09/28/2004 | K8MR/R This was my second VHF rover attempt, and for W1NN it was his first real VHF contest.

We hoped to do 3 stops on Saturday, but that was too optimistic. We arrived at our first stop, at the aptly named "town" of High Hill, OH in EM99, 30 seconds before the contest started. In a way were lucky to get there at all, as we drove past several "road closed - high water" signs on the way. We saw high water along the road and dried mud on the road, but the earlier flooding had receded and we did not have to drive through any water.

The site was a fine one, conditions were great, but we weren't organized in time, especially for 222 and 432. With the good signals from the east coast at the start on 2, we should have been able to work the east coast on the higher bands had we been ready.

We stayed at High Hill for several hours, but since Hal wanted to be back in the Cleveland area for the CW Sprint at 0000z, we didn't have time for our planned stops in EM89 or EN80. After dropping Hal at AC8E for the Sprint I headed west for a quick visit to EN81 and then home.

Sunday morning we headed out to the Butler, PA, Hamfest. We set up at the edge of the flea market, made some qsos and talked to some visitors, but had no qsos with the hamfest visitors. We then headed north through FN01, setting up near Union City, PA, in northwest FN01. From there we headed home, mobile only, through FN02, EN92, and EN91.

Sunday morning I had a couple of the most remarkable qsos of my amateur career: while driving on I-80 a couple miles west of the OH/PA line, I worked K1WHS in FN43 on 2M cw, with just an IC-746 and a PAR Omni Loop. To prove it not a fluke, 10 minutes later from PA but still in EN91, I worked WB1GQR in FN33. These made us almost forget the two mobile qsos with W1QK in FN31 and too many to keep
track of with W2SZ/1.

More work before the next one: to better tune the WA5VJB yagis, to get 1296 working, and to be able to work 222 and 432 while moving. -- K8MR