08/09/2009 | K0MHC/R "Fringe Roving" during the 2009 Rovermania from rare grids

Many thanks to the Northern Lights Radio Society gang who spent the weekend on the hill. You all did a great job and we all appreciate it! While the June contest was a workup to this event there was no comparison. This was much more fun!

- Saturday was rather slow from the four corners of EN27/17/26/16 just Northwest of Detroit Lakes, MN. The first hour was OK with many contacts back towards the Twin Cities but it went downhill from then on. The next 5 grids were rather quiet except for the strong signal from the W0AUS multiop station.

- Sunday was better but I had difficulty finding good operating locations in the heavily forested and hilly EN36/35 area. I probably missed many of you as I was driving around scouting the area.

Here are a few more details and observations:
Location, Location, Location! No, this isn't about being a realtor. It's about being a rover. My wife and I had previously scouted EN17, 16, 26 but not EN27. However I found a great spot using Google Earth that was relatively high with a good takeoff over a lake. However, when I showed up it turned out to be a cemetery located on the White Earth Indian reservation. Being the culturally aware person that I am (not) and being a paleface with a Texas driver's license I decided to move on to the flatlands. Moving on down to the Elbow Lake, MN four corners was uneventful except I had forgotten my mosquito repellent. It's tough to send good CW while you're keeping the darn bugs off. Sorry about that.

We were able to sweep the bands with W0AUS multiop from all grids so changes since June may have helped somewhat. My preference is to rotate the rotor (rather than the car) and observe antenna boom length limitations that would allow me to rotate 360' while in motion. Shorter antenna boom lengths also increase the beamwidth and therefore reduce the need for time consuming "peaking" of the signals.

Future Plans:

- 2010 Rovermania - we're on a roll!
- Add 10 GHz to the rover configuration

73, Jim K0MHC/R -- K0MHC