Good to hear everyone last night during the 432 Sprint
It appeared to me to that bands conditions were about normal to maybe a bit
less than normal.
The event was quite an interesting one as this event I decided to work the
Sprint myself. As a sponsor I will exempt my rover score from any award,
however I must point out that these run and gun events are hardly ever
uneventful.
While in FM18ax and trying to muster up some activity in the foothills of
Mt. Weather, I ran around 10 Q's not really getting any activity from the NE
or N. Was able to drag out a CW contact in FM29 from W2SJ, thanks for your
patience as signals were fading quite drastically from this location. Also
ran into W6GBG/R and N8AG/R moving around the area. That was fun as it
generated some more activity. W1RT/R was out but working on gear more than
operating. I hear John is relocating to New York as this will be a big loss
for us down here in Northern 4 land. He has provided many many Q's here in
the Mid-Atlantic and his activity will be sorely missed.
I then moved to Mt. Weather where I was stopped by security for the first
time ever. 10 minutes of explanation and I was off rolling in the Q's from
the local guys in FM18 and FM19. Again nothing special and I spent some
extra time trying to build the multipliers but really only late did FN31 and
K1TEO show up. I was only able to muster 6 multipliers from a normally very
good spot at 1700ft ASL.
So off I went down to FM09 where I always stop at a turn coming down the
mountain. I look West and North West into EN90 and EN91 and in doing so I
got my antenna in a position essentially broadside to the wind. I took off
and drove about a minute and realized the antenna was not in the stow
position. No matter I brought it around while in flight and zipped into the
gas station in FM09 to fuel and grab a bottle of water and some munchies for
the FM09 and FM08 grids.
This is when I saw 3 to 4 db missing from the rover. The 440-18 M2 had
snapped in half! I assume this ridiculousness happened while the antenna was
broadside to the vehicle coming sown the mountain. So for those of you that
I was able to reach from FM09 and FM08 it was with about 9 elements instead
of the full compliment. By the way it really looks bad when this happens as
all your antenna is behind the boom to mast clamp. Balance was not good and
to make matters worse two other rovers saw this nightmare and laughed about
it. For shame I say, for shame . J
Well figured I might as well pull some super magic on the mountain and after
a very productive FM09, the antenna damage and conditions at the 10:00pm
hour just did not produce too much in the way of activity. No sign of the
Lithuanian Brandy headquarters of K1WHS therefore I suspect he still has not
been able to get up the hill to his contest station.
WA4A and N4XD were up and down into FM08us Devils Stairs which is a clean
shot to the South. I can imagine that the half an antenna had something to
do with this J
I hope all had some fun. Sorry I missed KA2LIM as surely if the darn antenna
hadn't of left the vehicle I could have logged that Q and multiplier. K3TUF
was certainly missed this test with equipment failure in FN10.
73 to all - John and I will be processing logs next week
See you all during the Uwaves and 6 Meters next month. My first Q on 6 will
most likely be the neighbor's rabbit ears again so this year I intend on
logging it.
Respectfully Submitted
Steve Gilmore - W4SHG/R
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