01/28/2008 | K4GUN/R So this was it. This was my first serious attempt at contesting and I had a blast. After months of planning, plotting, modifying, scouting, upgrading and annoying everybody I came into contact with, the event went off largely as planned. I made a giant horseshoe loop starting in the North West corner of Virginia, down to Charlottesville, across to Virginia Beach, up the Eastern Shore of Maryland and across to the metro DC area and Northern Virginia. I activated 11 grids, making 140 contacts along the way. I put exactly 600 miles on the truck and filled up twice.

Saturday did not start as planned. I had wanted to start on Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park (FM08). Due to snow and ice, the entire park was closed. Fortunately, I had scouted an area near here, just in case this happened. I couldnt get quite the elevation and the view was blocked to the West, but I managed a lot of early QSOs and multipliers from this spot. To compensate for the loss of the potential grids, I started just a bit further North in a corner of FM09 before moving to high ground.

One surprising set of QSOs was on 222 MHz. I really only had 3 functioning bands (50, 144 and 432) but figured Id bring my tri-band HT which has 222 but only in FM and with only 1.5 watts. I built one of the most ridiculous looking yagi antennas youve ever seen but it worked. I managed to find 6 stations that could get to 223.500 FM and could hear me. That added 3 extra multipliers. Obviously, thats not the best way to get on 222, but for very little effort, it did pay off.

The lower part of my journey wasnt nearly so productive. Even though I was in some fairly rare grids (FM26 and FM27) and I had publicized my route to every contester on the East coast, I made very few contacts. I think that is a combination of too much compromise on the antennas, poor conditions and bad luck of not being at the right frequency at the right time. I had several friends say they aimed beams my way while I was there and heard nothing.

Not to be discouraged, I marched North to a rest area about 1 mile inside FM29. I got clobbered! Activity was high and I was switching bands constantly to make multiple Qs with different stations. It was a frantic final two hours.

There were lots of lessons learned that will be implemented in future treks. There were also a lot of people who really came through for me. First of all was my logger and co-pilot Richard K3UI who did a great job of keeping up with everything. Next, there is KN4SM in Suffolk VA who not only walked me through a lot of grids, but also helped me a month earlier during my practice run to VA Beach. I want to thank the ARRL for coming up with the new Limited Rover class that seems custom fit to my tastes. Finally, there are a lot of local guys who gave help and advice. There are too many to name and I wouldnt want to forget any so Ill just leave it at that.

Im hooked. I have found my niche in this hobby. Ill be a regular in Limited Rover in the future. Look for me to have better antennas, improved operating skills and even better plans. -- K4GUN