2004 ARRL August UHF Contest
09/29/2004 |
KF
RoverMania who thought of that? Well I guess it was the Northern Lights Radio Society (actually believe it was Jon, WQ who coined the term...pse read on)
Sounded like fun a few years ago when it was suggested that we (the Northern Lights Radio Society) pull out all the stops for the ARRL UHF test and attempt to get as many rovers with as many bands as possible from our typical low population contest resource here in the upper Midwest. The threat by the league to pull sponsorship of this event was really a impetus for our local group to make sure that the 2004 event get noticed for the fun and challenging event that many of us have grown to love. August without a UHF test would be unimaginable!
The UHF contest is one of my personal favorites, but I have to admit for the amount of effort I put forth it has been a reality check in prior years. It really takes some committed patient operators to tough it out for this contest. As many bands as person can afford (or borrow) are required and some real contest grit and operating skill to hang in there and get as many qsos in the log as
possible in the 24 hours.
For RoverMania 2004 to be successful it became clear that in order to operate in as many grids as possible with as many bands as possible luxuries such as sleep would have to be avoided! Obviously safety is a concern here and as the day grew closer cautionary messages were sent out to the committed group encouraging all of us to have a roving partner if possible. Only problem is that if the guys with all the gear go out and rove than the fixed stations left with multiband capability really get a work-out trying to work in all the rovers that drop into new grids collectively several times an hour! Good problem to have but tough to deal with! Ideas were exchanged and Rovers were left with deciding what path and grids they would activate for themselves. Most of the grids in our area in a pattern of approx 6 grids vertically to almost 6 wide were to be activated. This huge area included parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, SE North Dakota and eastern South Dakota!
I was one of 14 rovers that operated in this area. My grids ended up pretty much in the middle of the pattern encompassing northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. I chose a total of only 10 grids for the 24 hours to operate from. I could have added a couple more but my opinion it was better to have a realistic outlook with a little margin for error. Several of the grids were new to me and the location I chose to start was just a bit far away to do any scouting prior to the contest. I knew that in order to be successful I would have to operate on the fly and quickly find a reasonable operating location in all new surroundings.
Another challenge for this years event was to turn my stock Dodge Ram into a competitive portable contest station! I have only had the truck for a few months and did not have the time prior to UHF contest week to install any gear. All equipment including the FT-736R, 290RII, 4 brick amplifiers, 4 transverters, 6 antennas, 2 keyers, and 2 rotators was installed the night before the test. In addition I installed a 90A battery isolator and cabling (#4AWG) to my 2 deep cycle batteries located in the box of my pickup. I used my notebook computer for logging as most of the qsos would happen while parked.
Iowa just seems to be a great place to rove in the terrain doesnt seem to have the appearance like that of a mountainous area, but the generally flat topography does lend itself to some reasonable propagation on the higher vhf and uhf bands. The people I have met in Iowa always seem friendly and I never get too concerned about having to explain what I am doing turning my vehicle around in circles on a desolate dirt road at night! As it turned out for 2004 I had to do just that as no less than 2 Sheriffs squad cars stopped by for a brief visit! (The official looking magnetic ARRL Amateur Radio signs on both front doors of the Dodge Ram really helped!) None of the law enforcement gave me any trouble they were simply doing their job checking out a call from a citizen.
Some of the highlights for me this year was driving the 270 miles from my home to visit with Mike, KM and Andy, KM who also stopped bye, on Saturday morning before the test. Andy had just finished his rover station too, and all of us were looking forward to the event. Many times I operate a contest from a remote location or rove the entire weekend without meeting anyone. I was great to meet some fellow contesters, and Mike served up a great pre-contest breakfast! Tnx Mike!
Every grid has a story it seems and the 2004 contest was no exception. After a quick equipment check I headed for the first grid about 15 miles away. I arrived just a bit late but made up some time to be on my original schedule for most of the contest. I was a able to work Mike, KM from the first few grids no problem. As I headed east I worked many other stations including some of the other rovers out there NJZ/R, WQ/R, KBHN/R, KY/R, and WMT/R.
I continued to head towards eastern Iowa pulling over many times to get more stations in the log. I spent quite a while working Bob, K2DRH from several grids and Saturday night. Bob had an awesome signal on 2304! By 3:00AM I was in West Union, IA where EN42 and 32 meet. I was incredibly tired and took a brief nap before heading out to EN42 at 5:00AM. My 90A battery isolator failed shortly after 5:30AM. I never turned off the engine and bypassed the ALT terminal to get my trucks starting battery charging again! (Never turned the engine off until 2:30PM later that day).
As I headed north toward Minnesota conditions seemed to improve. My last four grids were in Minnesota not too far from home. During the last few hours of the contest I ran into Tim, KG/R and Pat K9ILT/R several times on the bands. Even though I was completely exhausted the adrenalin must have been enough to keep me going to the end. In spite of the nice weather and contest activity I really started to feel ill with an incredible headache! I pressed to the end 10 grids activated and 713 miles! Final highlight was meeting Tim and Pat for a photo op after the contest. My effort this year was an all time high score for my station with 208 qsos! RoverMania worked! The Northern Lights bunch is a dedicated group of operators with an incredible amount of weak signal experience and contesting finesse.
