06/15/2007 | WA2IID/R Tom (KB2SSS) and I had a very limited participation due to other committments this June. We only operated for a few hours Saturday afternoon and a few hours Sunday morning. Conditions were rather poor, with only one brief opening while we were on. We traveled up the Florida coast from south of Malabar (EL97) to Jacksonville and west into EM80 and EL89. We sure broke our previous record for gasoline expenditure for roving ($683 from starting at home in New York) We went to Florida for other reasons as well so it wasn't just a roving expense.

Unfortunately, sitting in a metal trailer with temperatures in the high 90s isn't a lot of fun! But, it is nice to sit on the beach overlooking the ocean while operating. However the highest "mountain" we could find in Florida was only a bit over 200 feet! Did manage to work quite a few microwave contacts, more than expected. Sure is different than our usual New England run.

This was the "shake down" cruise for our new rover configuration, and it indeed was a shakedown. We broke the microwave mast (1.2G, 2.3G, and 3.4G) while traveling Saturday and had some emergency repairs on the road. No microwaves on Sunday. Oh well, back to the design board on mountings for microwaves. Other than the mast problems all went well and overall we had a great time.
73
Jack
WA2IID/R -- WA2IID