Six grids, FN32, FN33, FN41, FN42, FN43 and the rare one FN51
13 hours on Saturday and 14.5 hours on Sunday = 27.5 hours on the road (time I
was away from my house)
12 hours of driving (No contacts during this time, especially when was driving
up the access roads for Pack Monadnock and Kearsarge in New Hampshire where I
needed two hands on the steering wheel to keep up with the twists in the road)
4 hours to erect & take down antennas and coil up coax (It always amazes me how
much time it takes to neatly coil up coax - but then I remember if it is not
neatly coiled, it takes twice as long to untangle it the next time I need it)
After the math, this is 11.5 hours of operating at 6 grids.
480 miles of driving
4 bananas, 2 fruit bars, 5 apples, 4 applesauce squeeze packs, 8 cookies, and a
bag of pretzels.
Antennas on portable masts at FN41, FN43 and FN51. Whips on the car at the
other three grids. W9XA in EN51 was amazed I worked him on 6M from FN33 with
just a whip.
Roughly 200 contacts, hand logged. Many of you heard me say my hand couldn't
keep up with my ears. Like every other time I have rovered, I considered
bringing my laptop, then left it at home because it would have been one more
item to find a place for in a tightly packed car. I didn't realize 6M would be
so rich this weekend. I will be busy for the next week typing these into my
logging program.
Drove 2 hours to the Cape (Cape Cod) on Saturday to activate FN51. Unlike a
normal June Saturday, this year there wasn't much traffic. There was only a 1.5
mile backup at the bridge (the tunnel passes are notoriously hard to get),
compared to the usual 10 mile backup.
When I arrived at the Marconi beach location and started to set up the
antennas, I discovered the 3 of the 4 coax cables I threw in the car had N
connectors, and all of my antennas and my radio have SO-239 connectors. My
adaptors were in a box back at home. The cables I usually bring were also back
at home. Yup, it was the 13th.
I had to cycle through my four antennas, with the one coax I could use, for my
regular contacts.
I ended up staying way past the time I was planning to leave as I got
mini-pile-ups on 6M from stations in the Midwest and down south looking for
this rare one. Gave out 57 Q's and finally packed up at 6:00 P.M. when I didn't
get any more responses to my CQs.
On my way back home stopped in FN41, then made a few in FN42 on a hill a mile
from my house.
Returned home, recharged my battery overnight, swapped the big beams for small
beams, exchanged the N coax for my PL-259 coax, ate some real food and got a
few hours of sleep.
Drove to NH to do FN43, FN42, FN33 and FN32 on Sunday.
I run my radios on separate battery and this is the first VHF contest I've used
my Bioenno 40 AH battery. I used to use six 7.5 AH lead acid batteries, but
during last January's contest I ran them flat before the end of the contest.
Last weekend I ran 100 wats on 6M, 50 watts on 2 and 432, and 35 watts on 220.
I used 23 AH on Saturday, recharged the battery, and also used 23 AH on Sunday.
-Leandra, AF1R/R
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