10/29/2009 | W1RT/R 9 grids, 1000 miles, 15 hours of driving, 14 hours of operating and 4 hours of sleep. No pack roving, no grid circling, no pre-calculated score setting, 100-QSO-limit-rule-bending agenda in mind.

What a ride! Even though we got off to a very rocky start this Sept VHF contest, by the time we wrapped it all up our spirits had taken a turn for the better. We lost the main 400w 144 MHz amp a day before the contest, though we were able to replace it with a loaner 100w amp by Fri. night. During the contest we lost the alternator just after leaving our first site in CT FN31 and it took some 3+ hours to fix, recover and re-mobilize. We were playing catchup all Sat. and the rain that fell well into the early AM hours of Sun. didn't help.

Sun. morning, atop Camelback, PA FN21, was our big turning point. The depressing thoughts of playing catchup turned to those of record setting. The weather cleared and the conditions seemed good and aside from a somewhat deaf 432 MHz receiver, all the bands through 10 GHz were producing above average QSO rates. The low 4-band and uWave stations hummed along nicely as John and I passed folks back and forth at a good synchronized rhythm.

We only stumbled across two other rovers (NN3Q @ FN21 & K3LFO @ FM08) along our route that allowed us to exchange the traditional rover handshake. The single ops and multi-ops around the 1, 2 and 3-land were active in good numbers and kept pretty good tabs on our whereabouts. The Roanoke area though was somewhat lacking in microwave activity near the end of the contest when we ended up on Hogback Mtn, VA FM08. All-in-all, we were pleased with the luxury rover and its performance, as well as participation levels. We can't really complain about the rough start since we topped John's previous high score by a wide margin.

Read more about the entire adventure and see pictures, panoramas, maps, graphs and breakdowns at:

http://www.k1ra.us/?page_id=62

73 AndyZ - K1RA @ W1RT/R -- K1RA