01/25/2003 | K2QO/R The conditions seemed very flat throughout the contest as my rover parter Paul, W2TAU and I roved through EN92, FN01/02/03/12/13. We put together a minimalist affair with a "stop and shoot" instead of "run and gun" approach.

The highlights were watching my rover partner work N2UIO on laser and working MANY stations with my my new, and not quite finished, W1GHZ 222 transverter that was putting out a whopping 0.5W! The antenna stack was all homebrew highlighting the WA5VJB Cheap Beams and a HB 3-el 6M Yagi.

Mistakes and score inhibiting problems? Yeah, there were many!
First, I should have taken the 2' dish from K2DH when I borrowed the 10 GHz transverter. The horn worked OK, but the dish would have been super FB. Next, we couldn't always park on the level and this killed many a 10GHz contact. It would have been better to put the 10G horn on a tripod instead of up on the mast. Another problem was not being able to figure out how to get synchronous SSB/CW out of the IC706MkIIG. Next, we need to figure out a quicker way of putting the ends of the 6M beam on when the temp is 15F and the wind is 20MPH. Finally, I need to be better aquainted with the logging program. I went to make an edit on the 2nd q and got the program stuck in manual time insertion so all the contacts in our first grid got logged with the same time. I hope we don't get DQ'ed for this!

All in all, not a bad effort for the K2QO/Rover team. Next contest will surely see the addition of 1296 as lots of guys in WNY have this band.

73-Mark -- K2QO