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2019 ARRL September VHF Contest

09/20/2019 | N6NB/R

It was a fun contest.  Actually, it was more like two different contests. 

I drove to Kettleman City (Calif.) Friday, carrying three extra 11-band rover stations (the senior-friendly kind that ride on a car's passenger seat--not the "toolbox" stations that mount on a roof rack) and met up with K6MI, NI6G and WB6HYD Saturday morning.  We roved through six grid squares in one long day, working each other and W6TV on Bear Mountain near Fresno on 11 bands (10 in the case of W6TV because the excellent 24 GHz station at W6TV was locked up in a cabinet and W6YEP, the W6TV operator, didn't have the right key.  We've worked W6TV on 24 GHz from the same six grid squares several times before, but a snafu made it impossible to do that this time.

That was Saturday.  We finally finished our last grid, DM07, after midnight, then dismantled the three compact stations and loaded all the gear back into my truck beside a country road in the darkness.  We had to do it that way because Erik, NI6G, was leaving Monday for a DXpedition to the Seychelles Islands and needed Sunday to pack.

I pulled away at 12:30 a.m. and then drove the 275 miles back home to Orange County, arriving just before 6 a.m.  It occurred to me more than once that at age 76 I'm getting too old for these all-night drives on California freeways.

After a few hours of sleep, I met N6TEB and W6IT for a Sunday rove through the four L.A. grid squares.  N6TEB took my van, which has a separate 11-band station ready to go.  W6IT took my fourth senior-friendly car-seat station (the one that wasn't used the day before) and signed W6AMT, a club call.  Our rove proceeded quickly and smoothly.  We were finished barely three hours after we started, including driving time.

The contest was great.  But it was also sad when I remembered all of the good people who have roved with us before but are now gone, most recently Ron Hunt, N6MTS.  Seven of our best rovers have passed and several others have "retired," something I will have to consider sooner than I'd like.  Everyone seems to think these all-night drives are tempting fate.

73, Wayne, N6NB
 

-- N6NB


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