08/30/2006 | KF The Northern Lights Radio Society has a couple of pretty active cheer leaders for the August Contest most notably WQ. Since 2004 the folks around here have affectionately renamed the August Contest RoverMania, due to the number of active rovers. After a one year hideous, I did not have time to organize a rove, but was able to operate from my portable location in EN44 10 miles from my home.

The folks at the Winona Sportsmans Club are always great allowing me to setup a station for a day or two depending on the contest without giving me any trouble. This year was my first UHF test with 5.7 so I was really looking forward to having 8 working bands. Setting up a portable station however; can be hard work... as it took two and a half hours to get all 3 earth anchors for the mast in the ground (like concrete here in southeastern Minnesota..) due to the lack rain this summer.

With the difficult setup I started the contest a couple hours late, and got a visit from Murphy to boot. Much to my surprise my reliable 706 would continually blow a 4A control fuse as I attempted to key the 4452G brick amplifier. The 706 is my only 432 rig so I was at a huge disadvantage without it. Any way knew the rest of my gear was working and pleased to several qsos with W9FZ/R and WQ/R right away with all my working bands. I grew tired of missing qs on 432 after the first couple of hours, and luckily was able to contact KBHN, who had a replacement radio waiting for me just 15 minutes away (tnx Jim!) The TM455 from Jim worked great and I was back in business. (Hated to take the time off to get the rig but actually was the best choice in the long run.)

So the rovers .... first let me say that all the rovers I worked this year were truly class acts... much patience .. on schedule and seemed to be just as thrilled as I was working to get the contact in the log Hats off to all the rovers! Most of the highlights with the rovers were those contacts on 5.7 and 10G. Working Jon, WQ/R while in EN25 with the dish pointed a couple inches below the tops of the corn about 100 ft from my operating tent. Was really great working Phil, KF9US/R one grid away from and on the heels of a 10G qso with Bruce, W9FZ/R fun, fun, fun! Have to say that I really broke a sweat a few times sprinting out to the field and back where the dish was for liaison trips on the high bands. (Those 10GHz QSOs can be contagious ... cant wait till next year ).

Not much DX this year for me but it was great to hear K9KL after so long and K2YAZ after over a year. Fun drill with K2DRH running the high bands backwards ...3.4, 2.3, 1.2, and finally 902 was actually easy. I was disappointed to miss qsos with some of the regulars such as KM and WHZ due to time constraints and chasing rovers (sorry guys ).

Had pretty well expected a storm to strike on contest night (which it did..) so I pulled the switch just before midnight; battened down the hatches by pulling the rigs and computer and placing them in the car, covering the rest of the gear inside the tent with a tarp, and placing a tarp over the generator. (Was a great idea ... got up to the site in the early AM to find all the antennas fine; the tarp inside the tent blown off, but the equipment was still dry!)

Final thoughts ....
Setting up a portable station for a 24 hour contest can be a great deal of work; however I would recommend that everyone give it a try. Dont be afraid to ask around and get in contact with owners of ridge land. I have never been turned down the permission to operate if I ask. Since the UHF Contest somewhat lends itself to portable operating should the League take a look at adding a category for it in the contest?? The UHF Contest is clearly here to stay spread the word on the fun!


73,
Matt -- KF