KE3HT/r

June 2003 Report

I did a lot of preperation for this contest. I purchased a new rover Van, put on a new taller mast, new DC power (100 amps worth) and I did worse than last September! I left Friday and returned home Monday. Sunday I was awake for 21 hours!  I stopped 7 times for  62.84 gallons of gas which got me 1025miles. Thats 16miles per gallon of mostly sitting on hill tops for $95.19. That works out to an average of  $1.51 per gallon.   The old rover in Sept 2002 did 954 miles on 59.86 gallons at $86.90 (15.94mpg / $1.45/gal). This year was longer due to adding another grid to the schedule.  My NEW rover van has the same "Rover per gallon" with Rover being most of the time sitting still on hill tops! Last years score was 19,289, this year was much worse even though I worked more microwaves! (16,414). Pictures and other details on my web site:  http://www.lmrgroup.com/ke3ht/rover/june2003

Before I give my blow by blow I would like to point out a new program I discovered , "ET_Morse".  I used it in this contest to replace Roverlog for sending CW. Roverlog had a compatibility problem with my version of Windows.  I found ET_Morse on the RigBlaster CDrom. I was amazed to see the spectrum display! It shows you where the signal is even if you can't hear it! Yes it did that for my on 289mile 5gig attempt. I could see it but not hear it! This program also incorporates a log program on the same screen that I have not checked out yet. It claims to decode CW but like other CW decodes it does not unless the sender also uses keyboard CW or has a great fist but even if you skip that feature it's still worth the spectrum display. There appears to be a very good filter, maybe it’s a DSP since it's in the computer. It was confusing to hear the output of the filter since you need hear the output of the computer to hear the filtered CW AND you need the output of the computer to go into the RigBlaster to send the CW from memory. I got a Radio Shack Audio splitter to solve that problem. I ran it the whole contest and found the spectrum display/DSP filter very VERY useful. I made at least two 5ghz contacts where I would not have made them without this neat little program.  I wound up with a Rigblaster problem at the first site that might have been related to the lightening I had at the time so I did not send CW this way but it loved the DSP/Spectrum display!

Details of my trip:
Wednesday, A good friend Sigurd Kimpel (KJ1K), a long time VHF contester, had a heart problem that landed him in the hospital Wednesday before the contest. Sigurd was working on assembling his van around the time the problem happened. He is ok now but is under orders not to stress himself for a while.

Thursday night before the contest my 144mhz IF rig lost its brains (The uproc that controls the PLL). This had me worry. Without it I was without Microwaves. I was fortunate to have tested it with another contester Ed (N1FGY) so I discovered the problem before I left home. I spent that night attempting to restart the PLL and was successful. I have backup for almost everything other than the IF rig. Thats expensive to backup.

Friday I traveled most of the way to my first grid (FN10) and stopped at my Mom's. This is only 5.5hours from home.
Saturday I traveled another 3hours from home to get to FN10.

Sunday I got out of bed at 5:30am (un heard of for me). I went to bed Monday at 3am. 21hours, A Long day. I scheduled to much into this day. I was surprised to be on schedule for all but my last site. The weather was Sunny and 72 degrees the whole time.
A special thanks to the big gunns! Without you I could not make these amazing long distance Microwave contacts. I have suggestions but since I am new please only accept this as my view of things. I also tend to want to make contact with the more distant stations (I am a distance freak). Some rovers only operate with Halo's and only work locals as they drive by. I have a personal record of 289miles on 5GHZ! So my view may be different from other rovers. It seems to me that K8GP and W2SZ only seem to turn their beams once and awhile or maybe just in too big of a step when they do. To big a step movement might be the problem. Actualy I think all the big gunns do it at times. Maybe its the operators more than the clubs. K3YTL was good Saturday about moving beams when I qsy'd up but Sunday it was harder to get them to move. Example, The 2meter op told 432 I was coming and passed the grid. When I got to 432, after a few minutes, they were calling me and I could hear the signal improve as they were turning the beams! Sometimes after waiting awhile I had to go back to 2 meters and ask a second time or just skip them. I am in areas that have rare grids but that means fewer points for the big gunns. Sunday Morning things were slow at W2SZ so we moved the 432 beam around. They needed to point just about right at me to make the 210 mile 432 contact. I only have 23watts and a 12foot boom on 432. I went the whole contest and only heard K8GP once and that was while I was mobile in a valley! I could not do microwaves from there. Does this mean K8GP never moved the beam to the North. No way! I bet they just point due north or 45 degrees off and don't do small incriments. This means they will not hear me an I will not hear them.N2PA and others seem to dissappear but they come back on a regular basis. W2SZ 6 meters was hard to copy even when I was only 100 miles away. I only have a Halo. When their beam is pointed at me they bury my S meter! Turned 90 degrees I hear nothing. When us rovers want to contact some one 100miles or more away we have to sit on your freq and WAIT for stations to turn beams. I heard the 222op yell to the 6 op but nothing happened. This wastes my time waiting when I could be making points. This means I don't wait. That means I can't make you happy. Another interesting thought, some stations have a fall back freq on 2m or 222 to allow Microwaves to fall back if something fails. I had been told by one of the gunns to check in on 2 meters before going to 903 but the 2 meter op had the beam rotated so I almost missed them! I could not make contact with 2meters.  I also VERY MUCH like the way some stations do microwaves. Start low and work ALL the bands and then stop. Some stations make us rovers wait between some bands rather than run though. Well that means I can't work as many as I wanted to. I was busy doing nothing.  I am a rover and all my antennas and my Dish are on the same mast. If I move it I may have trouble finding you again on microwaves so I basicly don't move it until I am done with a station. I don't mind having a time I can come back to be worked. If I get that then I can go looking for contacts while waiting.  N2JMH had a neat plan for the lower bands. He worked groups of hams at a time. 3 or 4 people would go from band to band and each band was worked one ham at a time sort of like a HF DX net. A little slower but at least it was some what efficent for everyone.

In summary:
Tim Ertl June 2003