. Then we scampered back into the shack and started making more contacts.
It was extremely great to hear so many local stations on. I really hope that this is a sign of good things to come in our area. The June contest should be even better. We used Christopher's callsign, KC9JTL, throughout the contest, so we'll be entering our score as a multi-operator limited station.
The highlights were:
* We caught a short opening on 6 meters Sunday morning that netted us one distant grid, FN42 in New Hampshire. It really surprised me that we didn't get any other contacts during this opening. K1TR was really strong into Wisconsin and I thought maybe we'd get a flood of signals from out east, but we called and called on 50.125 and didn't hear anybody else. Oh well, we were happy for any opening at all.
* On Sunday night we heard KB9C/R (a club call being operated by Bruce, W9FZ) booming into our place from his home QTH in Hillsboro, WI. We worked him first on 2 meters, then on 440, then on 6 meters. Suddenly it occurred to me that my Yaesu VX-6R HT has 220 MHz capability at 1.5 watts. KB9C/R was so loud that I thought we could probably make it, even with that low power. So I had my son coordinate the freq and then, standing outside in the snow holding the VX-6R sideways (to get the horizontal polarization), worked him on 223.5 for our only 1.25 meter contact. So we got Bruce on four bands and gave him a unique grid on 1.25 meters. That's nice teamwork. Thanks Bruce for your patience!
* I worked seven CW contacts and I got a unique grid on each one; so CW was our key to accumulating grids. The best distance on 2 meters was a 210 mile QSO with WO9S in Chicago. No way we'd have made that one on SSB.
The lowlights were:
* Not being able to be on the air as much as we would have liked throughout the contest. Maybe in June my wife and the girls can go visit someone and Christopher and I can do a marathon session.
* Hearing N9UHF in Illinois constantly throughout the contest, calling him about a hundred times, but never working him. I also heard K8EB nice and strong at one point, tried calling several times with no success, and then heard him fade away as he turned his beams away from me. Ahhh! That would have been a new grid. Would have been.......
* Hearing N0IRS and WB0NQD in EM29 during the last few minutes of the contest, calling and having N0IRS say "I've got Kilo Charlie Nine.....what's the rest?", then QSB blew us away and we didn't finish the contact before the contest ended. Rats! One more grid square lost. Better luck next time. ;o) Our final tally looks to be as follows:
10 QSOs on 6 meters, 3 grids 33 QSOs on 2 meters, 15 grids 1 QSO on 1.25 meters, 1 grid 4 QSOs on 70 cm, 1 grid
So we had 48 contacts spanning 16 grids. I guess that's not too bad for the first time out of the chute.
Standing Waves http://w9hq.blogspot.com
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These rover expeditions have continued to grow as the rules evolved. By January, 2009, we had eight complete 10-band stations available, and all eight were on the road. It has taken many years of work to build these stations.
W6TE/R (with WA6LUT part of the time) and W6YLZ/R were in the unlimited category in which it's both feasible and generally considered acceptable to "grid circle." In the original category, grid circling is not a good strategy (with only a limited number of QSOs allowed with any other rover, the savvy way to use those Qs is for multipliers--not to work anyone more than once in a given grid square). We had four rovers in the original category: AF6O/R, KK6KK/R (with KG6TOA), N6NB/R and W6XD/R. None of us did ANY grid circling in the original category. This time we also had a talented newcomer in the limited rover category: Carrie Tai, now W6TAI. The eighth rover station was used by N6TEB, who bought a new Ford diesel truck shortly before the contest and hadn't yet had time to install his own excellent station in his new truck. Dave met us at the Bissell (Mojave) convergence and worked us on 10 bands there, but he did not travel on from there with us.
In any contest, having talented, dedicated operators is crucial--and the people listed here are all of that and more. Several are well-known radio amateurs who have been contesting as long as I have (over 50 years). Several are also outstanding engineers who have made major technical contributions to these roving expeditions. All of them enjoy getting on the air and working DX. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with these people, both newcomers and veterans.
In this contest, we visited 12 grid squares and were blessed with postcard-perfect weather: high temperatures in the 70s and 80s under clear, blue skies. As usual, activity was lower here than in many other areas of the country; we try to make the most of what we have. All things considered, VHF SS '09 went really well. Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to work us. We look forward to working you again in June.
