09/01/2006 | KG6IYN After what I thought was a great contest year start in January, I had more than a few unexpected issues passed my way ... Double Whammy for June, having to take care of a family member that was ill and had to assist in some emergency remediation for my work. Both crushed plans to go on a rover expedition or to go to my local mountain top for contesting .... Saturday was completely wiped out for time or ability to do anything for the contest - but as one of my friends said while I was lamenting the scheduling and plans change "You just can't NOT Contest ..."...

As strangely phrased as that statement was, it also had more than a ring of truth and unescapabable logic about it - So, what to do, when you've loaned out a bunch of your usual gear (because I thought I was going on a Rove), and you can't be too far from the Home QTH or from the office if needed by either...

Well, the unique idea was to do more than a few things not attempted in a ARRL VHF Contest - Portable Operation, QRP, limited antennas, Solar and Battery Powered...

So, Sunday Morning, it was up for breakfast and to feed kids, gather up a vertical antenna and an older M2 Squalo for 6 Meters, an M2 HO Loop for 2 Meters, an Arrow 2 Meter / 440 Satellite antenna, some coax, a few switchboxes, a solar panel and a couple of small gel cells, laptop computer for logging and an Icom IC-7000.

Set up was about one quarter mile from the Home QTH at my old High School, up in the bench seats surrounding the football and track field. Important to note is that this location is almost 70' Higher than being at home ...

Set up for two hours of operation in the morning, took about two hours off to play with my family that came up to visit, then about four more hours until clouds prevented getting any charge on the batteries. I had about 130 contacts logged, but made a critical error in judgement on the laptop... I had started logging on the laptop, not expecting to be operating for more than a few hours. When I received the green light to remain for the rest of the day, I knew I wouldn't have enough battery power to keep logging on the laptop. My critical error was that I wasn't using my regular laptop or logging software, I was keeping my contacts logged in Notepad ... self realization set in seconds after I powered down my laptop, and then depression that I had just lost about 60 contacts logged ... I started back up after a break for lunch and play, logging to paper, but the loss of the first data set prevented my sending in any official log for this event. Unofficially, I had almost 25 grid squares on 6 meters, 9 on 2 Meters and 7 on 432 ... best distances with the set up as pictured on 6 meters was Washington State and Canada to the North, Texas and Louisana to the East ...

All in all, a good experience and something I have never tried before. The Icom 7000 isn't as light on power consumption as a few other radios but it wasn't bad either. Dialed down to lowest power on all bands, and with about 40 watts coming in from sunlight, I had no problem keeping the batteries charged.


Lessons learned - (humor is where you find it ...)

Paper may be old school, but it has it's place.

You can work a lot of VHF and UHF from strange urban locations.
The location I selected put me just above all of the obstacles and homes surrounding this entire location (sort of like being at my regular spot up on the mountain).

Your arm WILL get tired from holding the Arrow Satellite Antenna and it's difficult to log on paper or the computer when you're keying the mike and aiming the antenna.


Best Story - Late Sunday afternoon the band opened from Southern California to Colorado on 6 Meters. I had just been chatting with a couple of the other local contest stations, lamenting the loss of the local Rovers and lack of any heard in the region. About 30 minutes later Colorado came rolling in, and I was on .125 working a few stations... out of about three or four stations that responded to my CQ, I was only able to pick out part of one call "VER". I responded, asking only for that station and after about two tries in the QRM, I got a return "This IS KR0VER... Bruce, It's Eric in Colorado !". This turned out to be one of the local Rover Stations that had left San Diego earlier this year and had traditionally provided me with a good number of grid squares I would have not otherwise been able to work or log in the contests. It made for a good laugh, and even funnier, explaining what I was doing instead of the regular contest operation I had been for the past few years ... In the end, and for my best moment of the contest, I was told the they had no goals set for the contest for points, but that they had said their single goal was to work me in San Diego from their Rover in Colorado - and they accomplished that well !

Pictures supplied for their benefit and chuckles in contrast to my normal operation- hi hi

See you all on the bands in September ! 73 -- KG6IYN