[3830] ARRL June VHF K2EZ/R Rover LP

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                    ARRL June VHF Contest - 2021

Call: K2EZ/R
Operator(s): K2EZ
Station: K2EZ/R

Class: Rover LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:   45    14
    2:   81    16
  222:   70    14
  432:   80    15
  903:   43    12
  1.2:   45    12
  2.3:   32     8
  3.4:   27     7
  5.7:    4     4
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  427   118  Total Score = 110,330

Club: 

Comments:

VHF roving has all the excitement and all the chaos one might expect if you were
to combine ham radio with a scavenger hunt and a college road rally.  Five hours
into the contest I faced a potential rove ending event when at my first fuel
stop I noticed a significant amount of coolant dripping from Rover.  I had
checked coolant level before the rove and now it was half a gallon low.  

Hours of idling in near 100 degree heat with air condition running is stressful
on the vehicle.  With this in mind, and Rover’s 335K miles, I run the coolant
system unpressurized during contests.  This causes the engine to run a little
bit off the normal operating temperature, and it means I need to watch coolant
as some will evaporate out, but it significantly reduces the chance of blowing
out a hose.   Also any leak that does develop will simply leak rather than have
coolant forced out and without the pressure the leak likely won’t grow
quickly.

This strategy was paying its reward now.  Had the system been pressurized, steam
would have been blowing out, the hole likely would have been much larger, and I
wouldn’t have been able to drive without resolving the issue.  As it was, I
could continue driving.  The question was if, with a thousand more miles to go,
could I could continue my rove?

That was not an easy question and needed some more exploration of the problem. 
Before getting into that, the contest wasn’t going exactly as planned anyway.

I started the contest joining the TX rovers KD5IKG/R, KA5D/R and W5TN/R in the
oil fields near Falls City Texas which is a small town southeast of San Antonio.
 Found in the oil fields is the EL08/09/18/19 grid corner.  We had plans to
setup with one of us in each grid and focus on working other stations, then
rotate periodically.

This plan met with mixed results and ultimately several lessons learned.  My
start was slightly delayed as I discovered an elevated SWR with my 70cm yagi. 
2.5 to 1 SWR, especially with the coax losses on that band, could mean anything.
 I decided to take some time to check out the coax connections, antenna
switching relays, and clean the connections on the antenna matching section. 
All seemed okay, but the SWR didn’t improve with the little I could do.

By the time I did get operating, I missed many of the initial contact
opportunities.  Stations had QSYed to other bands with some of the rovers and I
wasn’t able to get into sync.  When I did make contacts signals seemed to be
unusually weak.  A powerhouse station in the area that I expected to be strong
was just okay on 2m, lost them completely on 1.25m and 6m was a struggle
requiring CW.   Yet on 70cm I worked them easily despite the SWR problems so go
figure.  

We eventually worked between us rover, but far from what we could have done had
we chose to exhaust every possible combination.  It was getting late and the
other rovers moved out.  As seems to be the norm for me in these things, I was
the one lagging behind.  I decided to stay to pick up some more fixed stations
and ones I only got from just one or two grids earlier.  Many were no longer
around to be found but, I got a couple and moved between the grids to fill in
the contacts I could get with them.  This was a bit easier without all the other
local strong signals

Almost 5 hours after the start of the contest ,and about 220 Qs in the log, I
moved off the grid corner to work my way to the Devil’s backbone overlook
which is in EL09 between Austin and San Antonio.  This was the dinner stop for
the TX rovers and a good high spot to work stations who were getting on the air
in the evening.

It was at my fuel stop on my way to Devil’s Backbone where I discovered the
leaking coolant.  So the quest was to continue or not?  Do I toss in the towel
and head back to my local home base in Brenham Texas?  Or do I continue?  I
decided to procrastinate (something I excel at doing) and make the decision
later.  I was still quite far south and close to three hour drive from Brenham,
but I was only an hour away from the Devil’s Backbone lookout.  The lookout
wasn’t much further away from Brenham than I was at the moment.  So going
there wouldn’t move me further away from “home” but every mile would get
me closer to where the other rovers could support me if needed.  So I continued
to proceed to Devil’s backbone.

