I am happy that everything works, and there was plenty of activity, and I had a
lot of fun. A few nice stops at some fixed stations for a bite and refreshing.
Nothing controversial or troublesome. Not very interesting! Yes, it's the
problems that make the headlines---the plane landing in Hudson River and all
getting off safely, not the other thousands of flights that just went on
schedule and go the millions of folks where they were headed....
OK, so there were a few minor issues---like the power cord to the microwave
rigs which seems to be intermittent---I got to pull it out and change the
connector. The panic stop I had to make when a car in front of me suddenly
stopped and a few things tumbled and I heard the sparks crackling--the 24VDC
battery stack fell over and the wires came out of their crimps, but easily
restored. And the fire trucks that blocked my access to the usual FN30 spot on
Mt. Mitchell in NJ, but I found an alternative that did most of what I needed.
A few operator errors when I forgot to switch an antenna feed or an IF
frequency of a transverter. The greatest thing was the help from all of
you--the gang who have helped me put together the rover over the years, the
other rovers who share their operating plans and spots, the patience of all the
fixed stations in working me through the bands, and the XYL, who finds herself
busy on the contest weekends and leaves me free to operate. As a single rover
now (my harmonic N1XKT who used to family rove with me now has his own rover)
I have my hands full with all the gear, antennas and driving under suboptimal
conditions. Cold, snow, fog...but it wasn't as bad as some previous years. Yes,
a few improvements due for next year, but glad to work all of you as well as I
could. Apologies to those who I lost as we ran up the bands, or to those who I
might have forgotten to QSY with.... 2009 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
K1DS Grids: FN20, 10, 30, FM19, 29
ROVER EPA Section
Operators: K1DS
Band QSOs QSO pts. Mults.
-------------------------------------------- 50 59 59
8 144 164 164 17 222 105
210 13 432 101 202 12 903
37 148 7 1296 47 188 7
2304 21 168 4 3456 17 136
4 5760 11 88 3 10368 14
112 3 24G 7 56 2 Laser 7
56 3 --------------------------------------------
TOTALS 590 1587 83 + 5 = 88
Claimed score = 139,656
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