06/30/2008 | K3LFO/R After working on changes to the Rover and some repairs for the last month, it was a real pleasure to get up Saturday morning, have a leisurely breakfast, and just start up the engine and go! Our destination was Crisfield, MD, a 176 mile drive in FM27bx on the Chesapeake Bay. We arrived about 30 minutes before the start of the contest. That gave us time to have a sandwich and check the heading to the beacons for calibration.

We started off and found W1RT/R in FM26 so it was nice to start off with a rare grid! After that we ran all 8 bands up to 3456 with K1RZ with great signals both ways.

The conditions were flat and activity was low so after a couple of hours we left for FM28, and FM29. The activity level remained low and the Band conditions werent any better until finally upon arriving in FM18ux six meters started to open up with both a little to e skip and some tropo into the north east. We finally headed back to W3DIOs QTH for some sleep around 0400z arriving about 2 hours later.

Sunday morning we worked FM19jj which was beginning to sound like a 6 meter contest. The band was opening up to the Mid West and South West. Later on the Florida and Alabama stations started coming in. Activity remained low on the upper bands.

Next we headed out to Sideling Hill, near Hancock, MD FM09ur. Here we started to get more contacts into the North West but it was still slow going.

We finished the contest in FM08us. Hog Back overlook on Skyline Drive. This is always my favorite part of the trip. The activity picked up a little bit and our QSO count especially on 903, 1296, and 2304 took a big leap here.

The highlights of the Rove include a clean sweep of all 8 bands and all 7 grids with K1RZ! Daves station is awesome and easy to work! The new 1 watt 3456 did much better than I expected. Ill have the 50 watt amp running for the next outing. 2304 still continues to amaze me! The new IF band switching system worked effortlessly. It was really nice to have all of the bands above 900 on the same IF rig.

It was not our best effort and I think one of our shortcomings was the limited antenna for 6 meters during an e skip opening. I dont think that the June contest with major 6 meter openings is the best match for a rover.

Well see everyone in September!

73, Jim K3LFO and Dave W3DIO

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