I arrived at the lookout and the other rovers without incident.  As is my norm,
I had continued to operate while working my way to the lookout occasionally
working a station along the way.  One contact with Korey WA5RR/R during this
time stands out as I was on the wrong side of the hill when I worked him and our
contact was on 70cm of all bands.   Once at the lookout I took some time to work
a couple stations and it was from there I had my first distant microwave
contacts of the contest.  

Once I worked those immediately available, I shut off the engine and decided to
investigate.  I noted that Rover had lost much of the coolant I had added when I
found the leak, but wasn’t any lower than that.  I looked closer and found a
crack in the plastic portion of the radiator on the top surface.  That perhaps
explained why more coolant wasn’t lost.  The level was low enough that that
there was air in main upper coolant hose.  

Could I continue?  Timing wise I wasn’t lagging far behind as I usually am. 
It looked like I would get a good overnight stop for once if I were to continue,
but my plans had me running from there out to Little Rock Arkansas before
turning and proceeding to Tulsa Oklahoma were I would meet up with the Oklahoma
rovers.   That was a long way to go with a coolant leak  I could keep topping it
up, but if it got worse that could leave me stranded a long way from
“home”.

I decided to procrastinate again and while mulling over the decision socialized
with the other ops who were taking a break.  Also chatting with the many
non-hams that kept walking up to us to ask us about our vehicles. 

One sad footnote about the Devil’s Backbone lookout.  On the fencing around
the lookout are many small memorials that have been left by people who lost
loved ones at this location as it seems many go to this lookout to commit
suicide. 

I enjoyed the social time very much, but there was that decision.  One
suggestion was made that some JB Weld could be used, but it was too late to get
this material.  I eventually decided it would be too risky to continue.  The big
concern was the shape of the crack.  It split a couple different ways and looked
like if one part of the crack continued to spread it would intersect another
part and make a good sized hole.  

On my drive back to Brenham, I started thinking about the JB Weld idea again. 
Just how early do auto parts stores open on Sunday?  And yes my plans to get to
Arkansas were out the window, but how far was it from Brenham to Tulsa?  Would
it still be possible to catch up with the Oklahoma rovers?

When I got “home” I looked up.  Auto parts were open at 8am.  Drive time
from Brenham TX to Tulsa OK looked like it could work too if I could get on the
road before it got too late.  Rover could cool off overnight and I had another
vehicle which would let me get what I needed without getting Rover hot.  Before
going to bed I decided to take some time to clean the surface good and scuff it
up so it would have time to dry and be all ready for whatever I found in the
morning.

The JB Weld options (and similar products) didn’t look encouraging.  The
suitable materials for the temperature and chemical resistance seemed to have
cure times that were too long to work for my plans.  The more generic 5 minute
epoxy’s had good cure times, but how it would do with the temperature or the
coolant was unknown.  Off to the side though I spotted plastic radiator repair
which had a fiberglass reinforcing sheet and a stated 20 minute cure time.  That
seemed to be exactly what I needed.

About 9am I had the leak patched.  The instructions said the vehicle could be
driven as soon as the material was no longer tacky.  I proceeded to load up the
car with the things I had unloaded the night before.  That took me about 40
minutes, plenty of time for it to cure.  It was still tacky.  The patch felt
hard though and I didn’t have much time.  So I decided to fill the coolant
back up to normal and get on the road anyway.  I was rolling by 10am.

Unfortunately I missed all the early morning activity, but I was moving again
headed for Tulsa.  K5LLL was the biggest and strongest station in the area as I
headed out of Brenham.  I worked him thru the bands four times as I went thru
EM10, EM20, EM21 and EM11 helping me secure those activation multipliers.  I
also got activity out of K5IM and K5QE during this time.  

