[NLRS] N9TTX Rover CQWW VHF summary...long

Fri Jul 21 06:17:50 EDT 2006

WHEW!!!!!

     I had never worked the CQWW VHF contest before,
and had not planned anything at all, as it had slipped
my mind until the NLRS and CVVHF club reflectors
started showing contest plans.  I began a POSSIBLE
rover plan which encompassed initially 4 to 6 grids
but grew to a possible 11 to 13 grids.  As the week
progressed, I had not made up my mind as to what I
wanted to do.  I wanted to have a looper setup on the
roof of the car via a trimag base for moving Q's, and
a small set of yagis for stationary work.  For the rig
setup I wanted the FT-726R, mirage 6 meter brick,
computer, keyer, and possibly the FT-736R hooked up as
well.  I got home from work Saturday morning at 3am
and had only the plate made for the mag base mount. 
No gammas for the loopers, no masting for the same,
the three magnets all were of different heights, so
they would not even work until I did some
modifications...loopers out of the plan.  I realized I
needed sleep, so I went to bed from 7am til 11am.  I
ran around town scrounging up the planned yagis and
other parts, and kept hearing 6 wanting to open wide,
but was very QSB at the time.  After getting home, NOT
finding the laptops, not having a logging program, not
having the wiring done to the car for the setup,
looking at the very small amount of available gas
money (after bills), the rover idea was discarded, so
I went to the grocery store to get some food for the
refrigerator.  On the way, I made a good number of
QSO's (band opened wide!!) and started a good
point/mult base., so instead of eating anything I
tossed what I had in the car in a half an hour, and
was on my way to the 1st rover stop in EN44 on Elk
Mound Hill...about 1200-1400 ft. elevation.  One can
see a LOOOONG ways from the lookout tower.  A pileup
ensued after 2 calls.  an hour or so later I was on my
way to EN45, which ended up taking longer than
expected as the roads I chose were winding and slow,
wrong turns, etc....  I was still below the Knapp
ridge, but I had a decent horizon nonetheless, and it
was out of the way of normal traffic.  Again, within a
couple calls of being set up, another pileup hit me. 
Right in the middle of a good run, a wind gust took
the 15 foot tripod/mast/yagi assembly over and toasted
the 6-meter 2 element.  (TV antenna elements are a bit
on the fragile side).  3 element halves bent or
broken, so I decided to head home and do a repair job
instead of going to the next grid.
    Once I got home and fixed the antenna, it was dark
out, so since I did not have anything to eat yet, I
made dinner, and heard 2 open up...oh well, quick
shovel the food in, and toss a line out to the
antennas and run a bit of 6 and 2 until the wee hours
of the morning on Sunday.  The bands took a dip in
propagation, so I took a few hour nap.  I got up at
8:30 am and checked the bands which still seemed
lively, though not as nice as Sat.  I tossed
everything in the car that was not there already.  I
found a lapto, but it was not cooperating, so it
became a paperweight in the travels.  I drove EN44 to
EN34 dodging storm systems on the way.  While in EN34,
I saw a fairly mean looking T-storm ahead of me
walking my way on thick bolts of lightning.  I wanted
to either run 34 and go to 35 or vice versa for the
day, and it seemend that there was a closer run to the
edge of the storm by going North to EN35, so I beat
feet...errrrr...leadfooted it North and ended up
giving K1TOL both EN34 and EN35 as I crossed the
division line.  I got to hwy 65 and scooted to New
Richmond, and sat on a high point and played pileup
master again.  After my gas guage hit the point I
deemed the safe line for the return trip, I packed up
and went South to EN34 and sat on another high point. 
The bands seemd to be slowly closing, as the pileups
here were in sporadic bursts.  I saw another storm
system crawling my way, so I decided to pull up stakes
as it were and drive home via EN34 and EN44 again.  By
the time I got near home, my tounge was numb and I
could pass for Elmer Fudd as my callouts were sounding
like "November Nine Tango Tango Ex-way Wover, Echo
November Fow Fow."  I also felt like breaking into
song, but 'tis not good on the ham bands, so I curbed
that urge.  (I tend to get a tad loopy with no sleep) 

   I took a long nap until midnight, and spent the
next 7 hours organizing and copying my log into the
permanent books, as well as doing demographics of the
rove.  Only four grids activated on limited time with
no sleep.  I wonder what the score would have been if
I had gone the 11 or so grids I planned on at one
time.

High points:  
1)  LOTS of comments on my loud, clear signal on six. 
The two element works gangbusters...and the 10
meter/CB whip on the car is no slouch either I guess.
2)  I got my home grid from each grid activated.
3)  Set what I thought was an overly high goal of 81K,
and surpassed that with flying colors.  I only
expected maybe 25K-40K at best.
4)  6 and 2 meter openings.
5)  Learned a lot, got spots better picked out, and
got ideas for next time.

Low Points:
1)  Not enough gas to go the long route.
2)  6-meter yagi biting the dust
3)  Not being prepared in any way shpe or form.
4)  No 'puter logging...shaky script while driving is
hard to read v.s. keypunches on a screen.
5)  didn't get much chance to run 2 meters..too busy
with 6M phone.
6)  Dodging T-storms...Lightning is VERY bright when
hitting REAL close!!!

Notable stations:  
K1TOL, N3HBX, K3EAR, K8GUN, K0XXX, W6OAL, K1TEO,
W2MMD, W1QK, K1FUB, K2DRH (I did hear you while in
EN45, but the antennas blew down right then.)  All the
local (WI & MN stations)  All the Rovers I worked, and
last but certainly not least, any who put up with my
unique contesting style and humor.

Thanks to everyone I made a contact with or helped out
with advice and/or equipment.  You all made this
second rover experience a great one.  The 1st time I
roved, I had no clue, and had never contested before
at all.

Station:
2004 Chevy Impala, Radio Shack HTX-242 (2-Meter FM),
RCI-5054 six meter mobile, Yaesu FT-726R, Mirage 150W
brick for 6. 

Antennas:  Radial-Larsen 5/8 Wave 2 meter whip, 10/11
meter "Skipshooter" whip for 6 meters. 6-element 144
Mhz homebrew Yagi, 2-element homebrew yagi for 50 Mhz.

CONTEST NAME _CQWW VHF CONTEST 

CALL USED         N9TTX/R
HOME GRID SQUARE  EN44
SECTION           WISCONSIN
OPERATOR CATEGORY [ROVER]

BAND CATEGORY     [ALL] 
POWER CATEGORY    [LOW]

Grids Activated - Rovers Only  4  

 Band   Valid QSOs     QSO Points       Mult
 50           374 |x1|       374        212 
 144           37 |x2|        74         22

 Totals:      411            448        234   
--------------------------------------------    
                 Grand Total  104,832 points

 HOURS OPERATING: 17       

Affiliated Club: CHIPPEWA VALLEY VHF CONTESTERS

I modulate, therefore I am!
               ...73, and all that jazz,

                 Dave...N9TTX

Always remember:  "It could be worse.....it could be raining."
                             Marty Feldman from "Young Frankenstein"

Come to the Central States VHF Society 40th
Conference in Minneapolis on July 27-30, 2006!
Info at www.csvhfs.org

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