[NLRS] January VHF contest KC0IYT/R

[Glen Overby]

Wow, that was a long weekend!  Here's the summary:

RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs
EN33	24	EN24	9	EN43	13
EN34	47	EN25	14	EN35	39

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rover rules:
Band	QSOs	Value	QSOPts	Mults
50	27	1	27	5
144	62	1	62	10
222	0	2	0	0
432	30	2	60	4
903	4	4	16	1
1.2	5	4	20	1
2.3	3	8	24	1
3.4	5	8	40	1
5.7	0	8	0	0
10	10	8	80	1

Grids activated: 		6

Totals:	146		329	30	

Claimed Score: 9870


Let me start with a big THANKS to those of you who came looking for me!

I started out the contest morning behind schedule.  I hadn't completed
everything the previous evening -- things like connecting cables.  I finally
got on the road about a half hour later than planned.  I was planning to scout
out the area to the west of Winsted for good operating locations, and work
from there if I found one I liked.  I ended up with about a half hour to
scout, and but tried anyway.  My map book has county road names, not street
names so I was a a bit lost.  I ended up at a spot of completly unknown
terrain at the start of the contest.

I didn't work many stations from my first stop in EN24.  I don't know if it
was my location, my gear or conditions but I heard very little even when
pointed at the twin cities.  I got bored of listening to static on the freq.
where I said I would be, so I tuned around a bit, trying to come back and call
every few minutes.

I wasn't hearing much on 432, so I stuck mainly to 2M.  The winds were strong,
so I didn't put my 6M dipole up more than about 8-10'.

Every now and then I did hear folks in the twin cities; I listened in on a Q
between W9FZ and WA2VOI, but couldn't make enough noise to get them to hear
me.  I got frustrated after that, so I went to Mel and Carol's frequency and
called.  A minute later I heard Mel, KC0P, calling from EN33 and we were able
to complete the contact!  Yipeeee!  Conditions improved for a minute and the
contact with Carol was even easier.  I know thats not much of a DX for many of
you, but when I'm able to do that rover-to-rover with a 3 element beam, I'm
happy about it.  Later, I found them again when I was in EN35 and they were in
EN44, ragchewing with WB0GGM.  I waited paitently for a time to jump in, but
they QSYed to another band without hearing me.  I found Mel again on Sunday
when he was in Rochester and I was near St. Charles, with help from 'GGM -
much appreciated!

I bailed from EN24 grid on time, and went to the Howard Lake tower site for
EN25.  I wasn't going to chance another grid from a questionable site.  My
first contact there was a a difficult Q with K0AWU; however, my antenna was
pointed SE towards the twin cities not nearly in his direction.  I didn't know
of Bill's success on 10G with W0ZQ/R, or I'd have suggested trying a 10G
contact.

EN35 and EN34 from the metro area were much more productive, and I got to use
my microwave bands and amortize my "cost per Q" :-)

Sunday I departed late, arriving at St. Charles about the time I said I would
leave EN44, so I went directly to EN43.  I tried a spot on the north side of
I90, as someone suggested it was better.  After a frustrating hour, I moved to
the south side but didn't do any better there.  After a trip in to St. Charles
to pick up lunch, I was back in the same area to work from EN33.  Conditions
seemed to be improving somewhat, but by the end of my scheduled EN33 time I
was ready to leave.

I had mounted a TV antenna rotor on my car, hoping to use it instead of
turning the car.  It didn't work out for several reasons, one of which was not
enough slack in the coax leaving the car.  With better planning and testing,
this may work in the future.

My 222 [w1ghz 222] was out of action and deaf.  I configured it to use PTT-H
over the coax like my other transverters, and I blew something in the process.
While I have *3* 0.01uf capacitors between the RF input and the mixer (and
there are some attenuators and PIN diodes in there too), I think thats what I
blew.

Glen, KC0IYT