50 MHz Spring Sprint - 2021
Call: WW2Y/R
Operator(s): RAV4OLI
Station: WW2Y/R
Class: Rover HP
QTH: FN20,FN21,FN11
Operating Time (hrs): 2.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 34 Mults = 22 Total Score = 748
Club: Mt Airy VHF Radio Club
Comments:
Thank you for the contacts and thanks goes to CSVHF Society for continuing
support of the Spring Sprints.
My debut roving adventure was a fun and interesting experience for making 34
contacts from three grids in four hours time. I used two directional antennas,
one suspended at 50ft in between trees and one mounted on a 26ft tilt over mast
with rotor. The setup inside RAV4 consisted of a FT-991 transceiver, and a Acom
1000 amplifier driven to 600 watts output. All supplied power from a Honda
EU-2200i generator. Everything worked flawlessly.
I made three contacts with stations from Newfoundland, Canada 45 to 30 minutes
prior the start and they were strong in signal strength. Never heard them again.
I Traveled to the grid corner intersection of FN20, FN21, and FN11.
Activity on SSB and CW continues to decline significantly. By the time I made
it to the second grid stop in FN21 at 0030Z, I only heard N2NT, W2KV, and KR1ST
calling CQ. I suspected the masses already migrated to 50.313 MHz,FT8. I spent a
good portion of 30 minutes to calling CQ without answers as if I was living on a
expired planet.
On the bright side being out in the boondocks while I was packing up to go to
the next grid, I heard and recorded with my cell phone a Whippoorwill chiming
out its nocturnal calls. The exact sound I heard every night while camping
during CQWW-VHF in FN24 last July. How cool is that?
I made the 20 minute trek to the final grid stop, FN11 and I was QRV again by
0200Z. I had more time to play digital once the hard core stations on analog
modes quickly petered out. I tried MSK-144 for roughly 10 minutes and worked one
local station. Then I switched to FT8 and saw a +13 dB decode from a VE1 station
amongst other loud stations. Quickly called him and he responded with a
exchange, which seemed to be a eternity due to the warping of space time from
the presence of a FT8 black hole. During the next sequence, his signal vanished
and I never received a 73 to confirm the contact. If it was FT4, it would have
been very likely to complete. Sigh. The amusing part is that while I was trying
to complete the contact, I had numerous stations calling me at the same time.
With four minutes remaining, I quickly sent a message twice saying "FT4
318." I moved to 318 and N3RG was the only one who checked in to exchange
grids. At the same time, Alex, KR1ST began to call CQ, since he had called me
earlier on SSB.
KD4AA and W8ZN were the most distant QSOs for me and I'm glad that N2SLN/P
decided to head out at the last minute to his secondary hill top location for
activating FN22. Thanks Lu!
Take care,
Peter
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