[VHFcontesting] KE3HT/r trip June 2004

[Tim Ertl (KE3HT)]

KE3HT/r trip June 2004

Interesting trip, Well thats the best word for it. I had one failure, my new
222mhz preamp apparently did not work. You might say I really don't know
about the rest of the equipment. Why?  Every band was strange. Only 6meters
was strange good.  2meters was WAY down, with a bad pre-amp 222 was
non-existant. 432 was there but I only worked stations that would QSY up
from the lower bands.  My longest 5ghz contact was 165miles. I only made
contact with one station (1, yes 1) on 5ghz! 3ghz was a little better only
on Saturday night at sunset when I made a 281mile contact.

I tried to be different this time. Not a lot of sched's, instead I spent a
lot of time on 2m calling CQ. It didn't help. Last January I roved with KJ1K
and CQ worked quite well. So what happened? Reports I have heard from other
rovers and a couple of main stations seem to think the bands were "flat".  I
say they were down. On Sunday I gave up CQ and went back to hunt and pounce.
My voice keyer was reported to be clear and copyable by everyone I did work.

Only cool thing was bumping into a Rover from Reno Nevada! NR6CA, Randy. 

 
Miles: 863 exact round trip, Gas: 51.73 gallons
Miles per gal average= 16.68miles/gal  
(.15mpg worse than Sept 2003)
Cost= $103.05, Cost per QSO = $0.82 per QSO.
Avg= $1.99 per gallon, Best price= $1.89/g, Worst= $2.06/g 


Best contact: 281 miles @ 3456mhz
Best grid: FN11 , 41 QSO's 

 Claimed Score: 13039 
 
I keep notes on stations I regularly try to work. This is my summary of
them:
K8GP: only 6meters, 2meters was never even heard! much less worked. No
microwave attempts.
N2PA: good to 903mhz but thats it.
W2FU: where were you?
W2SZ: the only one I worked 5ghz on but even then only real close at 165
miles.

Strange though they are usually so loud in some of my sites in PA that I can
hear them even when they are pointing their beams up north. 2 meters was
hard, 432 impossible! 

W3CCX:  worked a couple of different sites but none above 222. I was even in
eastern FN12 and they were hard to work. 

I heard they were working microwaves but I never got through even on 432.

K3YTL: normally I work them all bands from almost all my sites. This time
they were hard to find.
W3SO: was there but even when I was in their grid I could not work them on
all their bands! (50-432mhz)

 
My Score, log, Summary, Pictures and other info are being compiled into:
http://www.ke3ht.org/rover/jun2004
<BLOCKED::http://www.ke3ht.org/rover/jun2004> 



Tim

Tim Ertl KE3HT/r
QSL via CBA
http://www.ke3ht.org <BLOCKED::http://www.ke3ht.org/rover> /rover
ke3ht at ke3ht.org