[VHFcontesting] W1RT/R disaster rove

[John D'Ausilio]

Things started out pretty well .. made it up to Mohawk without
destroying any antennas, got through shakedown and had things working
pretty well. Trip to Camelback was a bit frustrating, many roads with
height limits as you come south on US7 trying to hit I84 :(  Got to
Camelback and found the gate locked, lost another hour finding
security guy and unlocking. Finally got to the top, said hi to WA3UGP
and got to work, pretty flat condx but tough with two multiops up
there. W3SZ heard my 24G signal, but too much noise up there on RX to
hear his. Off the mountain around 1AM, hotel at 2AM, 4 hours sleep and
off to Pismire. Raining lightly there, condx same as Saturday ..
seemed like I could work most anyone up to 1G out to about 250mi, but
very tough on 2 and 3G. 5/10 seemed to have some enhancement in the
rain.

We left Pismire for the 3 hour run to Big Mountain, got off on US30
and headed west. Got through Chambersburg and into the strip mall zone
to the west, lots of traffic and stop/go on steep hills. Sitting at a
red light on a 10% grade, light turns green, I hit the gas and BOOM!
Jitney stops moving, no forward, no reverse .. arrgh! Seems that the
differential is dead, at least it's not locked up so we roll backwards
down US30 (with tow truck deflecting traffic), into a level parking
lot, and proceed to disassemble all of the antennas so it could be put
on flatbed and towed. Decided to drop it off at K1RZ's place since he
offered, had room, and I needed somewhere safe to stash it until I
could figure out what to do ..

Rich and Phyllis picked us up at Dave's place, dropped me off at the
DC metro in Rockville .. I missed the 7:20, got a ticket on the 8PM
Acela, made it to the 11:22 Metro North and KB7MFM picked me up and
brought me home just as the clock struck 1AM this morning.

We were around 80K after leaving Pismire, on track for a very good rove .. alas

Big thanks to Dave K1RZ for offering storage, Terry W8ZN for sage
advice, Rich K1HTV, Phyllis K1WSN for rescue transportation, Andy K1RA
for all the help and support and first class operating, and Terry
KB7MFM for putting up with being the wife of a rover :)

de w1rt/john