06/29/2009 | K4GUN/R This was not our best contest as far as score, but that's mostly due to limits on operating time. I had to work on Saturday and Sunday had some other family obligations. There were also a number of operating problems that included an IF radio that would not key my 222 transverter and a 432 amp that is dead. Add to that the very limited 6 meter openings where I was and I didn't even match my score from January.

Still though... there were a lot of good things as well. Six meters wasn't totally dead for us. Saturday evening found us listening to a lot of TX and FL stations. They would fade in long enough for us to hear them working another station, but once they finished and called QRZ, they seemed to fade right out. It was frustrating. Sunday however, we found the VP9in FM72 Bahamas coming in clear as crystal. He was working quite a pile-up and it wasn't until I gave up sending my call and just said "Rover! Rover! Rover!" that I got recognized.

Another highlight was working KO4YC in the last 5 minutes of the contest. Two days before the contest, he answered my call on 6 meters while setting up my station. He told me he likely wouldn't be in the contest, but I was glad to get him. He was the only FM17 I found the entire time and finishing with 4 mults was nice.

A real treat was hearing what I thought was two other rovers working each other on 6 meters. They were about to QSY to 2 meters when I threw out my call. It turns out it was actually 3 other rovers, all of them in different grids, seperated by more than 50 miles each. We moved all 4 of us to all other bands. Moving 4 rovers like that when there wasn't any pre-determined coordination was pretty neat.

Finally, this was my first contest with my wife. K4LIG has been with me for the last several contests as my girlfriend and then fiance', but this was the first one as my XYL. If you haven't been fortunate enough to have yours along on a roving adventure, you're really missing out. It made a so-so rove into another great memory. -- K4GUN