ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
Call: N6NB
Operator(s): N6NB, KG6TOA
Station: N6NB
Class: Rover HP
QTH: Rover
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 147 16
2: 187 18
222: 150 16
432: 160 18
903: 128 16
1.2: 131 16
2.3: 128 16
3.4: 128 16
5.7: 128 16
10G: 128 16
24G:
-------------------
Total: 1415 180 Total Score = 1,095,480
Club:
Comments:
Our group of three rover stations (N6MI, N6MU and N6NB) scored
more than three million points--over a million points apiece--
in the 2004 VHF SS. That's hard for me to grasp even after
months of work building the three stations and after
seemingly endless station testing and practice runs.
This project began last summer when I upgraded my rover van
to ten bands (50 MHz through 10 GHz). Because the top
scores were being posted by rovers who traveled together,
I built a second 10-band rover station in an SUV for the
September contest. Using those two stations, John
Desloge (N6MU) and I had good scores in September.
We had major help from Rob Hughes, a non-ham friend
who is an experienced road rally driver.
Then I fell into another SUV and decided to build a third rover
station during the fall. By December, a team of very talented
people had come together to use the three 10-band stations
in VHF SS. In addition to N6MU, Rob and myself, N6MI joined
us to operate the third station and Bill Reese, another non-ham
friend, joined us as a driver and mechanical support person.
Several others, including WB2WIK and N6QQ, helped us test
the three stations before the contest.
Exactly a week before the contest (Jan. 14), Rob passed the
technician exam. Amazingly, his call appeared in the FCC
database only six days later--the day before the contest. As
KG6TOA, he became an operator as well as a driver.
During the contest, we had no fatal hardware trouble. Every-
thing (transceivers, 15 Down East Microwave transverters,
homebrew and commercial antennas and everything else)
performed well despite all of the high-speed bandswitching
and rapid-fire operating. The three rover vehicles (a Ford
E350 van, a Ford Explorer and an Isuzu Rodeo), made
the 1300-mile round trip without any problems. Considering
that the three vehicles have a combined total of 400,000
miles on their odometers, that in itself is amazing.
We covered 16 grid squares, beginning in Orange County,
Calif. (DM13) and ending near Mt. Lassen (CN90).
Because we knew there would be raised eyebrows if we
achieved our goal of one million points per rover station,
we went to great lengths to dot every I and cross every
T. That meant halting high-speed 10-band runs to
correct errors in grid squares sent and get acknowledge-
ments (it's easy to lose track of where you are during a
contest where you're constantly moving from one grid
square to another). It also meant moving vehicles back
and forth to get 10 GHz signals past unseen obstructions
in the path late at night. And it meant using GPS-linked
computers to be absolutely sure we were really where
we thought we were.
We also know that being in California is a big advan-
tage for January rovers. That was underscored when we
heard the tales of horrid weather in the midwest and
east. The worst weather we saw was cold rain and
high winds in the Tehachapi area and the southern
San Joaquin Valley.
Although these scores appear to be about double the
existing record under the current scoring system, we
know records are meant to be broken. We certainly
weren't the first to rove together, and we know
someone will do it better than we did soon.
But for now, it's nice to know all this work paid off.
73,
Wayne Overbeck, N6NB
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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