[VHFcontesting] KE3HT/r soap box

ke3ht ke3ht at lmrgroup.com
Tue Jun 17 23:58:24 EDT 2003


KE3HT/r had a pretty good time. I had some bad luck and some good. None of
the bad luck caused me any lost points. MY Microwave IF rig dies the day
before I had to leave for the contest but I got lucky and fixed it that
night! My 432 rig did something funny so I had a rough audio for a few
contacts. My memory keyer (via rigblaster) died so people had to listen to
my fist. My fist starts out good but after 21 hours the farnsworth is all
gone andIhaveonelongrunoncalldeke3ht :-)

Like 4 other rovers I am sad to report that my bands were all poor. Could it
be that the equipment was ok and the bands were ALL poorer than usual? All
of them, 6meters all the way to 5ghz! Tom N1MU plans to take his station
apart to see whats wrong. I was going to do the same thing till he sent out
his e-mail! N2LBT and KB2HIZ all reported bad conditions. I think the only
rover I know that has reported and increase was KB1EAA who by the way also
added a new band and other improvements. I didn't get to work many of the
stations I wanted to. Even in the same grid. fn21 AB2I, I was not that far
away yet we could not work even on the low microwaves? Real odd conditions.

1025 miles later I had 16k points. Last year I had 19k. I thought I did
better than last year. It certianly felt better and I worked more microwaves
than before. I had great local band conditions. I worked N2PA on microwaves
a few times and he was loud every time. So why did I almost never hear K8GP?
I had two sites in Southern PA that had great paths to K8GP yet I only heard
them once and I was on the road at the time? Where were they?

Pictures and other details:
http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover/june2003

A full report on my adventures, grid by grid can be found:
http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover/june2003/jun2003rpt.html

Tim Ertl (KE3HT/r Pennsylvania)
ke3ht at lmrgroup.com
Rover: http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover
June 2003 contest: http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover/june2003




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