01/27/2010 | KK6MC/R This contest was a mixed bag for me. Several high points and a few low points. I made my my first meteor scatter contact with FSK441, I roved from 4 new grids, bringing my total to 53 for reverse VUCC on 2M, and there was a small Es opening to the NW when I was in DM41. Other than that, propagation was pretty flat. Still, as always we had fun. The low points will become obvious later in the soapbox.

A winter storm blew through NM on Thursday night and we awoke with 2 inches of snow on the ground and on the rover Friday morning, when we were to leave for AZ. It was still coming down. As we had to travel to AZ to start the contest, we left in a hurry, and things got forgotten. Some important things.

South of Albuquerque we got out of the snow and were in rain until Tucson, where we stayed the night. Friday evening in Tucson I managed to bend the side elements of the PAR Stressed Moxon in an aborted attempt to find a parking spot at a restaurant. Not a good start. At this point I realized that I had forgotten the step stool I need to raise and lower the antennas. So bright and early on Saturday morning, we made a trip to Home Depot and bought a new step stool. Still in the Home Depot parking lot, I straightened out the Moxon side elements. It was easier than I thought. But the reflector wire flopping about had broken two directors on the 432 MHz beam in half and bent the end of a 222 MHz director. On the way out of Tucson I realized that I had forgotten the GPS, no big deal as I had the locations mapped and marked before we left, but it did mean that the location of contacts in motion would be less precise near grid boundaries. Fortuantely I did not make any QSOs real close to grid boundaries while in motion. A road atlas with the grids marked off in a highlighter is truly a useful low tech thing to the rover, even in these days of GPS, as are printed detailed maps of selected areas to operate. with lat and lon marked .

I got to DM31 with no weather problems except for a small portion of the road being flooded, and started to get setup for an FSK441 QSO with W5WVO just before the contest. We made that QSO fine for my first FSK441 contact. Then I went to hookup the 222 MHz transverter for the contest and realized that in the rush to get out of town ahead of the storm, I had left the PTT cord behind. Not good. No cord meant no 222 MHz operations. The location in DM31 was suboptimal and I only made a few contacts. Plans had changed at the last minute and I did not get a chance to locate a better spot. Sorry to those who expected me to be louder. The next trip will be better.

I moved on to DM32 and a much better location, working many of the guys I could not in DM31, I also managed another FSK441 contact to DM65, this time for contest QSO points! I must admit that these first FSK441 contacts were a bit of a comedy of errors on my end. On the road we made a few more contacts in DM32 en route to DM41.

In DM41, we had a short Es opening to Washington, so I pulled off the road near Kitt Peak and worked a bit of that. Not too intense an opening, and there wasn't much activity up there, I only worked 3 stations, but it was a nice surprise for January.

On the way back to DM42 and an evening in Tucson, I realized that I had forgotten the battery charger, so we decided to stop and get another one. We hit a tree going into the parking lot and bent a side element of the Moxon again. This time it brooke about an inch from the end when I straightened it as I guess it had work hardened from my first attempt to straighten it. So I had a lopsided driven element, but the tuner in the rig took care of that and it seemed to function OK after that. Given this experience, I think I will carry a spare side element or two in the future.

We got up early Sunday and headed east out of Tucson on I-10, working from DM42 in motion until we got to DM51, at which time we took a side road and found a nice high spot to operate. I worked lots of stations here, including into Las Cruces, a distance of 190 miles.

On the road again, we entered DM52 and picked up stations in Silver City, Tucson, and Las Cruces in motion. Down the hill near Steins, NM I found a place to pull off and work into El Paso. Turning off the Interstate at Deming I stopped about 10 miles NE of there to work into El Paso on 1296 MHz. I was beginning to think that I wouldn't make any contacts on that band. Then, heading N on I-25 we stopped in DM63 at Truth or Consequences and made a few contacts in Silver City, Las Cruces, El Paso ,and Los Alamos. No more contacts and we stopped for supper in Socorro and watched a bit of the Vikings Game. Halfway through DM64 my battery died, so no more contacts were made. We had operated form 8 grids. Not having a VHF radio, we listened to the VIkings lose. Bummer.

WIth 73 contacts, this was a more or less typical January contest in the Southwest. Thanks to all who worked me! And thanks to Virginia, official KK6MC/r expedition photographer, wife, and driver. Without her the score would be much lower. - Duffey KK6MC/r -- KK6MC