ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: WY0X/R
Operator(s): WY0X
Station: WY0X/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH: Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 374 117
2: 54 13
222: 23 4
432: 45 9
903: 13 8
1.2: 22 9
2.3: 3.4: 5.7: 10G: 4 2
24G: -------------------
Total: 535 171 Total Score = 117,135
Club:
Comments:
Grids activated: 9
-------------------
Hello everyone, Nate the crazy rover here!
Wow what a year to do my first rover station -- holy cow, 6m was nice!
History:
For the last few years I've been operating with the W0KVA multi-op here
in Colorado. It all started innocently enough, with John Maxwell N0WBW
and Scott W0KU saying, "You should come up and hang out..." Hang out
indeed I did, and met Scott W0KVA who's callsign graces the multi-op, as
well as many other great ops over the years.
http://www.rmham.org - Photos and info about both the multi-op and the
Rover. (We had a server crash tonight so some of the photos are being
re-uploaded... keep checking back!)
This year during one of one of my dumber/weaker/crazier moments, I told
John, "Hey maybe I should go roving this year." The rest is, as they
say, is history.
The Rover:
> From the start, this was definitely a team effort, as it's always
> been. The guys went to work, in the middle of building their own new
> "contest trailer" (which by the way, is GORGEOUS!) they took time out
> to help me get the radios together, the right antennas, and help set
> up the Jeep Cherokee, affectionately dubbed "The Battlestar Butt-Ache"
> with the correct power distribution.
John and Scott (KVA) put their efforts into building the 12' mast with
antennas for all bands through 1.2 GHz, and Scott W0KU put in many hours
putting together the multi-op station's new 10 GHz dish after I let him
know that I'd ordered a DEMI 10 GHz transverter - we were going to need
the old Dish Network dish in the ever-so-stylish dark green Christmas
Tree stand for the rover! (At one point I thought I was perhaps caught
in the DEMI shortage for the 2W amp version caused by the new RoHS
rules, but when I talked to DEMI at Dayton, I was overjoyed to find that
I had gotten my order in just "under the wire". Yay! I called the gang
on the cell phone only minutes after talking to DEMI -- "It'll be here
before contest!!")
The "other" Rover:
Talking up the contest in our local area, I found that there were some
new guys on the block -- in fact, I found them quite by accident one
night on 432.1 SSB -- they were talking to someone on 432 and I
literally stumbled upon them by accident while out buying power
distribution parts for my rover. This is the two-man team of KR0VER/R
(nice call, eh?). Only a couple of weeks before the contest, I told
them I was roving and we learned that they were nuts about roving back
home in California, and were planning on going out. They knew little
about the local Colorado roving "scene" (Like *I* know anything about
it???) and we decided to pair up on Day 1 to travel the route together
that I'd already published, as they weren't sure what their plans were.
This sounded great as a first time rover going solo into the "middle of
nowhere". Someone else to get lost with. (And run up the bands with!)
Cool!
About a week before the contest, on the same night "Safety Scott" W0KU
and I were working on putting the power distribution in the Jeep, we got
a phone call from John N0WBW saying that we really needed to do a final
test of the 10 GHz radios. Okay, with John headed up the hill, we ran
75' of cable from the Jeep up onto Scott's roof and put the infamous
Christmas Tree dish mount on top of his chimney. With Scott listening
for me to yell, "KEY!" and "OVER!" so he could ground the keying line up
there, since it wasn't hooked to the radio, I made my very first 10 GHz
contact with John up on Lookout Mtn. in Denver. Whoooo! It works!
(John and both Scott's worked like madmen on ANYTHING contest related
the few weeks prior to the contest -- John also helped Wayne N0POH put
his 1.2 GHz antenna on his tower. John was POSSESSED this year! Go John!)
The Contest:
Saturday started off with me running late to get to DN70 in time. I got
there just as the contest started and had been monitoring W1AW/0 weakly
from Estes Park, CO at the Colorado ARRL HamCon conference. (I found
out later that Bob K0NR and W0ETT suggested that the station get on the
air on 6m because of the dual-scheduling of HamCon and the VHF QSO
Party, and they even were involved in the procurement and installation
of the antenna! They also said that the 6m station was a real hit! WAY
TO GO GUYS!)
