Microwave Spring Sprint
Call: N2RJ/R
Operator(s): K2EZ N2RJ
Station: N2RJ/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 13 Max Dist(km) = 376 Total Score = 2,939
Club:
Comments:
Our second year. Some improvements but many massive blunders that cost us. Lots
of hardware improvements went into the rover - new antennas, Flex-6700 SDR,
transverters, switching, even wi-fi. Much of it worked well. The new directive
systems loop yagis were pretty nice. The SSB Electronic transverter worked well
too. Even the 10GHz dish worked on receive but transmit was a different issue.
#0 - not really our fault, so it doesn't count, but high point was closed for a
5K run, again. That would have been an amazing spot but alas, it was out of the
question.
#1 - starting late. We lost the first hour due to some equipment issues in the
beginning - some stuff wouldn't key, some would not output RF. We found that one
connection was reversed (oops) and the driver amp from the flex to the 5/10GHz
transverter was powered all the time which meant that we weren't able to
receive. That was fixed and we were on our way.
#2 - not making effective use of KST chat. Calling on 2m yielded a few contacts
including N9ZL. But we could have picked up a lot more on KST... but there were
other issues which I will talk about in #4.
#3 - not having an effective means of getting our bearing. Absolute rookie
mistake. We should have at least gotten a $5 compass that would tell us where to
aim since aiming is crucial during this contest.
#4 - Not realizing that a high mountain is likely to have commercial towers that
will kill you on 33cm. The mountain had a large tower with very strong signals,
likely a cell site that raised our noise floor 40dB about once per second. Noise
blanker did not work for this as the noise was too long in duration. The problem
is that if we drove somewhere else it would waste time and we would likely end
up with fewer contacts. So we toughed it out and made the most of 1.2GHz.
We wanted to start out somewhere high in Eastern PA and finish there (deep into
Packrats territory) but that never materialized. Instead we started local,
worked K1RZ from FN21, went to K1TEO in FN20 then picked up K1RZ there again. We
tried a spot in NJ which had a good view but the noise level was 40-50dB. No
good! We then headed out to Camelback mountain and figured we could finish up
there.
Well, that worked out good except for 902MHz as I explained above. We tried
10GHz and copied Dave, K1RZ pretty good but he couldn't copy us. I suppose
either low voltage to the transverter or some other gremlin that crept in sank
us. Oh well. K3TUF would have been a sure contact but he was out of the contest.
AF1T was our longest contact, but K1RZ was a superstar giving us 4 QSOs from two
grids and almost giving us 10GHz. Amazing.
It was a learning experience and still a lot of fun. Maybe next time better luck
with better gear.
Andrea's Flex-6700 was very useful because it had a panadapter that allowed us
to SEE stuff instead of having to tune around. And we did beat last year's
score!
88
Ria, N2RJ
Andrea, K2EZ
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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