[VHFcontesting] W1RT/R+ON4IY Jan 2011 results

[John D'Ausilio]

We headed out Saturday morning at 8AM, made a quick stop at Billy's
Bakery for some rover fuel, and got on I95 headed east towards the
Cape. Uneventful drive to the Marconi site, got set up and did some
tests. Signals were pretty weak from K1TEO, non-existent from K1RZ ..
not a good sign. We managed to get some business, but it was pretty
lonely out there .. at least it wasn't as cold as it was in CT at the
start. Moved up the road to 42 and found a decent spot up on the
ridge, but even less business there .. same with 41 a couple hours
later. The cape area is NOISY! I assume all the crap on 432 was
related to the PAVE PAWS installation out there, but we found elevated
noise levels on all bands. We also noticed that 5G is getting pretty
bad now with part 15 devices moving up there .. at least 903 should
quiet down as users leave that band.

Sunday found us back on the road a bit after 9AM headed towards the
Alamuchy rest area on I80. As we made our way to the I95 ramp I didn't
notice how low the trees were hanging on Westport Road .. until we
broke off a low branch using the 6M Moxon, snapping the side insulator
and bending the reflector 90 degrees in the process. A quick stop at
the commuter parking lot, some duct tape, and we had it back together
and continued south while warily scanning for additional rover-killing
trees. An easy trip through NYC and up to cruising speed on I80 .. the
ScanGauge-II I got for my birthday indicating the inlet air
temperature was at 20F. We got to Alamuchy pretty quickly and found
that the scenic area had not been plowed and we were not going to be
using that site. Whipped out the iPhone and went to the K2MH RoverSite
Locator to see what other options we had .. shopping center in Netcong
was close by so we headed there. Not a very good site, and still not
very much activity and most all of it relatively short. Moved on to
the Parkway FN30 site, which was much better than usual ... finally
made some 10G contacts from there with K1TEO and K1DS/R. Decided to go
up to the NYS Thruway and a bit west to pick up FN21, there's good
potential there for a site that's good to New England and not too far
away from home. Finally a quick stop in FN31 which we bailed on early
since the Jets game had already started and I didn't want to chance
annoying any of the people up there .. I need that spot to test from
and I don't want to get banished ;)

Overall not a bad rove considering .. we lost primary 10MHz standard
on Sat, backup GPS 10MHz filled in fine. Also lost 3G at some point,
probably relay issues. New battery bank is working very well, and new
rear shocks have virtually eliminated the 'rock and roll' aspect of
Jitney travel. See you in the Sprints hopefully .. and I'm still
looking for my first 24G contact ..

de w1rt/john

RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs
FN31	5	FN41	22	FN20	35
FN42	21	FN51	37	FN21	16
FN30	43	

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rules:
Band	QSOs	Value	QSOPts	Mults
50		32	1	32	7
144		39	1	39	8
222		25	2	50	7
432		29	2	58	8
902		15	3	45	4
1.2G		17	3	51	5
2.3G		13	4	52	4
3.4G		3	4	12	2
5.7G		3	4	12	1
10G		3	4	12	2
24G		0	4	0	0

Grids activated: 		7

Totals:	179		363	55	

Claimed Score: 19965