06/25/2004 | W3BBO My first Rove attempt. Wow, that was work! I quit early Saturday evening, about 8 PM. Bands were still open, but just tired from being in the sun all day. I found a nice place to operate from in EN91, unfortunately couldn't put up the antennas, so had to use the mobile antenna on the car. Not as good, as using my homebuilt 4 element 2 meter and 8 element 432 MHz yagi's.

Attached is a picture of the mobile when I was operating in EN92, located in Pleasant Ridge Park, not far from W3TX Scott's farm. It seemed like a much better location than the farm, so I setup there. The antennas in the picture look screwed up, but really looked and worked much better than that.

I would have mounted a 6 meter dipole at the very top of the mast, but just not enough hands, so I used the vertical on the car for 6 meters. While assembling the 2 & 432 beams, I managed to drop the pole. Bent some of the reflectors, but not much damage. Tom, KA3FZN came out around 5 PM and helped me tear down. Then I came here to FN02 to finish out my day. I was really tired, and still am this morning! Hi.

Made the following contacts:

EN91 = 4 contacts
EN92 = 22 contacts
FN02 = 19 contacts

6 Meters opened up late in the day and worked some Texas stations. My best DX on 2 and 432 was West Virginia.

I had to babysit Sunday afternoon, so the VHF contest was over for me. My portable setup is fine for a Field Day operation where you'll be in the same spot for the day, or a weekend. However for Roving, I'm now a believer in good antennas mounted on the car, so you can operate while in motion, or temporary stopped on the side of the road. Stopping to setup antennas is a real pain. Hi.

73 de Bob W3BBO -- W3BBO