[NLRS] September 2005 VHF Contest - KC0IYT/R

[Glen Overby]

I didn't feel like really roving anywhere, and since operating from home would
mean pointing into trees and hills, I decided to go on a "mini rove" to EN35.
My primary goal was to hand out EN35 on bands above 432mhz.

I put 902-1296-2304-3456 on a tripod on top of my car, and I planned to put 3
antennas: 6m (dipole), 2m (3el), 70cm (15el) on a 20' mast held with a tripod.
Well, Saturday was _very_ windy and only 6m and 2m went up in the air (with
guy lines augumenting the tripod).  Rats - no sideband on 432!  I should have
brought a dipole as a backup.  So, all my 432 contacts were FM only - which
worked better than I was expecting!

I was suprised to work EN37 on the 3el beam!  I'll attribute those contacts to
good stations on the other end :-) I heard others working stations in EN24,
EN25, and a rover in EN36.  I never heard those stations, mostly because I was
too lazy to turn the beam.  I wish I'd have brought a rotor.

I was suprised to watch my battery voltage drop from 12.8v to 11.9v as I
turned on the transverters (with nothing keyed up).  Luckily, I had borrowed a
2nd marine battery from Jason, N0RPM, and quickly put it into dual use: 10g
dish weight and low-band/IF power :-) It did well at both tasks.

I again had trouble with my 902 transverter FMing.  I've tested this
transverter and antenna from home with no signal problems.  Suspecting power
problems, I hooked my Battery Booster up to only the 902 & 1296 transverters,
and still had problems.  Later, at home, I checked the SWR and it was low -
about 1.3:1 (but this wasn't with the antennas on the car).  I'm out of ideas.
I'll have to try more controled experiments some Sunday evening between nets.
I also think I had bad SWR on 6m.

At about 5pm, I tore down and went home.  Around 9pm I went out to a nearby
park-and-ride and activated EN34 just to be 'legal' as a rover and activate
two grids.

RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs
EN34	11	EN35	49	

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rover rules:
Band	QSOs	Value	QSOPts	Mults
50	13	1	13	4
144	18	1	18	4
432	7	2	14	2
903	5	3	15	1
1.2	5	3	15	1
2.3	4	4	16	1
3.4	4	4	16	1
10	4	4	16	2

Grids activated: 		2

Totals:	60		123	18	

Claimed Score: 2214

Glen, kc0iyt