Carrie (W6TAI) poses with her rover setup in Shell Beach (CM95) the day after the contest. She was first licensed as KI6UZV 12 days before the contest and operated under that call. She received her vanity call four days after the contest. Carrie drove and operated alone but had mentoring from several longtime radio amateurs. None of them had ever seen a newcomer learn more quickly how to operate a contest or aim a microwave dish to find weak signals. Carrie holds a graduate degree in urban planning and works in that field. |
Here are eight 10-band VHF+ stations in one place. At left are the original two rover stations, stored between contests on red "Radio Flyer" wagons (of course). At right there are four "toolbox" stations, each containing transverters (and in some cases, amplifiers) for all bands 902-10368 MHz, all housed in a 20" Craftsman toolbox. They can be mounted on roof platforms with rotors or placed in a truck bed for use. Each has a console with VHF+ transceivers, a rotor control and the remote control unit for the toolbox. The console is typically placed on the passenger seat for one-person operations. At right, a Ford E350 van and F150 truck (whose antennas are barely visible) house two more 10-band stations. Altogether, there are 54 transverters and 24 transceivers in the eight stations, with a number of amplifiers ranging in power from a few watts on 10 GHz to full kilowatts on six and two meters. |
This 2008 Ford van is almost identical to the 1995 Ford van it replaces--except that it has 137,000 fewer miles on it and it's 13 years newer. It was the contest home of KK6KK and KG6TOA (who deserves an award for driving the old van about 10,000 miles during previous contests). At right above is W6XD's Ford Escape, outfitted with a toolbox station for 10 bands. Art had the highest rover score in the country in the 2008 VHF Sweepstakes. |
Just before the contest began, W6YLZ stopped long enough to pose with his rover station. Operating and driving solo in the unlimited category, he posted the highest score in the group and possibly the highest of any rover in the contest. Miguel is no newcomer to VHF+ contests: he has had the #1 score overall in the 10 GHz and Up Contest as well as previous VHF/UHF contests. |
In this in-motion photo, taken by W6TAI from another car, N6NB/R operates on 1296 MHz while driving about 60 mph. Um, maybe more than that... Some have said this is the ugliest homemade camper in California. |
Before the contest, Carrie (W6TAI) hoists an equipment box and antenna system atop a camper. This unit, which includes transverters and amplifiers for four microwave bands as well as antennas for six bands, weighs about 50 pounds, far more than you might suspect from the way she's swinging it around. |
At the Madera convergence, AF6O (left) and W6TE operate in DM06. AF6O was doing his first full weekend as a rover in many years. He has operated numerous contests at home with high power on many bands since he built a custom home in an excellent location at 4,800 feet elevation. W6TE has used this red Dodge truck in several VHF+ contests since he bought it about a year ago. Dave is rapidly building a permanent 10-band installation. He previously operated many contests with an elaborate station atop a building at California State University, Fresno. |
Here's KG6TOA at the Madera convergence. Rob is a longtime sports car rally enthusiast who got an amateur radio license specifically to take part in these "radio rallies," as he calls them. In these "rallies," he has driven a variety of vehicles, mostly ploddingly slow vans and trucks. He loves the route planning and navigation and often arrives at a destination while almost everyone else is lost in the countryside. |
Side view showing the quick and dirty antenna mounts. |
Back seat operating position. Quickly built desk worked well. |
If not for Wayne, N6NB and his team of rovers we would not have had half the contacts we did. Thanks Wayne for all your efforts.
This was also the first trip out for my new truck. A Ford F250 super duty replaced my Ford Excursion. This definitly made the dirt roads more passable. Since I purchased the truck 2 weeks before the contest we barley had time to run DC Power and just got a start on building in car furniture and antenna mounting points.
Glenn, KE6HPZ was my back seat op and handeled the bands when in motion.
We used one of Wayne's 10 band toolbox radios to fill in the bands we didn't have time to do proper antenna mounts for. We ran 100 watts on 6 and 2, 75 on 432, 6 on 10 GHz and 3 on 24GHz although we didnt make any 24 GHz contacts this time out. All the other bands we had about a watt through very short feedline into decent antennas. Pointing was accomplished by turning the truck.
It was kind of fun to go about it with a minimal set up.
Looking forward to June where we just may operate a hill top. It has been several years since a serious hilltop effort has been done in Southern California.
Kudos to all of you who braved harsh weather to make the trip and get on the air.
73, N6TEB Dave
Thanks to all Texas stations who participated in this test. It's one of the best ways to really field test your equipment versus bench testing. It's amazing what really happens in the field!
This was our first Texas rove since 2000. Many of the old operating sites were over grown with foliage and/or housing developments so that was a bit of scouting involved. Our rove route was based on old observations and will have to be reworked for January, 2010. I was able to work many of the RMG members who hopefully will file a log this year!!
EQUIPMENT: 50 - 3456 MHz (sorry we left 5.7 and 10 GHz dual band dish in MN) 8' K1FO yagis for 144, 222 & 432; PAR Moxon for 6 meters with 100 - 200 watts per band 6' loopers for 902 - 3456 with 20 - 40 watts per band Mast traveling height: 11' versus operating height: 23'
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Grids activated: EM00, EL09, EM10, EM01, EM02 (no contacts from EM12 and EM11 on Sunday!) 140 QSOs (50 - 3456) with 35 Mults. The 6 meter moxon really worked well when elevated to 23'. Shorter transmission lines helped the 902 - 3456 signals.