Activity started to pick up more as I approached the DFW area and I worked a
handful of stations multiple times as I proceeded thru EM12, EM 13, EM14 and
EM24.  This is the sort of operating I enjoy.  6m, 2m and 1.25m seemed to have
poorer than average conditions while the APRS map suggested different for 2m.  I
don’t know why.  I did discover during this period that I had my RF gain down
a bit on my FT-736 which was affecting 2m and 1.25m but even with that back to
its normal position it didn’t help much.   On the other hand 70cm despite the
funky SWR was working great as well as the microwaves.  

I heard almost no 6m activity with most stations worked there being ones I QSYed
with there.  I only was doing SSB and CW so didn’t see digital activity.  I
expect if 6m was really open there would have been some activity on SSB and CW
like last June.  I occasionally tuned to the FT8 frequency and heard stations
there but couldn’t tell if local or distant.  I’ve heard many were getting
some good DX on 6m using FT8 so clearly there were openings that worked for that
mode.  At one point I heard a FN20 and FN21 station very weak but couldn’t get
their attention.

One of the highlights of the contest for me was when I worked WQ0P who was in
EM19 in Northern Kansas while I was still south of Tulsa about 240 miles away in
EM25.  At first we just worked on 2m, but then I heard WQ0P ask WD5AGO/R to QSY
to 23cm.  They didn’t connect but I had very good copy on WQ0P so I worked
WQ0P on 23cm.  Before we could work other bands I crossed the line into EM15. 
In hindsight I should have halted till we worked the other bands.  Anyway we
worked on 2m and 23cm again with me in the new grid and then proceeded to work
70cm, 1.25m, 33cm and 6m in that order.  Six bands and six new multipliers for
me.

I caught up with the Oklahoma rovers N0LD/R and K5SRT/R along with Tommy
WD5AGO/R at the grid corner just south of Tulsa for the last portion of the
contest.  I was able to make my first ever 5cm contacts with Tommy.  

There was one event that marred the contest a little.  As usual rovers draw
attention and our position in one grid was residential and there were many
locals about.  Most were curious, friendly and had no objection but one
individual approached me a bit more confrontationally.   I answered the
questions as usual, but I could tell by his words, even if not sounding overtly
hostile, that he was not happy with our being there.  He asked how much longer
and I said less then 5 more minutes.  In fact we would have been done were it
not for his interruption.  I saw where this was going, he would keep talking,
likely get more negative, and just waste time.  So I offered to go if he wanted
me to.  He said he thought that was a good idea.  So while I headed out he
proceeded over to the other rovers and told them to leave.

I see no good in these situations trying to stay.  Yes it was a public road, but
there is no telling what the guy would do.  If he were to call the police, the
police likely would ask us non-locals to leave the neighborhood for the sake of
peace even if legally we have the right.  It would simply waste time and draw
unnecessary attention.  Worse it could create an incident that potentially make
us unwelcome in other areas of the grid corner.

As usual it was a fun and exhausting time.  I am glad I decided to find a way to
continue even if I wasn’t going to finish as well as hoped.  I had planned a
couple days off after the contest and my plans were to visit in Oklahoma.  I was
sort of using the contest as one leg of the travel and when I had decided to
scrub the rove I was doubly disappointed as that affected my vacation plans. 
Continuing the rove allowed me my vacation time as originally planned.  

Final tally for this rove is around 450 Qs and 110K points.  One of my lowest Q
totals since I went from Limited Rover to Classic Rover, but pretty reasonable
for how long I was out of the chase.  Only 18 grids activated of the 24 I
expected to activate.

As an aside, one of my vacation stops was indirectly related to roving.  That
stop was in Wakita Oklahoma, a small town that was featured in the movie
Twister.  With Rover often confused with being a storm chase vehicle, and much
of the romanticism about storm chasing created by the movie Twister, I thought a
photo of Rover in Wakita would be cool.


P.S  “home” refers to my Breham Texas QTH while home (without quotes) refers
to my Sparta NJ QTH.


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