[NLRS] Liason option?

[tosca005]

On 25 Aug 2004, billd at 2z.net wrote:
> For discussion .... What about an independent 2m operation on the UP, 
> maybe at Mt Brockway for the the entire weekend? That station/person 
> might be a person not active on 10Ghz,  but looking for a "good time" on 
> the radio. Perhaps equipped for 1296Mhz and other bands that people are 
> interested in exploring. Good antennas and power.

This sounds like an outstanding idea to me.  Especially because we have
some folks in NLRS who don't have 10 GHz equipment, don't choose to borrow
it or buy it, but have plenty of gear on other bands that they might enjoy
putting to good use during a contest weekend.  Now that I am actually on 10
GHz, that isn't me, but until recently, it could have been...

> I have the feeling that some consider us "independents" a pain, sorry if 
> that is the case, but I UNDERSTAND that to some, big scores are what 
> make the activity for you. I DO understand.

You've GOT to be kidding!  The "independents" are the folks who are out to
have some fun, learn some things, and help boost the scores of the
hard-core group with little or no hope of "competing" with them on total
points.  You guys were making quite a sacrifice to be out there and we
would have been (or should I say, "WERE", in the case of the UP ops) the
beneficiaries of your efforts!  How could anyone consider the
"independents" to be "a pain"?  Sure, we on the NS may have left you with
the impression we didn't care about your efforts, but that isn't really
true.  (Speaking for myself at least,) we were struggling so hard to make
the contacts to the UP that we tended to forget all about the other sites
out there who should have been tried, like you guys.  Maybe my viewpoint is
distorted by the fact that I was always one of the last 2-4 folks to arrive
at each site, and was always hurrying to set up, make my QSO's, and not
delay so long as to be left behind by the rest of small group of tail-end
Charlies.  I guess I hoped that the "lead" group on the NS would have tried
to work the "outliers" after finishing with the "meat and potatoes" UP
operators while us stragglers worked the UP, and since they never mentioned
any successful contacts, I blindly carried on in the manner I described.

> Jim bought a phone card for the trip and ended up transferred to voice 
> mailboxs or no answers more than not. 40 meters was fine parts of the
day, 
> but QRM and line noise was very bad at times. Bruce had a GREAT signal 
> into my mobile at the overlook from Mt Brockway and VERY usable from 
> Great Sand Bay. 

I had no cell service except from Thompson and the road to the next stop to
the northeast.  I never tried analog roaming, since my cell plan is set up
in a way that makes it horribly expensive, although I had been tempted to
make a change to my cell plan to include unlimited analog roaming for a
modest fee.  Another "round tuit" that I never got.  ("I didn't get a round
tuit" -- say it fast a few times, if you don't know what I mean.)

I brought along 40M, but never really tested the setup.  It was a
first-time installation in the current vehicle, and was only a temporary
lashup.  I don't know how well the antenna would have actually performed
due to less than ideal grounding of the Hamstick.  I have spent so little
time exploring my priveleges on HF that I can't comment on the wisdom of
choosing 40M over any of the other HF bands that I could have equipped my
vehicle with.  (The prior vehicle could be equipped for 6M, 10M, 12M, 15M,
17M, 20M, and 40M simultaneously, in addition to the higher VHF and up
bands.  I've got the pieces I need, just need to get those holes punched in
the roof of my fancy "new" SUV without breaking anything important.)

Didn't have a 2M horizontal omni to bring along, but I had a 2M/70cm
vertical and the radio is an IC-706MkIIg, so SSB would have been possible,
although incorrectly polarized.  No small beam handy.  No time to prepare
adequately for the trip due to having to work all of Thursday and half of
Friday before departure, which were the days I planned to tie up a lot of
loose ends.  For next year, I might be able to bring several bands in a
rover configuration to use for liason and propagation testing.  The bands
that Jon mentioned (144, 432, 1296) make plenty of sense, but 902 and 2304
might also be interesting (for propagation testing more than liason).

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly with the notion of better liason and more
propagation experimentation.  Thanks for bringing it up!

73 de W0JT