CHALLANGES: Saturday afternoon had relatively good propagation with many contacts. Sunday the dry line passing through absolutely killed propagation! What a major disappointment! Many of the random contacts with rovers faded out either due to propagation or their going QRT. Some of the expected big guns were nowhere to be found. We'll need more organization for next January. Some calling frequency congestion and rag chewing during the contest. This calls for following best practices more closely. Low band power output levels were at about 1/2 rated power due to an intermittent DC voltage level problem. The FT-847 ALC still drifts affecting the power output.
Extra thanks to Bill W3XO/5, Tom K5VH, Bryan N5YC and Steve N5AC/R for running the bands with us from several grids. Ron K5LLL gets the award for most QSOs (24); should have been 2X more.
All considered it was another fun event. Next year I need to find a roving partner (with a fire extinguisher).
See y'all next January.
73, Jim K0MHC/R
Kerrville, TX EM00kb
"ROVING; SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED!"
Low band stack with mast extended |
Looper band "H" frame fixed at 8' |
Mast at operating height (23') |
Mast at traveling height (11') showing microwave equipment box all attached to the mobile "rotating tower". |
Inside of microwave equipment box with 902-3456 transverters, amplifiers, control and R/T relays (it's messy but it works). |
Console and low-band amplifier stack |
Another January contest. Looking back, I'm glad I did it. My rove almost didn't happen. Memories of last year's sub-zero temps and a busy life almost kept me from participating.
You can see one picture with the bank thermometer--that 18 degrees is 23 degrees warmer than last year. That 18 was at the start of the rove. By the time I drove north about 120 miles--to near Wausau--it was about 5 degrees the rest of the day.
I activated grids EN-44/45/55/54 on Saturday and EN-42/52/53/43 on Sunday. Conditions were quite poor on Saturday and activity levels were not that good. Sunday had slightly better conditions and activity levels (within the region) were pretty good in the evening.
This rove used the Badger Contesters club callsign of KB9C/R. That was tough to get used to by me and the familiar stations in the region.
The biggest highlight of this year's effort was including new ham Russell KC9RDC as an operator for two grids on Sunday. I sat him down in front of 7 radios and he got the hang of it. He was very coachable and I'm proud of his willingness to try something new. The highlight during his operating was sweeping with K2DRH on seven bands. Time will tell if VHF contesting interests Russell. As we all know, ham radio is a broad hobby with many facets to draw our interest.
Another highlight was meeting Wendell N9REP/R who roved through the area where I was operating. We met for an eyeball QSO and shack tours at my favorite spot in EN42--the old airport just north of Dodgeville, WI.
Additionally, Sunday night when I arrived in my last grid (EN43) and pointed towards LaCrosse, WI and Minneapolis, MN, I was met by the largest pile-up I've ever seen on 2 meters. It was a real treat to work my way through the 20 or so stations.
Yet another highlight was how well my new antenna rack worked. I've built it from Schedule 80 PVC and each straight section is filled with broom handles. I wondered how it would fare in cold temperatures and the answer is--just fine! (Better gas mileage too!)
At times, in the cold and cq'ing to dead-air, I wondered why I was out there. The highlights made it all worth while.
Within the region, Todd KC9BQA and John W9RPM must be given credit for their promotion efforts before the contest. Many more stations were worked this year--I suspect due to their efforts.
73 till June, Aug, and Sept
Bruce Richardson W9FZ (KB9C/R)
I start most of my January roves with a picture in front of the Hillsboro, WI bank. 23 degrees warmer than last year! |
Beaming Milwaukee from EN-45. |
Russell KC9RDC joined me for EN-42 and EN-52. Operating SSB on VHF/UHF was a new experience for him. He learned quickly. |
Eyeball QSO and Shack Visit with N9REP/R just north of Dodgeville, WI (EN-42) as the snow starts again. |
Home away from home. Not too bad with a heater running ! |
Got the tent up Saturday morning and the antennas up by high noon.I borrowed a propane heater to survive the cold. I know it's down south in Tennessee, but it's cold enough to impair my CW! I'm sure Minnesotans, New Englanders and all of you up there are amused by what I call cold(28 degrees)!
I activated 4 bands: 50, 144, 222, and 432. The antennas used were a homebrew Moxon on 50, a recently acquired old cushcraft long boom yagi on 144, a 5/8 vertical on 222, and a homebrew 14 element yagi on 432. I ran the full 10 watts on all bands. My operating time was sliced and diced by various interruptions by the spouse, the kids, and the unforeseen.
I certainly did not score well but I had a great time getting out and trying. The QRP category is always a challenge, especially from a poor location. Everyone please remember to look for the little stations hiding in the noise!
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