ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
Call: N6ZZ/R
Operator(s): N2IC, N6ZZ
Station: N6ZZ/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH: NM, North Texas
Operating Time (hrs): 28
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 197 22
2: 204 22
222: 195 22
432: 196 22
903: 195 22
1.2: 195 22
2.3: 195 22
3.4: 195 22
5.7: 194 22
10G: 191 22
24G: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 1957 220 Total Score = 2,164,206
Club:
Comments:
N6NB provided the invitation and the equipment for N2IC and I to operate in the
Rover category of this contest. The antennas and a Yaesu rotator were mounted
on a wooden platform which was secured to the luggage rack of my Chevy S-10
Blazer. All I had to do was drill 8 holes for the U-bolts and bolt the platform
to the luggage rack. The antenna leads and rotor cable were put through the
window on the right rear door of the Blazer. Wayne even had foam pipe
insulation to put around the window frame and the window to make the area where
the cables went into the vehicle almost airtight.
In the right side of the back seat of the Blazer, Wayne installed a console that
he had designed...the left side of it rested on the floor and the right side on
the rear seat. There was space for the operator of this station to sit on the
left side of the rear seat and turn to his right to operate the radios. An
auxiliary 12-volt battery, which was charged from the cigarette lighter, was put
into place, along with an inverter to provide 110 volts for the rotator.
Then there were the radios---4 of them altogether, plus 5 inverters to cover the
microwave bands. These were all placed into the console in the back seat. One
radio had 220, a separate radio for 6, one that covered 2, 432 and 1296, and
then a 2 meter radio which provided the IF for five Down East inverters for 902
mHz, 2.3 gHz, 3.4 gHz, 5.7 gHz and 10 gHz. Wayne had designed a switching
system that required throwing two switches to change from one microwave band to
another. 4 hand mikes were floating around the vehicle from these rigs. It
took about 2-1/2 hours to get the antennas and radios installed in the vehicle.
The contacts with the other rover stations became somewhat routine after awhile.
However, there were a number of other events that were interesting.
We finished making contacts from a convergence of grid squares near Midland, TX,
at about dark on Sunday evening, but still had a few hours left before the end
of the contest. We knew that we couldn't get to an additional convergence, so
we just found some additional places where two grids were adjacent to each
other. Since none of us had operated from any of these places before, it took a
bit of map and GPS work to find out where the grid boundary lines were. The
fact that it was night made it even more difficult to find dirt roads that could
potentially lead us to desirable locations. In several cases, what we found was
not particularly well suited to vehicular traffic, nor to rapid-fire QSOs due to
the presence of hills in the area.
This introduced a very different set of challenges. In most situations, we were
able to use FM on all of the microwave bands. However, in some of these
locations, we would be able to make contacts pretty well up to 3.4 gHz, but when
we got to 5.7 gHz, FM just wouldn't cut it. SSB was the only way to get the job
done, providing clearly readable signals while nothing could be heard on FM.
Once contact had been established on 5.7 gHz and antennas had been peaked, we
were usually able to make a contact on 10 gHz as well. One of the 10 gHz
contacts was over a distance of about 6 miles, with two intervening ridge lines.
Not bad for one watt! It was a very interesting way to end the contest.
Most of the 3830 postings lament the poor conditions during the contest.
Indeed, we never heard any kind of Es on 6 meters. We did hear a lot of line
noise, however. Several savvy operators in Albuquerque and Lubbock tracked us
pretty closely, and managed to nail at least one of us in quite a few different
grids. W5LCC in Lubbock was especially diligent, and ended up at least somebody
in the rover group from 7 different grid squares on multiple bands. N6NB/R
had a few more antenna selections than N6MU/R and N6ZZ/R, and his van provided a
more comfortable operating position while driving. We can only wish that
conditions had enabled some Es QSOs.
My vehicle attracted a lot of attention anytime we stopped for gas. Several
people asked if we were tornado chasers. At one gas stop, a tour bus pulled up
and a guy came over to talk with us. It turned out that he was a ham from
Uruguay...a CX2 on some kind of tour, heading for Roswell, NM. He videotaped us
giving our calls in Spanish.
One of the grid intersections took us onto Historic Route 66 east of Albuquerque
at about 10PM Saturday night. N2IC and I arrived at this location first, and it
became our jbb to research it. We had our misgivings as the old highway
paralleled I-40 for awhile and then made a 90 degree turn through two one-lane
tunnels under the lanes of I-40. There were a couple of gravel roads at the end
of the tunnels, and fortunately, one of them paralleled I-40 on the other side
and eventually turned to blacktop to get us to the grid square intersection.
It's not quite the way I remember Route 66 when I took it from Wisconsin to
California 40 years ago!
Could we have done better? Probably, but not without putting ourselves at
greater risk. This activity had the elements of a contest mixed in with some of
the elements of a road rally. If we had opted not to sleep at all Saturday
night, perhaps we could have made it to another grid square convergence, which
would have provided an additional score potential. However, if you fall asleep
during a contest at home, probably the worst possible result is that you bruise
your head when it hits the keyboard. If you happen to fall asleep while driving
between grid square convergences, the consequences could be a little more
serious!
One of the things that makes ham radio a somewhat unique hobby is that there are
a lot of strange avenues that you can take along the way. Like operating my
first RTTY Contest from the Galapagos Islands in September, this experience was
definitely out of the ordinary. I consider myself very fortunate to have had
the opportunity to participate. Had the contest taken place one week later, we
would have encountered freezing rain, snow and closed highways...a very
different set of conditions from what we experienced during the weekend of the
contest!
73 - Phil, N6ZZ
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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