01/24/2006 | K3UHF/R January 2006 contest Notes:



After taking a year off from roving I was excited about doing it again. I re-invented the roof rack system to a five foot tall and more stout aluminum vertical frame in combination with fiberglass cross booms purchased on ebay. I should mention that 80-90 percent of my gear is used or new but purchased from ebay. The all wood/plastic abs ones would not make it 3 contests without hair line fractures, splits, busted joints ECT. It cost me 100 dollars to build each one before and I was on my third, now super sized to 1 PVC with 1 inch PVC glued in side of the 1 with 1 oak dowels in side the inner PVC. One would think 3 layers would help. But it made 3 times the failure points. Also keeping the glue/ pipe primer in the vehicle for on the spot repairs was stinky. The new frame held out well, its easy to disassemble and it holds my petite 266 pound body when I use it as a ladder.



I was nervous about putting a metal frame and I am sure I have lost some gain with adding metal but I am unsure if it made the results any less. In fact the energy radiated from the antenna has to go somewhere and it might help by making odd side lobes. One of my biggest challenges is six meters. I use to use a 4 element beam, but it did not bode well with the dept of transportation rules. One contest I mounted it to point to the right side of the vehicle but that was a pain when I ran the bands. I purchased a moxon antenna but it did not hold up to the abuse. However a homebrew copper one may service. It also had to be put about 13 feet up to tune below a 2 to 1 swr with all the other antennas around. So it was back the good old M2 square lo. 300 mile contacts were still made but not as strong. It may have helped me with the locals and it wasnt death to the front since I had it behind all the beams.



Building the Rover up this January was a challenge simply from the amount of rain. I added a flange that I taped in the window and applied pressure to via the windows glass to hold into place. This kept 99 percent of the rain out. It beat drilling holes in the roof. I would wait for weather breaks at first and go out and add a part to the rover as I re-assembled it. But soon I had to eat it and just get soaked.



However the premade box that contains radios, transverters and amps makes packing it and holding it in place a breeze. It also limits the abuse and scratches the gear receives. My poor Icom 706 took a lot of abuse at first from poor storage in rover rigs. This system handles an 80 to zero rapid stop in Seattle traffic very well, I know because I have tried it, but not on purpose. Safety is an issue, a second person would be better but its hard to find someone who wants to stay in a vehicle 33 hours to travel in a circle. Or figure 8 as this year proved to be. I have moved to foot switches and now I think I will devise some way to run 2 radios from one head set by pushing button A or B for X-mit. One radio would be the right ear and the other the left. This makes a 6 band set up do=-able with 2 radios.









This brings me to the set up.

2 meters- ft 736-r, Te systems amp, about 400 watts or so. 11 element beam Cushcraft, the old ones, cheap on ebay, parts interchangeable stackable and I have 5 or 6 of them lying around.

6 meters IC 706, Te systems amp, about 400 watts. M2 loop

222 Ft 736- Mirage 120 watt amp, Gulf alpha 15 element beam. Lasted 3 years no problems.

432 Ft 736 Te 200 watt amp, 22 element gulf alpha beam.

902- 1c 706 2M if, DEM 902 xverter, 10 watts and a 33 element DS looper

1.3 ft 736, 10 watts and 44 element DS looper

2.3 Kenwood ts 751, dem transverter and a 15 element wifi beam perm mounted one watt.



I declined on going over the mountains this January and stuck to a coastal route. I tried to stay in places longer to harvest more qsos. The problem was there seemed to be less people on this year and many were not on all the time. The NFC championship may have something to do with it. Last January I think I broke the 500 qsos bench mark but I had many more rovers to work that gave me some good multipliers. There did not seem to be as many this time with the power to make the long hall contacts. I like the randomness of rovers so I dont coordinate nor post detailed schedules. KB7DQH had his bus our and about we made a few QSOS, some pretty long but luck as it may it seems that we are not often near each other. Last year a pair of rovers on Vancouver Island helped inflate my score by adding new/rare grids.



This year yielded about 480 QSOS with less people and about the grid multipliers as last year. My final score was around 42K.



The bottom line is we need a few more 6 meter to at least 1.2 GHz stations in the rare grids. Or some need to participate more. CN 86 is sort of a dead zone and so is CN84 for the stuff above 432. CN 83 was silent and the folks in CN 82/93/94 were there even if they were mostly talking to themselves. Special thanks to W7eme for going out to a small spot on CN75 where there happens to be land and activating the grid. The owners of Icom grid maps thought he was on a boat!

Highlights: Working stations off the back of the beam that are behind mountains and 300 miles away. Also getting behhind a Semi on I-5 and using the flat back of the semi trailer as a reflector to hit distant stations to my rear flank.

Next year will be a start in DN17 or something of that sort. -- K3UHF