2009.06.15
Great contest! Wow. Huge six meter openings. Thanks to w0eea for the loan of several xverters, as well as keeping track of us out in the boonies! More rovers in the state than I have ever seen. Great weather! Awesome steaks(thanks w0kva!) Dad drove and I operated. Thanks dad! We logged 508 miles. We got to meet w3dhj/r and work in a few grids. I like playing rover games out in rare grids. We stuck to the drive plan and didn't run into issues with weather. Staying on the move helped. Power issues from past contest have been solved with the addition of five new UPS batteries. I didn't drop below 12v the entire contest! We were able to operate with 8 antennas on the roof without issue. I need to revamp the PTT switch on the higher bands but the IF relay switch worked great. May need to build a MOASU to handle the addition of more bands. Don't buy an ICOM 910H with the intention of using much of the 1.2g portion of the radio! 2 and 70cm are great, 1.2 stinks! One highlight was working bruce(kg6iyn) from the DN80AA microwave site in the middle of the storm. You can read details on that contact here. Always fun to work bruce from CO!!!
2009.06.05
This past weekend was a busy time of prep. Saturday, I went to the hamcon and met a few fellow rovers. Good times, interesting sessions. Then on Sunday I went out and helped the w0eea team replace a rotor and some control lines. Fun stuff. Planning on using roverlog for logging and rig control this year. May be able to have it also control the IF rig switch and move the IF back and forth between bands at the click of a button. If this works well I may add a rotor and automatic control for it in the next contests.
2009.05.28
Getting ready to go to the colorado hamcon. Should be some good roving discussions. Hope to meet some of the regulars and stir up some new activity. Uploaded a map of the planned June rove, including a stop over at the KVA site for dinner.
2009.05.15
Went out to the barn and tuned up the 3456 with Jim and Lou. Thanks guys. Learned that I need to NEVER go out east without the atlas. The GPS took a digger and without it some maps would have really been nice. In any case, the transverters are now tuned. Jim and Lou also loaned me another 4 bands so I'll get a chance to try a 10band rover run. Thanks guys! Should be fun!
2009.05.13
Bands are up. I am planning on roving in the van as I have in past years. I wanted to move the setup into the newer pathfinder so I could let the wife keep her van, but I haven't had the time to re-engineer the antenna setup. It's too bomber as it is and I'm going to add a new band this year(3456.) I also obtained 12 old UPS batteries that will be pressed into service to extend the time we can rove.
