ARRL January VHF Contest - 2023
Call: K2UA/R
Operator(s): K2UA
Station: K2UA/R
Class: Rover LP
QTH: WNY
Operating Time (hrs): 20
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 35 4
2: 43 6
222: 44 6
432: 42 6
903: 40 5
1.2: 38 5
2.3: 23 4
3.4: 18 4
5.7: 9 3
10G: 27 3
24G:
-------------------
Total: 319 46 Total Score = 58,900
Club: Rochester VHF Group
Comments:
This contest marked my return to roving after 24 years of "doing other
things." It was a great experience! I activated four grids this time--FN02,
FN03, FN12, and FN13. It was a good shakedown cruise.
Breakdown by band and location (from N1MM+):
Band FN02 FN03 FN12 FN13 Tot
50 8 5 12 10 35
144 10 11 11 11 43
222 9 10 16 9 44
420 10 6 16 10 42
902 8 12 12 8 40
1240 9 10 13 6 38
2300 5 5 10 3 23
3300 4 4 8 2 18
5650 2 3 3 1 9
10000 10 7 9 1 27
Total 75 73 110 61 319
A few things really came together for me:
1) N2ZN built a simple but elegant rear carrier setup (the type that fits into a
2-inch receiver) with a short Rohn 25 tower section on a base plate bolted to
the carrier. He graciously lent it to me for the January contest to try it out.
I added a Yaesu G800 rotator and an 8-foot mast. Worked flawlessly.
2) The weather cooperated. Never a given in Western New York in January.
Temperatures were right around freezing and the only precipitation I had to deal
with was a few inches of snow late in the day on Sunday. Messy roads but scenic.
It's good to connect with the elements. A boy, his radio, paddle, and
microphone, his car, and the outdoors. Tough to beat.
3) I have planned this for a while and had the gear and antennas on-hand to do a
ten-band rover. Very little of the original rover from the 1990s remains, which
is mostly a good thing. The Q5 five-band transverter does a great job paired up
with a K3, and the IC-705 makes a great microwave IF for 2304 and up. The
IC-9700 was dedicated to 2-meter use. Small, low-box-count roving is a lot more
fun than the old days.
4) Lots of local activity, including a lot of stations on up through 10 GHz. So
many people to work! N2JMH provided the sweep of all 10 bands in each grid.
N2WK, K2TER, K2DH, K2ET/R, and NR2C were close behind, along with W2FU, KD2LGX,
N2MKT, and a handful of others.
5) K0SM's family now includes five licensed hams and they all know how to
operate the radio--it was a lot of fun running the bands with them!
6) Some good DX, including 442-km QSOs with K1TEO (FN31) from FN02 on 144, 222,
432, 902, and 1296 MHz. Also worked VE3DS on 50-1296 from there, as well as
VA3TO on 10 GHz, who made a special stop to work me. Thank you all!
For anyone I missed, I apologize. Rovers don't die of starvation--they die of
drowning. There were so many people to try to work in a limited time that I
couldn't get to them all.
There's a lot that needs tweaking and tuning before I'll go out roving again,
but the basics are there and it's too much fun to leave out of my "radio
library." Looking forward to the next one!
--73, Rus, K2UA
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