[VHFcontesting] W8ZN/R Jan '09 VHF pix

[K8GP Grid Pirates Contest Group]

Hi All,
  Terry might be able to go into more detail about exactly what
happened this past weekend with W8ZN/R, but the short of it is the
903-10GHz rotator died about 20 mins into operating from our first
stop at Reddish Knob, VA (FM08).  5&10 GHz weren't working, 2&3 GHz rx
was way down and 1.2G wasn't transmitting.  Turning the truck to point
for the uwaves was not going to work for us.  Working outside in the 0
deg wx was not an option, so we bagged it and went back to his place
after operating for a few hours.  I was back to my QTH by 9pm.

  Amazingly Terry got everything working by Sunday, including
replacing the bad uwave rotator, finding/fixing the bad keying line
for 2-10GHz and fixing the 1.2G transverter.  We ended up meeting
again around 330pm to do a 4 corner grid at FM08/09/18/19.  I managed
to take some pix from Reddish on Sat. and one of the grids near the
four corners, a commercial uwave site we stopped at on Sun eve.
Everything worked fine until the end of the contest.  It was great to
work those that we could in the short period of time we were on the
air.  Score to follow later, but obviously not a big one with only
about 6-7 hours of operating time.

  Lessons learned? Its hard to build a complete rover in a few, cold,
winter nights before a contest and expect it to all work the first
time out!

Check out the W8ZN/R Jan '09 VHF picture album here:

http://www.k1ra.us/wp/v/200901-w8zn-r/

The following 2 URLs require Java for the 360 deg panoramic viewer:

Reddish Knob - http://www.k1ra.us/?page_id=16

uWave site - http://www.k1ra.us/?page_id=17

73

K1RA @ W8ZN/Rover

http://www.k8gp.net/