[NLRS] ARRL VHF September - W0ZF/R

[Dave Fugleberg]

Another rover expedition is in the books.

AE0EE and W0ZF operated as W0ZF/R from a total of 8 grids in western MN and
eastern Dakotas, as part of a rover pack with K0BBC/R.
A number of equipment problems surfaced during final preparation on
Saturday morning. delaying our departure until well after the contest
started. I believe some of the problems were self-inflicted due to trying
to stack too many beams on too little mast, resulting in a lot of
interactions.  We finally made the decision to leave the 220 beam at home.
The 432 transverter mysteriously refused to function. Luckily I have an
IC-7100 in the truck for everyday use, so we pressed it into service for
the 432 band.  Finally, we had weird issues with the 2M amp, which forced
us to manually turn it off and on after each transmission.

On the plus side, the weather was great, and we were able to take advantage
of some tropo, bagging a number of 2m and 70cm contacts into Wisconsin on
SSB with great signals.

One highlight was getting K9MU his final 6m grid in the EN square (EN16) on
Sunday morning..

Due to the last minute change of radios for 432, we found ourselves
literally up a creek without a paddle, when we realized that we had no
paddle along with the 1/8 inch plug required for the IC-7100.  When it
became apparent that we could not quite make SSB work with W0UC from EN26,
necessity again became the mother of invention. A stereo audio cable I keep
in the truck, along with a small clip lead I had along, were pressed into
service as an impromptu paddle, and AE0EE made it happen by tapping the
clip lead back and forth on tip and ring.  He did this again later to snag
K0AWU when we were in EN14.

Overall,we had a good time, but now have a list of things to fix and
improve for next time.

166 QSOs, mostly SSB, with a number of FT8, MSK144, and CW contacts as
well, across 5 bands.  Rover pack contacts with K0BBC/R.accounted for 96 of
these QSOs.
Claimed score 16,642.

73 de W0ZF