[MAMS] 2011 UHF contest NE8I/r

[Lloyd Ellsworth]

27 Q 10 operating hours 90 miles driven. Activated 2 grids. 3 rover stops. Usual couple hundred points. Spent last week getting all 10 bands up and working. 222 to 47 GHz. Test everything. Double check it. Plus back up spare on most bands. Rather than the mobile while rover this year on the bottom 4 bands. It was the stop and set up everything rover. About a half hour of set up time involved. Set up the stand, dishes, horns, batteries and yagi's. Then about a half an hour to take down. My test stop, was Saturday morning MAD. Went pretty smooth. Forgot a jumper, and a couple of adapters. However, I had alternate spare stuff in the fix it collection. 



Saturday. EN64. Glen Haven. On Lake Michigan. It has really changed in the last year. The Park has spent about $1.8 Million in Recovery money, to paint and fix up buildings. New exhibits. Buried utilities. Totally redid the Cannery complex. The Park added parking lots. Changed the beach access completely. Now limited with a fence to a couple of gates. Did not see any fee use area signs yet, so free is good. Could not set up where I wanted to. So drove until I could find at least a sort of useful spot. Very limited horizon area. Spent a couple hours there. Very crowded. In the parking lots, there would have been no place to park, let alone set up. Then drove to AJ EN74. Hot, hazy day. Propagation was funny. Lower bands, seemed enhanced some. In the morning, the K3SIW 1296 beacon was there. Not in the afternoon. Worked several stations. Then my 28V power supply died. Replaced it with the back it. It also died. That would suggest I have a bad intermittent
 SMA relay or load somewhere. So, I was down to 3 good bands, 222, 432 with 10 GHz and my QRP Sackrider Hill special. Propagation did not seem to really open up to make 1W long distance contacts practical. Best DX worked was W0VB on 222. I heard K8TQK EM89 on 222 several times. But could not attract his attention. I have worked him from EN74 several times. Best DX on 432 was EN52. 


Went home. Worked on the 28V problem. Till rather late. Was unable to fix. Even the usual band aids were not working well. This has been a chronic source of problems for years. My good 28V system died last year. Have not been able to find an affordable replacement. Have been using the usual available junk box solutions. So, Murphy took over and was in control again this time. 


Sunday, got up before dawn, and headed to AJ. Try to catch morning enhancement. Lake Michigan was visible, but, the horizon color was not a good sign. Where I need to set up and operate, found the left overs of a party. Including the vehicles. All the empty bottles, broken glass and all. So, drove over to M22 EN64 rover stop. Not much on that early. No 1296 K3SIW beacon. Could not find any beacons. No real hoped for propagation. Called CQ for a while. Said enough. Watching the sky. Lots of dark clouds, with rain under them. Forecast is scattered showers today. Especially after 10AM. Tried some random 10 GHz Rain Scatter CQ into a few of them. Nada. Drove back to AJ. Waited a bit. Sleeping drunks and the broken glass still there. Again, I don't care to wake up drunks. Never know what you are in for. Plus tired. Did not sleep much last night. Did not bring a broom. Only my usual plastic bag and gloves to pick up trash. Which is what I routinely do. Shrubs
 and trees there really need some serious pruning too. Did pick up some broken glass and trash. Decided Murphy was enough of a challenge this year. Score 7:2. Murphy. I have enough things to keep busy fixing. Plus, given the limited fuel budget. Save any I can for more driving for the cumulative in 2 weeks.  


Reading a few of the posts. I think the one grid corner Saturday, 4 grids, and one grid corner Sunday 4 grids, is the best rover bet. Here, due to the terrain, hills, trees, available paths that work, it becomes more of how many rover stops can you reasonably do Saturday, and Sunday in different grids. Depends on who will be on, and paths. So, really need to find out who will be on, and work within their range. Why I need line scores. Rover route. Fuel cost, is still the big limiting factor. How many miles. Well, 5 years ago, it was the 1,200 mile drive. Half hour, to hour per stop. Today, it is a much shorter drive, and more time per stop. Some of the locations, were quite scenic. Well worth the time, to just stop and look. Took a bunch of pix. One of these days. Get them on line. Typical computer issues. 


Plan for August 10 GHz+ cumulative. Will be around here. 


Plan for September VHF, at this time looks like drive along the Michigan side of Lake Michigan. EN62, 63, 64, 73, 74 and maybe 75. 


73, Lloyd NE8I/r
EN74 etc