09/15/2004 | KF0M/R The weather was nice in Kansas and Oklahoma for the contest but there were no significant band openings. We ran ten grids in KS. and OK. covering 640 miles with my XYL KB0TZZ doing the driving. Best DX Saturday was working W0EEA DM79 in Colorado from EM16 in OKla on 144, 222, and 432.

Sunday morning we found good propagation to the South from EM05 with our best DX to K5LLL in EM10. K5VH in EM00 was heard very loud several times but I was unable to get his attention. Sunday evening activity was very low with few contacts from the last grid.

Equipment was: FT100D to a hustler mobile mast on 50Mhz. FT100D to TE amp at 300W and a CC214B on 144 Mhz. TenTec 525D to MMT28/222 followed by Mirage amp at 120W to a 6el quagi for 222 Mhz. FT100D to a TE amp at 200W and 11 el quagi for 432 Mhz. All antennas are mounted to the roof rack by a PVC frame for instant operating and no setup at each location.

I used a Garmin GPS feeding MS Streets and Trips for navigation and WG3E's VHFtest 3.03 for logging which seems to be ideally suited for Rover operation.

It was a successful event with a large share of the credit going to KB0TZZ's ability to accurately use her ear to peak signals by turning the truck and find high ground to operate from in each new grid. -- KF0M