09/17/2008 | KK6MC/R We had a good rove; great when you consider we had no enhanced propagation.

Highlights include:

1, I have now roved from every grid in NM, all 22 of them. A QSO in DM82 was the last one I needed. I set this goal a year ago when I first started roving.

2. Operating 222 MHz from the rover for the first time. I now have four bands, and the additional multipliers paid off.

3. Operating in motion as well as good stationary spots really increased the score, even with the shorter antennas required while in motion. An advantage of operating in motion is you not only increase your time on the air, you also effectively transfer dead time from the stationary site to the in motion time.

4. Operating from 10 grids, a new high for me.

5. A better score than I made in last years contest, despite last years sporadic E opening. My score increase is due to the addition of two bands, better trip planning, and more power on 2M.

I now have four bands in the rover and they really paid off. I moved several stations through the bands in different grids, picking up QSO points and multipliers as we went. There were a couple of confusing times with stations calling on four radios, deciding which microphone went with which station calling, and picking wrong half the time. I also had to work at it to keep track of who I had worked on which band. Computer logging is called for, but I am not sure how to handle the additional power load.

Only a half hour behind schedule, we pulled out of the driveway in DM65 at 1830Z and traveled east on I-40, immediately working several DM65 and DM64 stations. We exited at Moriarty and made a short stop in DM64, on a few miles to DM74with a similar short stop, then back to I-40 and DM75. It is nice having four grids so close to home. Traveling east on I-40, we worked stations on all four bands. Exiting at Clines Corner, we stopped to pick up stations I missed on I-40, and made a long haul contact on 6M CW to DM67.

We entered DM74 and only made a couple of QSOs as we were fairly far removed from any active stations. We reached DM73 and found a nice rest stop/weigh station to operate from. Proceeding south to Roswell past the infamous Project Mogul crash site, we turned east to DM83. It was getting dark and raining, so we did not stop, but I managed a few QSOs there anyway.

We entered DM82, the holy grail of the trip, and managed to find a high driveway at the edge of Mescalero Ridge/Caprock above Maljamar. I managed to make a QSO here, completing my goal to operate from every grid square in NM. Storm clouds were closing in and it was dark, so we moved on to DM72 and spent the night in Artesia.

We crossed DM72 in the morning, making a couple of QSOs, but mostly listening to Boltzmann. We broke the monotony and stopped to buy Jonathan apples near Mayhill. Things picked up at Cloudcroft where we had good radio paths to the VHF active areas of Las Cruces, El Paso, and Silver City; but the QRN was pretty bad in Cloudcroft. Progressing down the mountain to Alamogordo, we stopped in the parking lot of the Space Museum above the Tularosa Basin and worked many stations on all the bands. It was here that I got a bit confused as to who was calling me on which band. The 6M, 2M, and 70cm radios all had my call blasting out of them. Everybody understood my inexperience with activity on several bands and I got it all sorted out. Stopping for coffee, the 432 MHz antenna got tangled with a tree, but there was no permanent damage. We proceeded out of Alamogordo to DM62 stopping at the San Augustin Pass above Las Cruces. There was good activity here on all bands.

Stopping for gas north of Las Cruces, the 432 antenna had an encounter with the canopy. Straightening that out, we proceeded north on I-25. I picked up a few stragglers that we had missed from the pass. Soon we entered DM63 and I noticed that the battery was low; so low that the booster had shut off. Either the charger had failed or it could not keep up with the demand of four radio/linears. Power dropped as did the quality of the signals. Still, I stopped near Truth or Consequences and worked north to Albuquerque. Back on I-25, I started aggressively conserving power. We proceeded north to DM64, stopping in Socorro for supper. Then north again on I-25 where I picked up a few stations that I had missed Saturday. Entering DM65 near Albuquerque I again worked a few stations that I had missed the day before. By now the battery was so low that the signal on 6M SSB was unintelligible and the CW note was bad enough that stations had trouble stifling their laughter when they told me about it. We pulled in the driveway about 0200Z and worked a station that had not been on the day before.

I had the rover disassembled in an hour, did a quick review of the log, and went to bed.

Antennas are a homemade 6M square halo, home made WA5VJB 3 element beams for 2M and 222 MHz, and a homemade symmetrical double rectangular (SDR) loop for 432 MHz. The square halo is about 11 feet above the ground, the SDR is above that, the 222 MHz beam 18 inches below the 6M halo and the 2M beam 18 inches below that.

Equipment is an IC-551D at 75 Watts for 6M, an old TR-9130 connected to a TE Systems amp at 125 Watts for 2M, an XV-222 transverter driven by an HTX-100 transverter to 20 Watts on 222 MHz, and a FT-780R to a Mirage linear at 50 Watts for 432 MHz. -- KK6MC