[NLRS] June VHF Contest, W0JT

[John P. Toscano]

My wife and I made the drive up from Texas to Minnesota, but my SUV did 
not make the trip due to mechanical problems discovered at the last 
possible minute. So we had to rent a truck to bring the stuff that we 
brought back and forth. The 5 & 10 GHz dishes did not survive the trip 
up in the back of the truck unscathed, but I have not had enough time to 
give them a thorough check-out to assess the degree of damage.  Anyway, 
we got back to town just a few days ago, and I didn't have much time to 
get the shack put back into order. I only had 50 through 432 connected, 
and I missed a few QSO's on 2 meters because one of the feedline cables 
was not installed properly until I had a few free moments (during a 
brief dead period on 6 meters) to examine the setup closely and put it 
into proper order. What with our late arrival in MN and such, I did not 
get to play at all on Saturday; and only got in a few hours on Sunday. 
But it was fun.

Score breakdown:

Band  QSO's  Pt/QSO   Pts   Grids
  50    89        1     89     61
144     2        1      2      1
222     1        2      2      1
432     4        2      8      2
----------------------------------
Total   96            101  x  65  = 6,565 points

Best DX was to DM43, about 1226 miles.

I worked a few distant rovers, but none of the local rovers. I heard 
KC0IYT/r, W0ZQ/r, and W9FZ/r being worked by other stations, but I could 
not work them myself.

At least I know that the lower 4 bands are working now, and there were 
no issues with the rotator which has been a problem at times in the 
past. Now to get busy putting things into better order for next time.

I can also say that it is unlikely that I will rove in August UHF or 
September VHF since my car is still in Texas at the moment.

I still plan to make the trip to the North Shore for the 10 GHz contest 
since my wife was planning to come along anyway, and we can use her car.
For those of you planning on the North Shore rove in August, time is 
definitely running out to reserve hotel rooms. We have made our 
reservations for the Friday-to-Saturday overnight, and the 
Sunday-to-Monday overnight stays in Duluth, but no spot with openings 
found real close to Thompson Rest Area for Friday night. Haven't settled 
on a location for Saturday night to Sunday morning yet.

73 for now
W0JT, EN34js