01/24/2005 | N5AC Last VHF contest I roved in, I had 6, 2m, and 432 and I decided that I needed some more bands. At Microwave Update in October, I bought transverters for 220, 902, 1.2 and 10GHz from DEMI (www.downeastmicrowave.com) and I was able to get three of the four running for this contest. My dad, W5TX, designed and built all of our beam antennas out of PVC and aluminum rod. Across the front of the truck, we had 1.2GHz, 902 and 432 and then higher in the back 220 and still higher 2m. I ran vertical on 6m again which wasn't great, but we made a few contacts.

The highlights of the trip ware the contacts we made with KA5BOU from EM23 and 22 back to his home QTH in EM13qc on 902 and 1.2, the contacts we made back on 2m from EM00 all the way to Dallas (175 miles) even though the bands were flat, and all of the contacts I made with K5VH with 902/1.2 since I had done no long-range testing of our setup on either of these bands.

Last contest, I had to get out, hold beams and transmit at the same time. To switch bands, we had to unscrew the coax and switch antennas -- what a hassle and a time waster. For this trip, I custom built a switch box out of a 3-pole 11-position switch. The switch is mounted in a box along with another switch to power all the transverters (see photos). I turned on the transverters a few hours before we got going to stabilize the oscillators by flipping up the green switch. The red switch was intended as a transmit-disable to break the TX lines to the transverters to avoid unintentional transmitting, but it occured to me that with a common IF on the transverters, if I disabled the PTT line to the transverter and talked into the IF, it would transmit into the receive section of the transverters -- so that was a lousy idea (shhh don't tell anyone I ever thought about that!).

The switchbox controlled which transverter (or none) got keyed when the IF radio was keyed and which antennas or transverters got selected and whether the transverter interface box (TIB from DEMI) was on. The box switched coax to the bank of transverters and also sent a negative ALC voltage to the 857 to reduce power output for the transverters. I modified the TIB to have two ports for HF and VHF/UHF since I had transverters on 28MHz (220) and 144MHz (all others). I used two coaxial switches, one to select between the transverters using a 144 IF and one to select which of the 2m, 440 or 2/440 antennas were to be hooked to the barefoot 857 when used on 2m and 440. I used an FT-857 for my IF radio and also barefoot on 6m, 2m and 70cm. I took the switchbox picture before I marked the positions, but they are 6m, 2m, 2/440 vert, 440, 220, 902, 1.2, 2.3, 3.4, 5.7 and 10GHz (room for future expansion!). I left a 2/440 vertical on the truck and occasionally we switched to it when it provided a better signal. A few times we were twenty miles or so from someone or they were vertical and rather than stop and turn the beam, we went to the omni vertical and worked them that way.

We met up with other rovers again this year -- WD0ACD & K5FOG in Jacksonville for dinner Saturday and then ND2X for coffee on Sunday evening in Lampassas. It's always fun to see the other rovers and what contraptions they've built up. We caravanned with ACD & co through a few hundred miles of South Texas.

I would like to thank W5LUA for help diagnosing a problem with my 220 transverter, KA5BOU for all his on-air help checking my radios and for his expert machining skills on my 5.7/10GHz feed (It WILL get used next contest), all of the great guys who chased us around the state-- WQ5S, WW2R, K5QE, KA5BOU and especially K5VH and W3XO who tracked us all around South Texas and worked to get us on every band we had even when conditions were not the best. I had one of my GPSs locked on Tom, K5VH's position for several hours constantly telling me the beam heading to work him.

I'd also like to thank my Dad, W5TX, who designed and built all our antennas, endured all of my hair-brained ideas about how we might get everything mounted on the vehicle and persisted in spite of how crazy my ideas were and who then swapped off logging, driving and operating in the freezing cold for the lengthy trip! Stats: 883 miles, 17 grids, 6 bands, 251 contacts.

And finally, thanks to my wife Lori, who endured me the last few weeks as I drug PVC pipe, PVC adhesive, antennas radios, coax, soldering irons, etc. all through the house!

I hope to see everyone on the bands again soon!

6m -- 857D barefoot @ 100W & ATS-120 -----
2m -- 857D barefoot @ 50W & 4el 2m beam or diamond vert -----
222 -- 857D through DEMI 220 Xvrt @ 25W & 5el beam -----
432 -- 857D barefoot @ 20W & 5el beam -----
902 -- 857D through DEMI 902 Xvrt @ 10W & 7el beam -----
1.2 -- 857D through DEMI 1.2 Xvrt @ 3W & 7em beam -----

Steve -- N5AC