As a new Rover, I hadn't really gotten into the swing of things, and I
hadn't met the other guys yet. The three of us "met" briefly beside the
road there in DM70, and said our hellos and rushed back to our
vehicles... it was contest time! Right off the bat in DN70, I stuck the
left front tire of the Jeep down in a ditch next to a culvert, still
getting used to turning the Jeep around on the road-side to aim the
antennas. Oops. 4WD comes in handy at times. :-)
After a while, and a visit from another contester who lived nearby who
wanted to see the rover, the other guys were ready to go, but I was
having a ball on 6m, so we decided to meet up in Cheyenne, WY or
close-by and away they went. I then worked N0UGY on various bands, and
was floored when he asked if I had 10 GHz... why, um... yes, I do! He
prompted me to point West toward the 10 GHz beacon on Mt. Thorodin, tune
to the correct frequency and then tune around and listen for him, and lo
and behold -- there he was! Thanks Don for the first real 10 GHz
contact in the contest! He asked if I was coming out for the 10 GHz
contest... well, yeah, I'd definitely like to! Additionally in DN70 I
got to work my dad, who's a relatively new ham (KC0VFO, another nice
call!) and that was very cool also! Hi dad!
As I was getting ready to leave DN70, I heard W2SZ/1 pounding in all of
a sudden from FN32 on 6m. I've been listening for them casually in the
contests for three years, and all of a sudden I'm hearing them like
they're sitting in my own back yard. Wow. I made the contact and then
just sat and listened for a couple of minutes. NEAT! (At this point is
when I think I really realized just how open 6m really was... duh...)
Little did I realize this was going to change the face of the contest
for me. 6m was BOOMING. And my two W0KVA square loops were really
doing the job. Wow! That (of course) makes this a VERY different contest.
I started driving north to catch up with the other guys, and working
folks on 6m while moving - that was my "warm-up" for what was to come.
Disclaimer:
DON'T operate mobile unless you: 1. Have a boom mic and headset with
only one ear covered.
2. Have a remote PTT switch.
3. Can touch type with one hand without looking.
4. Have PRACTICE in something like this ahead of time. My years of
being a private pilot put the right priorities in me... Aviate,
Navigate, THEN Communicate -- in that order. NEVER put your safety
behind operating the radio. Safety first!
5. If you can "tuck in" behind a slightly slower moving tractor-trailer
that everyone else wants to go around, back at a safe distance, that's
nice. You "convoy" together and everyone else leaves you alone. Works
well.
Toodling north, I reached Cheyenne, WY and started looking around for
the GPS coordinates of the place I was told was the best place to
operate from. I even had directions from N0UGY given to me on 10 GHz
earlier, and STILL couldn't find it. Hmm. Fiddled around trying to
drive up a large hill on a dirt track only to find it was quite a bit
lower than the next ridge to the south. Eventually ended up beside Hwy
85 behind the wind power generation farm, not exactly what I was
thinking of originally and not optimal for microwaves and no idea where
the other rover was... but 6 was booming and I didn't care... pull over
and get to operating seriously, man!
Operated for a while and ran across KR0VER/R on 144 or 432, which was
expected, and asked them where they were. They were almost ready to
head out, so I finished up working bands with them (they were over near
the Cheyenne Holiday Inn somewhere) and told them if we both got going
out I-80, we'd meet up again soon, no problem. Got moving again.
That's when the world went insane... 6m just kept getting better and
better, and with the long boring open expanse of I-80 ahead for a LONG
way, I carefully but quickly continue operating - and WHOOO BOY, did
people want those grids! All of a sudden I find myself the center of a
pile-up and running it while mobile... Talk about FUN! A couple of
times when things died off (once?) I tuned around and heard KR0VER/R
with their two ops having a similar experience! Wow! Kept driving, and
driving, and driving, and finally as the sun started to go down, found
that I actually had to call CQ a couple of times. Looking at the logs
later, I found that I had a few brief moments of 4 Q's a minute MOBILE!
Holy buckets! Anyway, at one point near Nebraska somewhere (it's all
kinda a blur, really), the GPS warned "Low GPS Coverage"... now mind
you, it didn't say "NO" coverage, it said "Low" coverage. And I had my
waypoints in there for the planned stops, so I kept on truckin'. At one
point I saw KR0VER/R pull over and stop, which put them behind me, so
they must have been out in front. Ok. After a little while that
built-in timer that pilots tend to develop started to poke at my
brain... 65 to 70 MPH for this many minutes is too long... something's
not right. Hmm, is that GPS updating? Tap, poke... push buttons....
