01/31/2010 | KD5IKG/R Well, it was a quiet rover trip for us this year. With KD5TDP and KE5AII off to college, that left myself and the youngest for an afternoon trip. Family rovers can be fun in rare grids. The job had me busy until just before the contest so it was barely time to throw the rover station together. We started off from El29 with the plans on heading to Bay City Tx for EL18, EL19, EL28 and EL29. Murphy struck early, band conditions were such that I could bearly hear K5QE and could not raise him, so we punted the long distance rover trip and did a quick rover trip through EL29, EM20, and EM21. The highlight was a trip to K5GZR's station up near lake Livingston, then farther north to EM21, then home again in time for bed. The 2 meter amp was fried so only 20 watts on 2 meters hurt!

With job duties keeping me busy most of the day on Sunday, it was a periodic run to the rover, but band conditions were poor in Houston area, so we decided against making the rover trip from El39 up to K5QE's contest station in EM31.

Needless to say, we made the Saturday trip with the youngest reading her Tech book preping for the test and writing down the contacts for me after dark to help keep the trip a safe one. -- KD5IKG