At 09:09 AM 09/12/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>Good morning!
>
>My last serious rove was pretty typical...
>
>650+Qs/200 mults/350K (approx.--I logged some by hand after a
>computer failure and haven't merged the logs yet)
>
>10 grids activated (FM19/09/FN00/10/11/01/EN90/EM99/98/FM08)
>
>The nature of roving and VHF contesting has changed:
>
>1) There are a lot of very strong 4-band operations at fixed sites in grids
>that used to be pretty rare: e.g. W3SO's superb operation in FN00,
>K3EAR smokin' in FM19, KA1ZE has 6 loud bands in FN01,
>K3YTL is huge in FN11, etc...the good news is I can work the
>grid I activate. The bad news is, I'm not rare anymore! The other
>bad news is that 2M is a zoo; see note 3 below. W4IY added
>microwaves...that was slick! N3EMF @ K3EAR provided a few microwave
>Qs to rovers, too.
>
>2) There are a lot of good rovers out there. I worked at least 12 different
>rovers, some were my only contact in the grid...cool. Dave, K1RZ mentioned
>that he ran bands with 4 rovers simultaneously. It used to be the other
>way--
>I could run 3 or 4 big guns up the bands simultaneously as a rover in a
>rarish grid!
>Was a hoot to work rovers as far north as FN04, as far south as FM26, as
>far east as FN41 and as far west as the EM80s...and in between, too! The
>new (and "old") rovers are savvy, skilled, fast and have good
>stations...wow!
>
>3) Skeds didn't work well. I had less than 10% sked completions (a new low,
>usually about 40-50%). One reason is that sites like Blue Knob (3050' FN00)
>that used to be RF quiet, are almost not usuable on 2M. Even with 50dB
>of RX
>attenuation, 3 KW stations nearby raised the noise floor so high when they
>transmit that it was as bad as the NYC area...or worse..this with a very
>decent
>IF radio...my other radio (FT100) was completely useless...blown away.
>144.247 ("rover central") was very busy; but bone crushing W4IY at 144.250
>frequently made that spot nearly useless. The old version of skeds
>(coordinate
>at 222.35 to avoid the 2M zoo) had become passe'...only a couple of contacts
>in January and June...so I sold that stuff and went with the "tried and
>true" 2M
>skeds...not good...not fun, either.
>
>4) The activity to the W/NW, often missed on the "southern route" that W1RT
>now uses (and before that W4IY, and before that, me) is huge! Very fun to
>work several VE3's from several grids, and many EN7x, and 8x, and 9x
>stations
>as I headed West. From EN90 didn't work the KY/TN/NC folks, but did
>work them and more from EM99 (apparently still pretty rare) and EM98. All
>told, 45 grids on 2M despite the challenges...that was pretty satisfying.
( I for one was very happy to work you from em98-99...
You had the kind of 2m sig. to be found very easyley...
Sory my 5-10 gig system failed, I know we could of worked on those bands...
PSE! think about that for a week or two.
Again tnx.)
>5) Bottom Line: I'm ready to try something else! 1000 miles, nearly
>$300 in
>gas, and I'm very tired--but I don't think I gave out too many unique
>band-grids
>like we did every trip in the 90s...no real DX on the microwaves...so:
>look for
>some good gear to be sold in the next few weeks--I'll keep some lightweight
>stuff for mountaintopping, but the big stuff has to go!
>
>73!
>Brian "the ex-rover"
>nd3f@aol.com
>73 Bob K8TQK
em89je Bainbridge, Ohio 45612
qrv 50m-10gigs...
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