09/16/2007 | K3LFO/R WOW! What a fun contest weekend. This was our first trip out with the new Rover and most of the equipment, systems, and antennas in place. We have been working for over a year to build, shape, install, and test the equipment and systems for a 7 band expandable rover. This outing we had high power on 1296 and have added 2304.

Saturday we started out in fairly rare FM27 where activity was sparse. Things remained the same up into FM28 and FM29. None of the sites we stopped at were very high. I think the entire Del-Mar-Va Peninsula is below 100 feet AGL. Band conditions were flat. The high point was running up the bands with Dave K1RZ and concluding with a casual chat on 2304 where it was obvious that the 45 watts was paying off.

Moving west across the bay we were almost out of FM18 before remembering we needed to make a contact and activate it. With both of us recovering from a bug the week before the contest we retired for the night at Daves house.

Sunday morning we made a really stupid mistake. After breakfast we drove a few miles away to a school in FM19. There were 4 or 5 gallons of gas left so we decided to operate for a while and then get fuel on the way up the road. We set up the mast and got on the air. During the first contact the generator quit, leaving us on battery power and without our upper bands. It seems a safety measure taken when the generator was installed prevents it from sucking the last bit of gas out of the tank. We had to stow everything to go 2 miles away to get gas. But wait a minute, we had wired the winch that raises and lowered the mast to the RS-70 power supply. No generator, no power, no winch, NO Drive with mast up! We were faced with spending an hour or so re-wiring the winch (with what?) to a battery. Dave comes to the rescue. He noticed that while trying to start the generator the volt meter on the power supply was fluctuating up and down. He turned to me and said keep running the starter on the generator. With what little power it was putting out he was able to lower the mast.

After returning to the school for an hour or so of operating we headed out to Sideling hill in FM09. Here the bands seemed to have a little bit of tropo enhancement. Activity was still a bit slow.

Moving down to FM08 we set up at Hogg Back overlook which has a northern to north Eastern view. Activity had increased vastly during the 2 hour drive. Contacts into FN43, FN 42, FN41, and FN 51 were made like they were locals. We completed with W2SZ on all bands including 2304. The longer we were there the more activity built up. At one point Dave had a DX type pile up calling for 20 to 30 minutes on 2 meters. He just banged them out as fast as he could log them. Finally we felt we needed to break loose and run the bands with a few stations rather than just working 2m. It was fast and furious until the magic hour of 0300 hit and all got quiet again.

Thanks to all who worked with us and made it so much fun.

Jim K3LFO/R
Dave W3DIO -- K3LFO