Hi Dean,
I agree that I'll definitely be building up slowly. I'm curious about your
battery setup. What kind of charger do you have? That seems like a decent
setup. Does it usually fully charge when you're travelling between sites?
Any suggestions for workflows when using a radio on it's included bands and
transverters? I'd hate to pump 100W into an xverter expecting <5W...
What kinds of gremlins have you hit, and what tools do you find yourself
relying on a lot?
Hope to see you on the air,
Sean WA1TE
On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 12:46 AM, Dean Denter <ddenter@midnowhere.net>
wrote:
> I'll 2nd what James said with 1 minor exception for the June contest:
> make sure you have a decent 6m station for June -- if the band opens,
> everything moves to 6m and upper bands become very quiet. A moxon or
> reduced space beam is suggested (watch your overhangs), but a well matched
> loop up high and clear of other antennas will work if the band is open
> (forget the sched if everyone is on 6, move to a new grid when you have
> worked everyone you can hear).
>
>
> For Sept & Jan, you will get lots of requests to run the bands, this will
> also happen in June if 6m is not open (or if you are working multi-ops) --
> try to keep to your published sched if you are running the bands. I would
> suggest you have a separate 2m radio for these contests -- it is very
> useful to have a dedicated radio for coordinating the band runs. A 2nd
> operator and/or driver is also really nice.
>
> If you can find an existing rover that needs another operator/driver, that
> is the best way to start. Failing that, use what you have and what you can
> scrounge -- some other local stations may be willing to loan you
> gear/antenas/etc to help their score.
>
> Sept is a nice contest to start out on -- there are less stations to
> contact, but it is less stressful for the rover and there should be a bit
> of time to fix the gremlins & Murphys that show up (they _will_ both show
> up _every_ contest -- get used to them and bring a parts/tool bin).
>
> I started with horizontal loops on a pole (didn't get many contacts) and
> built from there. Things have been fairly static for the last few years
> due to work time commitments -- I do want to move to an antenna stack that
> can rotate soon.
>
> I ran this June with a IC746 dedicated to 2m, and an FT847 doing 6m, 70cm
> & driving transverters -- all in a small hatchback with beams for 2m and up
> in fixed mounts on the roof (plumbers special mounting rack) and a Par Omni
> Angle on a pole fixed to the bike rack on the trailer hitch, pointing is
> via steering wheel. I run a bank of 3x deep cycle group 27 batteries with
> an 8amp charger from the cig lighter (only powered when the car is running)
> otherwise they are charged at home and when I park for the nite -- this
> keeps me from getting stranded with a car that won't start due to dead
> battery.
>
> This June, I only got out for about 6 hours, mostly to help out a local
> multi-op with the local grids. It was a lot of fun and I did get in on a
> bit of the 6m action Sunday evening. Even with my low omni antenna and
> close to dead batteries, I still managed to contact KW7MM in DM43 (near
> Phoenix Arizona) on 6m from the NE corner of FN14 (near Ottawa Canada) -- I
> had to cut tx power to 25W due to the battery situation (radio kept cutting
> out on tx at higher power).
>
> Best of luck -- and have fun.
>
> regards,
> Dean -- VA3CDD/r
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 11:51 PM, James Duffey <jamesduffey@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Sean - You wrote:
>>
>> >> I've been looking at what it would take to put together a Rover up
>> here in
>> >> Massachusetts. I've noticed there aren't many out there in this area.
>> Is
>> >> there a reason beyond lack of interest? The mountains in New England
>> make
>> >> things tough, but also give great vantages.
>> >>
>> >> I'm still trying to figure out things like power and mounting
>> antennas, but
>> >> before I go spending money or building things I just wanted to know if
>> we
>> >> had no rovers in the area because of some limitations I was unaware of.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >> Sean WA1TE
>> >>
>>
>> Living in New Mexico, I don’t pretend to know much about roving in New
>> England. But I do know about roving in general and what is required for
>> success.
>>
>> As a rover, you need a lot of stations to work at each grid you move to.
>> This requires Multi-Multi stations, Multi-limited stations, serious SOHP
>> stations and serious SOLP stations who are on most, if not all of the
>> contest. I think that there are a lot of those in New England. So the stage
>> is set for a successful rove. Why aren’t there more rovers in New England?
>> I can only guess; It is hard work to rove, particularly in congested areas,
>> it is not cheap to rove, one can easily get burned out roving, activity can
>> be low in contests not occurring in the month of June, and there are others.
>>
>> I think that the most important thing in roving is planning operating
>> locations. Start the contest near a major VHF/UHF population center,
>> preferably a location that is close to a grid boundary or 4 grid
>> convergence. That way you can give lots of fixed stations a grid quickly,
>> move to a different grid quickly, give them more grids, and then move to
>> other grids you can get to without spending a lot of time traveling. That
>> usually means north to south. Planning a route and distributing it to
>> active stations will help a lot, as well as running an APRS pinger or
>> something like RoverStatus so that stations know where you are when.
>>
>> I wouldn’t let all this discourage you. I don’t know your situation, but
>> if you are planning a rove, I suggest you start with what you have. If you
>> have one of those DC to Daylight rigs, like an IC-706, start with it.
>> Antennas are straightforward, If you don’t have any, I recommend the WA5VJB
>> easy Yagis as they have good performance and are easily built. If you have
>> a trailer hitch and roof rack, you can mount a mast on the trailer hitch
>> and support it with a cross member on the roof rack. In most states 13”6”
>> is the maximum height allowed for vehicles and you should use as much of
>> that as you are comfortable with.
>>
>> The key to success in VHF contesting in general and roving in particular,
>> is to be loud on two. If 6 isn’t open, 2M is where most QSOes start. QSY
>> the stations from there. You should be able to pick up a 150 Watt 2M amp
>> for $1/watt. It will be a big help if you are not running much power on
>> two. After you are loud on two, I suggest investing in 222MHz. There isn’t
>> a lot of 222MHz activity and if you are equipped with 222MHz, you will be
>> desirable. Stations will look for you. It will help.
>>
>> Start with what you have, improve on it if you like roving. If yoiu can
>> find a rover in your area, try to contact him and pick his or her brain.
>>
>> If you have any other questions, let me know. I hope others have
>> suggestions. Oh yes, it helps to have a driver or second op. Operating in
>> motion helps a lot.
>>
>> Now, tell me about those mountains in MA. I live at 6900 ft asl. :^)=. -
>> Duffey KK6MC
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>>
>
>
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