[3830] N8KWX Rover January 1999 VHF Sweepstakes
Jon Ogden
jono@enteract.com
Fri, 29 Jan 1999 19:16:18 -0600
Howdy all,
Contest: January 1999 VHF Sweepstakes
Call: N8KWX Rover
Ops: Marc, N8KWX and Jon, KE9NA
Grids Activated: EN54, EN64, EN53, EN63, EN62, EN52, EN61, EN51
Bands: 50, 144, 220, 432 MHz
Total QSOs: 532
QSO Points: 706
Multipliers: 83 (75 worked + 8 activated)
Total Score: 58,598
Breakdown by band:
Band QSOs Points Grids
---- ---- ------ -----
50 120 120 24
144 238 238 23
220 58 116 12
432 116 232 16
Equipment:
Vehicle: 98 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Antennas: Omni-directionals: a halo on 6, PARs on 2 and 220 and an egg
beater on 440
FM Antennas were a Diamond Ground Plane Free 2m/440 mobile dualbander and
a 2m/220/440 tribander.
Radios: FT-690, FT-290, Transverters on 220 and 432, Kenwood 220 Mobile,
FT7500 and a Kenwood TH-215A.
AMPS: Mirage A 1015 G on 6, B3016 on 2 and RF Concepts amps on 220 and 440
Comments:
What a blast! This was our second rove together and we bested last year's
score by almost 3 times! It didn't have its share of problems though.
It started on Thursday night before the contest when I was hooking up
Marc's 2M amplifier. Somehow the +12V power pin from the battery touched
the ground pin on the amp and there was a spark. We then plugged the amp
in correctly and it started to smoke! After attempting to fix it on
Friday, we found out on our way up to Wisconsin that we were getting 0
watts out of the amp. So, we stopped at Radio Recyclers in Milwaukee and
I bought a used Mirage they had on the shelf (I needed a 2m PA).
However, the woes didn't stop there. The 2m PAR Omni Angle kept having
bad SWR. Upon looking up at the antenna through my sun roof, I noticed
that one side of the element had practically worked its way free and come
loose! Thank the Man Upstairs for that sunroof! If not, we would never
have known about the element. It would have come completely free and in
the drive, the other side would have then easily come undone as well! We
would have gotten to our operating spot with no elements on 2m!
As we moved farther north, the rain changed to ice. Our antennas began
to get quite a nice layer of ice on them as we drove along. Its a good
thing we decided to scrap the idea of using beams! A couple hours late
we finally got to our operating spot off Lake Winnebago. It then began
to sleet! Few stations were on as their antennas were all iced up and
had huge SWRs. One fella told us, his antenna worked better with his
reflector as his director! Then the sleet changed to snow! And snow it
did for the rest of the day (I think we experienced every kind of
precipitation possible!). Our trip into EN64 and the northern part of
EN63 netted very few QSOs. Marc said it best on our way back to
Milwaukee, "We're nuts! It's a wintry night where most people wouldn't
even run to the store for a gallon of milk, and we are out driving around
all over the place!" That was true. But it was fun!
The snow stopped by the time we got to Milwaukee but unfortunately,
activity wasn't stellar. We had a few good QSO especially thanks to some
local FM guys.
Sunday was a nice Sunny day for the Chicago area. We started out by
operating from a local hamfest. We figured that with all the hams with
HTs, we could surely work a big number of them. Well, it wasn't really
so. About 20 responded to our calls and the rest ignored us. But we had
a great run Sunday morning on 6M as the band opened to Colorado and
Florida. This was one thing we didn't have last year.
The amazing thing was the looks we got from other hams at the hamfest
with all the antennas on the vehicle. Even hams stopped and stared! One
friend later told me he saw my vehicle and said I win the award for the
most "Geeked Out Vehicle." I thanked him and then told him why..... :-)
We had great QSO rates on Sunday and with the exception of a cop stopping
by one of our locations to ask what the heck we were doing, all went
well. I had a great run of CW contacts on Sunday evening. Although I
learned that next year I'll have to bring my Timewave DSP with because
the FT-290 just doesn't have the filtering. I got killed by SSB
stations. But I worked a good run of stations and caught a few new grids.
All in all, it turned out do be a great weekend. We had a blast and were
totally pumped with our QSO numbers and score.
Sorry for the long diatribe, but this is one rove that was certainly an
adventure!
73,
Jon
KE9NA
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
KE9NA
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na <--- CHECK IT OUT! It's been updated!!!!!
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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