[VHFcontesting] K4GUN/R rover report

[Steve Clifford]

The wife (K4LIG) and I missed the June and September 2010 contest due to
various obligations and there was just no way we were going to miss this
one.  It didn't matter that we were both sick.  It didn't matter that it was
the coldest weekend of the winter.  It didn't matter that she had to be at
church to direct the choir on Sunday.  No, we were going to go roving!

We started out in FN20 at a bank parking lot that was recommended by K1DS.
It was a good spot except for the occasional noise on 6 meters that seemed
to be coming from the fire house next door.  We worked a lot of Packrats
from that spot.  Were it not for the Pakcrats, the first two stops would
have been only half as productive.  That's really an awesome club.

Next, we moved to Newtown Square to the West of Philly in FM29.  We again
did fairly well, but not nearly to the pace of last year.  At dusk, a white
rover van pulled up next to us and we had an eyeball with K1DS.  He was very
gracious and offered to let us have the spot.  Since he is the one who told
me about it and we had already been there for 90 minutes, I insisted that it
was his turn.  We chatted for a few minutes and we headed on down the road.

We had planned on spending some time at Slaughter Beach on FM28.  On the way
there, we were both feeling worse and worse.  We looked at the GPS and
realized that we were nearly 4 hours from home.  The moment we entered FM28,
we stopped at a gas station and made a handful of contact and headed home.

Sunday found both of us in need of rest.  Since we couldn't rest due to
church obligations, we headed out in the afternoon.  Rather than hitting
very good spots that were a fair distance away, we hit mediocre spots that
were close in FM08, 07 and 17.  We did alright in these grids.  We made some
mults and made a respectable amount of Q's but it was not huge.  We were
done by 6:30 and went home.

The final score is just North of 15000 on 207 Q's.  The equipment worked
well and this was the first time we didn't need a single antenna nor device
switch.  The 222 band was particularly good for us this year and signal
reports were very strong even over longer distances.

It wasn't an easy contest but from the sounds of it, I think we fared well.
Thanks again to the Packrats, N3NGE and K1DS/R for the assistance.

Steve and Kristine
K4GUN and K4LIG