Hmm, can't tell.
I started talking to KR0VER/R and found out they were about 50 miles
behind me... hmm, okay. They asked where we were supposed to get off,
and my Q rate and my attention span available for non-driving activity
switched to the GPS. Hey, this thing isn't receiving any satellites.
That's not right.
I look for the next exit - oh yeah, this is middle of nowhere... next
exit, 10 miles. Heh. Okay. I get out to check on the GPS antenna and
it seems okay. I remove it and place the regular antenna on it. Bam!
Satellites! Okay where are we? Hey, would you look at that... just
barely crossed into DM91, didn't mean to do that... so, call up KR0VER/R
and tell them which mile marker I'm at, and which exit they should get
off at to stay in the last grid. Luckily no stations worked during all
of this, so no confusion in the logs. Didn't bother to log the DM91 to
DM81 with them, oops.
Back down the highway I go, and finally meet up with KR0VER/R guys at a
truck stop. HI GUYS! CAN YOU BELIEVE 6M?! WOW! Okay, supposedly we
need to go up THERE (point in the dark uphill to the south) somewhere...
and so far, these GPS coordinates have been pretty useless without
instructions on how to get to these spots, so let's just scout out a
nice high spot and stop there"...
Out the dirt road for a while and we give up trying to get all the way
over the ridge... "This'll work". We spread out and work folks for a
while, and each other, and some teenagers cruise up in a car, figuring
we must have been heading out into the country for a party -- sorry
kids, no. Worked a few stations we hadn't heard all day on 2m and up
and then things are quieting down again.
By this time 6m is pretty dead (well after nightfall) without messing
with CW mobile, and we head back to the truck stop. The original plan
did include DN91, so ... should we go over there? Sure - why not? I'm
game, and we're way behind schedule. It's now getting real late, and we
can hear only the multi-ops who aren't very responsive, they're all worn
out, and we're still awake out here. Well whatever. Run over there,
work each other, put out a few CQ's and realized we just couldn't even
see to find our hill, ANY hill for that matter... and no replies from
the multi-ops, who are either asleep or just too far behind that dang
big black rolling hill to the south.
Time to call it a night, they had to head back into Denver. Followed
them back on I-80 to I-76 at Julesberg and explained where I-76 would
dump them in Denver. After some more "Thank you for coming out, man this
is GREAT!" moments, we parted company and I said I'd keep a watch out on
the bands for them if they needed anything, but that I was pretty tired
and going to find a place to crash. At that time, they figured they
were done for the contest, so I thanked them for coming out and headed
to the all-night truck stop for a bite to eat and COFFEE!
Pretty tired, needed to catch a little second wind, I hung out in the
restaurant with the Sedgewick County Sheriff's deputy who was grabbing a
late-night cup of coffee and explained what the antenna mast was for.
We talked about storm chasing for a bit and then I was off... to head a
bit south on 385 to get a jump on the morning's driving. Or so I thought.
Catching a really good second wind from the coffee and cool night air,
about 1/2 hour south of Julesberg, I realized I'd forgotten to fuel the
Jeep. Crud. Back to Julesberg and the night manager laughed when I
told him I'd forgotten. "Yeah, not much down 385 open this time of
night." Yeah.
Anyway, back on the road, I wanted to get as far south in the grid as
possible but not out of it, so I could work folks at first light when I
woke up. Found a suitable safe dirt road to pull off onto about 45
minutes south of Julesberg or a little further, and set up to sleep a
bit in the seat of the Jeep just before 3AM to the sounds of CW on 6m
and 2m. Even put out a couple of slow CQ's on 2m, but no takers... I'm
sure W0EEA heard me, but they already had me in this grid. (Plus they
probably would have popped a vessel trying to copy my slow crappy code.
At least I had paddles to make it somewhat easy on the ear!)
Anyway, turned on the broadcast AM radio for a few minutes to catch the
3AM news to see if the world had fell apart or anything (850 AM KOA -
50,000W AM in Denver), and fell asleep. Around 7AM the sun and the sound
of a pickup truck passing rousted me, and I woke feeling awake and ready
to go! Put out some CQ's on 2m, and there was the gang, W0KVA, W0EEA,
and I think even N0POH... knock knock - everyone's home! Hi guys! I'm
alive and well, and ready to get rollin'!
