2006 ARRL August UHF Contest
08/19/2006 |
KF9US/R
Hi all,
I decided to try roving again, after a hiatus of several years, when I was cleaning out some stuff in my shack and found a bin full of transverters. Since I had limited time, I opted to deploy my antennas on a tripod-based mast, rather than try to build a mount for the car. So, I had to spend 15 minutes at each location setting up, before I could start calling.
No matter. I was only going to work from 4 grids. Fortunately, there is a grid corner only 30 minutes from home, in the wide open farm fields of central Wisconsin. I was encouraged by the number of rovers I had heard would be out for this contest, so I took the plunge.
Well, to make a long story short: It was fun. I was happy to hear plenty of other stations on the air, both fixed and rovers. I had lots of repeat customers as I moved around, plenty of CW practice during the Q's on 903, 1296 and 2304, and the opportunity to use the latest incarnation of my 10 GHz rig for a nice long ragchew with W9FZ/R in the next grid over, among other Q's. Total: 72 QSO's on 6 bands, from 4 grids: 9360 points.
If I do this again, I'll definitely try to put together an antenna system mounted on my SUV, rather than doing the socket wrench shuffle each time I move. It was heartening to hear so many hams on the higher bands; usually pretty dead here in Wausau. Sorry.... no pictures to post, as I was busy trying to keep the wind from blowing my antennas over!
73 es CUL,
Phil -- KF9US
I decided to try roving again, after a hiatus of several years, when I was cleaning out some stuff in my shack and found a bin full of transverters. Since I had limited time, I opted to deploy my antennas on a tripod-based mast, rather than try to build a mount for the car. So, I had to spend 15 minutes at each location setting up, before I could start calling.
No matter. I was only going to work from 4 grids. Fortunately, there is a grid corner only 30 minutes from home, in the wide open farm fields of central Wisconsin. I was encouraged by the number of rovers I had heard would be out for this contest, so I took the plunge.
Well, to make a long story short: It was fun. I was happy to hear plenty of other stations on the air, both fixed and rovers. I had lots of repeat customers as I moved around, plenty of CW practice during the Q's on 903, 1296 and 2304, and the opportunity to use the latest incarnation of my 10 GHz rig for a nice long ragchew with W9FZ/R in the next grid over, among other Q's. Total: 72 QSO's on 6 bands, from 4 grids: 9360 points.
If I do this again, I'll definitely try to put together an antenna system mounted on my SUV, rather than doing the socket wrench shuffle each time I move. It was heartening to hear so many hams on the higher bands; usually pretty dead here in Wausau. Sorry.... no pictures to post, as I was busy trying to keep the wind from blowing my antennas over!
73 es CUL,
Phil -- KF9US
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