08/03/2009 | N0EDV/R AI9Z and I (N0EDV) operated the August UHF contest as a rover station, using the callsign N0EDV. This was our first participation in what the Northern Lights Radio Society folks call Rovermania (#6). We drove just over 500 miles during the contest! We brought equipment for 222, 432, 902 and 10 GHz but due to self-imposed time constraints, we never set up and operated on 10 GHz. We operated from 6 grids (EN44, EN45, EN46, EN54, EN55 and EN56) during the contest, but we didn't make any contacts from two of them (EN54, EN56). That isn't as good as many stations, but I can just about guarantee we had the most fun of any station!

Improvements for next year are already in the planning stages...we need to have horizontal omnidirectional antennas along with the Yagis. Most of our QSOs were made while we were in motion and adjusting Yagis to stay on target can be challenging! We had the rotor mounted in the box of the truck and it worked pretty good, but did have a few problems. Once in a while, the Yagis would quit turning in mid-change. We thought it might be an internal gear problem, but after finishing, we noted grooves being worn in the antenna mast, so we will have to investigate this apparent slippage. We hope to get a bit more power out on 222 (the amp does about 110W, but we only have enough drive to muster about 65W out of it). My transverter for 902 was putting out about 6W into a commercial 8 element Yagi. Next year we hope to have the 150W amplifier for 902 running for the contest!

Looking forward to next year! -- N0EDV