Finished up there and wandered south listening to 6m try to start back
up in fits and pops. At daybreak, 6m sounded like a "normal" semi-open
contest year with a few light ones and some CW ticking away. But as I
drove, up it came again, booming from all over the East and there's
California and the West Coast too! Wow, two days in a row?! SWEET! CQ
CONTEST! Sporadically I'd hear TX and the folks south of us pop in, but
not for long and when I tried to work 'em, they didn't hear me. Oh
well, the 8's and 6's are keeping me company, and would you look at
that, the East coast is back although weaker than yesterday -- what a
chorus!
Decided to stop in at Limon, CO and say hello to the W0KVA gang and
check out their site. NICE setup guys! Everyone uses a pasture
watering chorale to tie off their towers to, right? :-) Awesome
touch with the American flag flying on one of the pickup trucks too...
now that's nice to see. Got treated like a King, they threw together
(another?) hearty breakfast for me (mind you, it's almost lunchtime and
breakfast had been cleaned up for hours -- huge thank you's to everyone
for that -- the protein bars and gallons of water certainly aren't as
good as a nice plate of eggs and bacon! WOW!) and let me grab a quick
shower in the 5th wheel trailer... hey! That's not real roving! (I'm
sure someone will want a rule against rovers stopping at camper trailers
in the middle of nowhere for showers next, but anyway...)
Okay, okay - I gotta get outta here. We also did a quick test of radios
and found that 220 really was deaf, as suspected. Tossed them the
original IF radio (got rid of it - didn't add any gear I didn't already
have you rules worry warts!) and reconfigured 220 to run off of the
FT-847 (yes, I had extra DIN connectors still in the Jeep from JB
Saunders in Boulder, and tools so don't give me any crap) as the 28 MHz
IF radio, figured out through discussion that I was being a moron and
using the wrong frequencies for the IF radio on 902, which helped a lot
later on, worked W0EEA on 10 GHZ and other bands from there so the KVA
guys could see how well the rover was working, said my farewells, and
took off. And away we go, with a new route -- down Colorado 94 will work
better now, there's just not enough time left to drive to the Kansas
grids! So off we go, southbound now without marked out GPS locations,
but with a much better look at a map first. Stopped and worked all the
usuals on the high bands in each grid southbound as well as continuing a
good Q rate on 6m while mobile... getting into a real rhythm now! Sunday
was the day for really getting some practice in on the upper bands...
worked mostly everyone, but picked a bad spot for working W0EEA in one
grid. Had a hard time hearing them on 432, let alone 10 GHz. Dang.
Who passes me on the road going the other way, but... you guessed it...
KR0VER/R! HI GUYS! (Well, actually they spotted me parked on a
side-road working people and pulled in... but they were coming OUT of
Colorado Springs. They explained that it was just too much fun, and
they had headed out to meet me. NICE!) So we worked up the bands, and
then they took off eastbound. I stayed put and told them I'd listen for
them there so they wouldn't find DM88 the usual "no man's land of no
contacts". Meanwhile I worked WW1M/R who'd decided to pay his bucks and
go up to the top of Pikes Peak! Neat... nice signal from up there,
man... everywhere, I'm sure.
Continued on into Colorado Springs and had to cut off 6m operation while
mobile for much of that time. COS is just too busy and too much traffic
to keep operating there. Pulled over a couple of times and also managed
to get W0KVA on the horn when I got turned around on a side-street and
they used Streets and Trips or similar to give me a hint on how to get
OUT of DM78! Dang it... wasted a lot of time in there! Did try finding
spots to work stations both north and south, but not having much
success... too many rocks in the way.
Up I-25 and bam... the usual COS to DEN Sunday afternoon traffic jam.
Crap. 20 MPH and in the mini-canyons of I-25 northbound, can't hear a
DAMN soul other than W0EEA calling CQ on 2m. Crud. Worked a few on 6m,
and kept pedaling. Finally it sped up and I was off again, ready to
find a final high spot in DM79.
Made it into the home grid, DM79 early evening. Worked all the locals,
worked a few rovers, and even caught KR0VER/R again at the very end as I
pulled up into my street. I was BEAT. Thunderstorms (big ones) had
gone over about an hour before I hit Denver, and I knew that meant they
were headed for W0KVA and that I hadn't heard them on any band in quite
a while. Found out later, they looked up and saw a thunderstorm line
coming from horizon to horizon and realized it was time to get the
temporary towers DOWN NOW. So we never made the DM79 to DM89 contacts.
