09/10/2007 | W1AUV/R Another great contest. It took all last year to plan and a lot of extra time this summer to build gear and make changes. It was all worth it.

I started the contest in FN42 on Pack Monadnock near Peterborough, NH. I was told on Friday before the contest by the person at the gate in Miller State Park to get there by 8 AM to ensure a spot on top (there was supposed to be a wedding around 10 AM). So I arrived at 8:20 or so and was the second car on top of the mountain. I spent the next five and a half hours reading and checking connections. It was pretty boring. After the first hour of the contest a big nasty thunderstorm came through followed by what seemed like another and another. By 4 PM local I was able to operate without getting rained on or struck by lightning. At his urging I made a great 10 GHz contact with K1TEO (thanks Jeff) using rain scatter. I love rain scatter! I also bounced over the trees to the north to work AF1T (thanks Dale) using the yagis on the car as a scattering point.

I stayed on Pack until after dark and headed home to charge batteries and sleep.

Sunday morning I picked up my copilot Alan and we went to Mohawk Mountain in CT (FN31it) arriving around 7:45. We stayed until 3:30 PM. The weather back home (MA) was rain but in CT it was OK and we even had some sunshine as the day went on. I made a lot of contacts there running through all of the bands I have.

There are a lot of trees on Mohawk Mountain and you only have clear shots to the North and South from the parking area on top. I have learned though that the two towers on top can be used to great advantage bouncing 10 GHz signals off of. We worked K2KIB (thanks) off the big tower. We'll do anything for microwave contacts!

We left Mohawk and went to the Town of Washington, MA. We made a lot of nice contacts there but had to shut down for 20 minutes for a really really big but fast moving thunderstorm. We had a few strikes not very far from the van. We continued and made a few neat contacts including WA2IID on 1296 off the back of the beam...thanks Jack and Tom!

I almost doubled my score from September 2005 which I consider a real accomplishment for me. Maybe next year I'll add 902/3 and start to fill in the remaining 3 holes in my bands. I'd also like 2 more AGM batteries and a telescoping mast that goes up to 100 feet! I'll settle for 18 feet.

Thanks to all who worked me and Alan for riding along and encouraging me. If you're reading this and haven't ever gone out as a Rover, pack your gear and go. It's a great time! -- W1AUV