Please keep the ARRL UHF Contest alive!
73,
Matt -- KF
Sounded like fun a few years ago when it was suggested that we (the Northern Lights Radio Society) pull out all the stops for the ARRL UHF test and attempt to get as many rovers with as many bands as possible from our typical low population contest resource here in the upper Midwest. The threat by the league to pull sponsorship of this event was really a impetus for our local group to make sure that the 2004 event get noticed for the fun and challenging event that many of us have grown to love. August without a UHF test would be unimaginable!
The UHF contest is one of my personal favorites, but I have to admit for the amount of effort I put forth it has been a reality check in prior years. It really takes some committed patient operators to tough it out for this contest. As many bands as person can afford (or borrow) are required and some real contest grit and operating skill to hang in there and get as many qsos in the log as
possible in the 24 hours.
For RoverMania 2004 to be successful it became clear that in order to operate in as many grids as possible with as many bands as possible luxuries such as sleep would have to be avoided! Obviously safety is a concern here and as the day grew closer cautionary messages were sent out to the committed group encouraging all of us to have a roving partner if possible. Only problem is that if the guys with all the gear go out and rove than the fixed stations left with multiband capability really get a work-out trying to work in all the rovers that drop into new grids collectively several times an hour! Good problem to have but tough to deal with! Ideas were exchanged and Rovers were left with deciding what path and grids they would activate for themselves. Most of the grids in our area in a pattern of approx 6 grids vertically to almost 6 wide were to be activated. This huge area included parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, SE North Dakota and eastern South Dakota!
I was one of 14 rovers that operated in this area. My grids ended up pretty much in the middle of the pattern encompassing northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. I chose a total of only 10 grids for the 24 hours to operate from. I could have added a couple more but my opinion it was better to have a realistic outlook with a little margin for error. Several of the grids were new to me and the location I chose to start was just a bit far away to do any scouting prior to the contest. I knew that in order to be successful I would have to operate on the fly and quickly find a reasonable operating location in all new surroundings.
Another challenge for this years event was to turn my stock Dodge Ram into a competitive portable contest station! I have only had the truck for a few months and did not have the time prior to UHF contest week to install any gear. All equipment including the FT-736R, 290RII, 4 brick amplifiers, 4 transverters, 6 antennas, 2 keyers, and 2 rotators was installed the night before the test. In addition I installed a 90A battery isolator and cabling (#4AWG) to my 2 deep cycle batteries located in the box of my pickup. I used my notebook computer for logging as most of the qsos would happen while parked.
Iowa just seems to be a great place to rove in the terrain doesnt seem to have the appearance like that of a mountainous area, but the generally flat topography does lend itself to some reasonable propagation on the higher vhf and uhf bands. The people I have met in Iowa always seem friendly and I never get too concerned about having to explain what I am doing turning my vehicle around in circles on a desolate dirt road at night! As it turned out for 2004 I had to do just that as no less than 2 Sheriffs squad cars stopped by for a brief visit! (The official looking magnetic ARRL Amateur Radio signs on both front doors of the Dodge Ram really helped!) None of the law enforcement gave me any trouble they were simply doing their job checking out a call from a citizen.
Some of the highlights for me this year was driving the 270 miles from my home to visit with Mike, KM and Andy, KM who also stopped bye, on Saturday morning before the test. Andy had just finished his rover station too, and all of us were looking forward to the event. Many times I operate a contest from a remote location or rove the entire weekend without meeting anyone. I was great to meet some fellow contesters, and Mike served up a great pre-contest breakfast! Tnx Mike!
Every grid has a story it seems and the 2004 contest was no exception. After a quick equipment check I headed for the first grid about 15 miles away. I arrived just a bit late but made up some time to be on my original schedule for most of the contest. I was a able to work Mike, KM from the first few grids no problem. As I headed east I worked many other stations including some of the other rovers out there NJZ/R, WQ/R, KBHN/R, KY/R, and WMT/R.
I continued to head towards eastern Iowa pulling over many times to get more stations in the log. I spent quite a while working Bob, K2DRH from several grids and Saturday night. Bob had an awesome signal on 2304! By 3:00AM I was in West Union, IA where EN42 and 32 meet. I was incredibly tired and took a brief nap before heading out to EN42 at 5:00AM. My 90A battery isolator failed shortly after 5:30AM. I never turned off the engine and bypassed the ALT terminal to get my trucks starting battery charging again! (Never turned the engine off until 2:30PM later that day).
As I headed north toward Minnesota conditions seemed to improve. My last four grids were in Minnesota not too far from home. During the last few hours of the contest I ran into Tim, KG/R and Pat K9ILT/R several times on the bands. Even though I was completely exhausted the adrenalin must have been enough to keep me going to the end. In spite of the nice weather and contest activity I really started to feel ill with an incredible headache! I pressed to the end 10 grids activated and 713 miles! Final highlight was meeting Tim and Pat for a photo op after the contest. My effort this year was an all time high score for my station with 208 qsos! RoverMania worked! The Northern Lights bunch is a dedicated group of operators with an incredible amount of weak signal experience and contesting finesse.
Please keep the ARRL UHF Contest alive!
73,
Matt -- KF
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