09/07/2008 | W0ZQ/R Last years UHF contest was wet and cold, I lost my keyer to water shorting it out, and I ran with the car heater turned on for most of the time. And oh ya, propagation, well, it was a challenge. What a difference a year makes ! This year, although the weather was warm, it never got as hot as the weatherman had threatened and oh my goodness, the tropo !

On Saturday afternoon I started the contest at the St. Charles, MN, grid corner of EN33/34/43/44. Although I had to battle the corn, eight feet tall and fields & fields of it, I still had a good time. Thanks to K2DRH (EN41), KM0T (EN13), KB9TLV (EN45), N0KP (EN34) and the Wisconsin guys for all the Q's from there.

After EN44 I ducked down to EN33, just south of I-90, that has some really nice vistas. Highlights from EN33 include working K0AWU (EN37) on his five bands of 222 thru 1296, and 10GHz, all on SSB, at a distance of about 380 km, nice ! I brought my 902 bandpass filter along this time and I feel that I was hearing much better on that band this time with no desensing problems. In addition to the stations listed above K0MHC (EN26) found me as did NG0R (EN25).

Next it was a short drive over to EN43. As I was setting up I heard N0UK/R and K0HAC/R in EN33 near Beauford, MN and we were able to work on 222, 432, 1296 and 10GHz across the long part of the grid, corner to corner, at about 165 km. Right around dusk I decided to move toward home and a warm bed.

On the way home I stopped in EN34oi, just south of Cannon Falls, MN, and the tropo was coming up. K2DRH was easy SSB up through 3456, BIG S9+ signals from N9TTX/R and W9FZ/R both in EN32 to my south at about 180km, N0PB in EM39 at about 500km, and K9CVC in EN44 was good up through 2304. Things were really smoking about this time and the bands were in excellent shape ! On the drive home I was able to work NT0V, EN08, at over 600km, on 222 CW while I was mobile. By midnight I was home and in bed, happy in that fact, but sort of wondering what I was missing on the bands !

The alarm went off at 5:15am, and after a quick shower it was off to EN35ad, just west of the Twin Cities to near Buffalo, MN. First in the log, at 6:46 am was N0KP. Matt, KA0PQW in EN33 called me too .... good morning Matt ! In the middle of a pile up working KC9BQA, KB9TLV, K9CVC, and NG0R, I worked Bob, K2YAZ in EN74 at about 480km on 222 but was disappointed that I wasn't able to move him up the bands - we have made that path before up through 902, but I was just too busy at the time and we ended up missing each other ... the life of a rover is often difficult.

After EN35, it was down the road to EN25 and a nice cell tower site just south of Howard Lake, MN. Waiting for me was N0KP (EN34), NG0R (EN25), KB9TLV (EN45), W0GHZ (EN34), K0MHC (EN26), KM0T (EN13) and K0AWU (EN37). K0AWU and I were able to do a clean sweep, 222, 432, 902, 1296 and 10G, from this spot for the first time albeit we had to work for it on those high bands.

After EN25, it was south into EN24. My usual spot that I like to work from in EN24 was full of eight foot corn, so what to do? On the drive down I had passed a work site where they were putting a new pipeline through a soybean field, and it was dry and sort of high, so I went back and operated from there. Two foot high soybeans are preferred over eight foot tall corn !

My contest plans had me back into the Twin Cities area at the very end of the contest to a site that we call the Scott County Towers. From that spot you can work the greater Twin Cities area on the microwave bands by bouncing signals off of downtown Minneapolis. I was happy to find that N0UK/R, K0HAC/R, KC0P/R, WB0LJC/R, W0GHZ, and KC0IYT/R had already worked each other on 10 GHz off of downtown and were waiting for me to show up ! Those last multipliers from KC0IYT/R in EN35 really helped my score. Thanks guys.

So another Rovermania is behind us. Each year is unique. For me, this years results represents a personal best and I am very satisfied with just that. I was almost always busy and the tropo was just a hoot ... hearing/working S9+ SSB signals on UHF/uW bands from hundreds of kM away is awesome. I never left a grid if I new someone was still looking for me and the rotator (car) got a good work out. For the entire contest the closest rover to me was family rover KC0P/R & N0HZO/R who where down near the St. Charles grid corner on Saturday afternoon doing their thing just like I was doing my thing ... I never visually saw another rover this year. No planned circling, no group roving, everyone was just out having fun on the high bands, and what fun we did have.

Win, lose, or draw, look for W0ZQ/R next year. If you have not tried UHF/uW roving, give it a try. It is much easier that 6m/2m roving and its lots of fun. -- W0ZQ