02/09/2008 | KK6MC/R For the January contest I decided to head south. Winter in northern NM is unpredictable; it can be cold as Canada or warm as Florida. The south is mild and more predictable.

After a rocky start, we settled down and had a good contest. At least for January out here in the southwest. I activated 6 grids, made 31 contacts in 6 grids on 3 bands. This is my third rove and I am trying to improve the station each time I rove. For this contest I added 432 MHz, which only yielded 4 contacts, but increased my score by 50%. Gotta love those extra 432 QSO points.

I started from DM83, but it took longer to get there than I thought so we were 2 hours late. I originally planned to operate from San Juan Mesa, but I could not find an open road to the top. So I ended up operating several hundred feet below where I had intended. I had hoped to work several stations in Albuquerque who needed DM83 from this location, but I could not raise them from my lower location. This is still a goal not reached.

I then activated DM73. I had hoped to move on to DM82 and DM72, but darkness closed in before I could get there. We drove to Alamagordo and stayed the night. It was late and I was feeling tired, so I didn't even stop to think that I had a high clearance vehicle and bent the mast 30 degrees a foot from the top when I pulled into the Motel overhang. Fortunately there was no antenna damage. In the morning I dismantled the mast and managed to bend it back somewhat straight by wedging it between the open back stairs at the motel. We put everything back together and were on the road. I activated DM61 a couple of hours late and was greeted by a crowd, well a crows for a January VHF contest in NM anyway, who had been waiting for me and demanded to know where I had been. It is nice to be wanted.

After an hour there, I moved a few miles south to DM61 near Tres Hermanas. These grids are only a few miles north of the NM/Mexico border and the INS aerostat that is used to monitor the border was only a few miles to the west of these locations. After an hour and several good contacts. We moved to DM51. I had hoped to operate near the DM51/DM61 boundary, but all the good high spots were taken by INS agents. This is less than a mile from Mexico in places. They seemed to be spaced about 3 to 4 miles apart, the line of sight horizon for a man. So I moved to a spot near the continental divide for DM51 and a half mile north of that for DM52. We had a steady stream of INS agents pass us and one parked a quarter mile away, but none stopped. There must be more INS agents in this county than residents.

From there we headed home.

Between the June and September contest I set a goal to operate from all 22 NM grids. With this trip I put 6 more in the bag and only have 6 left. My wife, Virginia drove and it would have been much harder without her.

The rig here is simple. An Icom IC551D to a 2 element Yagi on 6, a Kenwood TS9130 to a 6 element WA5VJB Cheap Yagi on 2, and a Yaesu FT780R to a 11 Element WA5VJB Yagi on 432. With the mast extended, the 6 meter beam is at 13 feet, the 432 MHz Yagi a foot below that, and the 2 meter Yagi a foot below that. Logging is on paper and I use a straight key for CW.

See you all in June. I hope we have some Sporadic E. - KK6MC/r -- KK6MC