09/19/2005 | K3LFO/R For a change, the K3LFO Expeditionary Rover team (Dave W3DIO and Jim K3LFO) actually left on time to be at our first operating position at the beginning of the contest. It turned out to be a great weekend with great weather. We started off in FM28, then FM29, FM18, FM19, FN10 and FM09, all on Saturday. After a few hours sleep we headed for FM08 on Skyline drive Sunday and continued into FM07 and FM17.

Our rover has been under constant development and every time weve gone out weve managed to improve our performance. Although There were no new bands or antennas added this time, we managed to correct some interference problems and improve in the overall system reliability. As a result we managed to increase our score from June by almost 60% and almost 100% over last September. All 6 bands worked almost flawlessly this time and we only had 1 minor tree strike.

Band conditions were just ok, nothing special. The tropo was flat on Saturday but improved Sunday. We had hoped to work stations up to the northeast like K1TEO and K1WHS. But, the times we heard Jeff, signals were too weak to get his attention and we never heard Daves crew in Maine. There was some E Skip on 6 meters for a while Sunday which was fun and added a few more grids. We managed to repeat our June QSO from FM08 with W2SZ on 903 plus managed to complete on 1296 as well. This was a total distance of 368 miles. That required a coke break to celebrate afterwards.

Gas prices were awful! At between $3.25 and $3.49 a gallon it cost about $ .50 per QSO! I guess next time well just have to work more stations to reduce the cost!

Thanks to everyone who got on for the contest, It really made it fun and worth while.

73,

Jim K3LFO and Dave W3DIO -- K3LFO