[Rover] Rover build-up question

[Phil Lefever]

At 12:08 PM 5/20/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello everyone from K8JWT, in Morgantown,WV (FM09ap).
>
>I am still in the process of building my rover contesting system and have
>came upon a question as to what bands to keep or drop.  I presently have a
>Alinco DX-70t for 10watts on 6meters and no other SSB/CW radios.  I am
>looking at dropping 6meter though as the antennas are rather large and ugly
>astheticaly, so therefore I am looking at selling the Alinco and either go
>with tranverters or used mono-band radios for bands 2meters and above.

For the June VHF contest you MUST have 6m. You are in the
middle of the Es season and there are a lot of good mults
on 6m for the taking. If you want a decent score in June
it will come from 6m! The September contest 6m is hit and
miss, some years good others flat. Finally in the January
contest 6m is usually locals only with a few meteor scatter
mults.

>Am I barking up the wrong tree on this idea? Since after looking at alot of
>other rovers reported scores 2 meter SSB seems to be the bread and butter
>band for almost all of them.

Of course 2m is the most populated band. It is also the
lowest frequency band that a rover can have decent antennas
on. You will usually make more Q's and mults on 2 then any
other band (except when you get good 6m conditions in June).


>As for the transverter idea, what do you folks think of the TenTec 1210
>units?  I know the DEMI transverters are much better, but for the initial
>cost ($250.00 vs. $400.00) I can handle the TenTec easier.  Also found a RX
>improvement modification for the TenTec units on the web and wonder if
>anyone had tried it and does it work?

I have both a TenTec on 2m and a DEM transverter on 222. Without
question the DEM unit is superior! I am looking at selling my
2m TenTec to replace it with a DEM. It isn't as frequency stable
as I'd like and not enough power output to drive the amp I want
to run. Other then that the TenTec is an amazingly good deal
though. I wouldn't suggest moving them to other bands unless
you like to tinker and you have LOTS of time.... Also I haven't
looked at DEM's pricing lately but I got my 222 transverter as
a kit for $275. It was EASY to assemble and required almost zero
tuning. Eventually I will have a rack of at least 4 of these :)


>Also, if I do drop 6meters and gain 2meters, what band should I go for=
 next?
>220? 432?  I also found a conversion modification for the TenTec 1210 to
>make it a 220 transverter from a QST article.

You should run as many bands as possible even if some are FM
only. We did well for years running 25w FM on 220 with a 5el
horizontal beam (just tell the other operator to hit the FM
button and that you are horizontal). This added considerably
to our score. If I had to pick order of bands to add I'd say
2m, 6m, 432, 220, 1296, 903 etc. Try to pick the bands that
have the greatest potential for Q's both from a usage standpoint
and for propagation during a specific contest.

73

Phil, KB0NES
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Phil Lefever, KB=D8NES   		Field day Chairman
Twin Cities Repeater Club		http://www.tcrc.org
Burnsville, Minnesota