Talked to Wayne N0POH on 1.2 GHz a little bit... a mini-ragchew of
sorts, from a hill near Lincoln and I-25 and worked a few more, but my
backside hurt, my brain was frazzled, and I knew it was time to quit.
As I pulled in front of the house, I (as mentioned above) caught
KR0VER/R and worked them up the bands as they headed for home also. I
also dropped my cell phone in the lawn watering water running down the
gutter... and had to grab it and pull the battery out and set it out to
dry. A sure sign I was "done for", mentally and physically. There was
still an hour and a half to go and I even heard and XE2 calling on 6m,
but -- I was baked... time to go inside and lie on the couch to get the
ringing of static out of my ears.
Lessons Learned:
- Don't put the Jeep tire in the ditch in the first grid - it could ruin
your whole weekend.
- Plan the route MUCH better - have perfect instructions for getting up
to your chosen high sites in the daylight AND in the dark. No to
mention that people want to know where you are on the route. I heard
later that people were asking other Colorado stations on 6m, "Where is
he now?!"
- Never only trust the GPS. External GPS antennas just might not like
100W on 6m for hours on end. ;-)
- Don't sleep in the Jeep. You're not 18 anymore, you twit. (The
backache just started letting up today.) Take the Suburban next time,
if you think you can turn it around on country roads. HA!
- Spontaneous 10 GHz contacts DO happen out here in Colorado! Wow.
- Take Monday off, tearing apart the rover after work on Monday night is
a real bummer. The radios looked so sad, all packed up and put away for
the next outing.
- Get and keep skeds. It's not like 6m opens that much EVERY year, but
man did it come in handy THIS year!
- Get more microwave bands. (Of course.)
- In years when 6m is this open, the contest changes. Only the
multi-ops are really there "waiting" on the upper bands. If the
single-ops really want more points, they gotta learn to listen to 2m for
the rovers WHILE they're working like mad on 6m. Wayne N0POH and
another newer Ham, Dave KC0UYK really did a bang up job on this. It was
nice to work you guys! WV0H was there too, most stops!
Thanks to all the great ops out there who patiently waited in the
pile-ups while I was on I-80 -- you guys are the best! (And for those
who kept calling at the wrong times who were 20 over 9, hopefully I made
you wait long enough that I significantly lowered your Q rate, dang
you... Call when the guy says QRZ, not while I'm trying to copy a weak
one's grid square while driving, you twits!)
And there's of course, more to the story -- far more than I can tell --
like the scheduled phone call from home to check and see if I was
alright, right in the middle of the pile-up... "Hang on guys, that's
home calling to make sure I'm alright - be right back! - Hang on!" and
the patient ops who waited those long minutes while I talked to them,
and to KR0VER somewhere behind me on the highway! I'm sure you all
heard the obnoxious ringer through the mic that caused you to have to
wait for me. Thanks for staying there!
Thanks to Yaesu for building GREAT rigs. FT-847, FT-857, and FT-736R
were the big heros in my Jeep. And when I got lazy, the Kenwood TH-F6A
and GE MP/A's come in handy for that quick run with the other rover! Of
course, if you forget to bring your charger for the TH-F6A... well,
that's why I don't have them on 222 much after DN70, shall we say.
Oops! That and the 222 radio being really deaf until Day 2, well...
let's just say there were more than a few missed bands between the
rovers and they were all due to operator headspace errors on my part.
Needed a little more time with the software, but got lots of practice
and found RoverLog to be flat-out excellent on the new MacBook. Only
one minor item, and I'll send that to them off-line. GREAT software...
my donation is headed their way very soon!
And finally, the biggest and best THANKS go to the great guys from W0KVA
-- without you guys there's NO way the WY0X/Rover would have ever hit
the road in 2006! Let alone getting me hooked on the VHF contesting
bug, damn you all!!! ;-)
Until September, or 10 GHz, or next year... whenever I go again, and I
*will* go again... here is WY0X/Rover, QRZ?
73,
Nate WY0X
This year's rover ops are dedicated to Bob Fedde, KA0EFM. Thanks for
riding along in the rover, Bob. I'll pick you up same time, next year -
ok? I won't forget ya!
(Bob's story is at -- http://www.natetech.com/?p=176 - and the photo is
of him operating at W0KVA.)
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