January was another lack of Rover contest – not necessarily due to interest, but due to time. When I start to plan out the contest and realize that I’m probably going to spend more time in setup/teardown than I am operating, it’s just not worth it to me – something I’ve started to look at as my work:fun ratio. If I’m putting in 3 hours of setup/teardown time, not including PC and Software updates, and double checks of equipment, plus 2-3 hours of driving (which is dead operating time), and I’m only getting to operate a solid 6 hours of the contest, it’s not worth it to me. That was this year. I put this post off so long I don’t actually remember what I had going on Saturday, but then the Bills game wound up being at 4pm (I know, it’s a football game, but I’ve been a fan longer than I’ve been licensed).
I had laid out a route for the contest a few days before, but determined my operating time would be about on par with the setup time, maybe an extra hour or two, but not enough to justify it, so I figured I would operate a bit from home. I popped on 6, and 2 and just called CQ a bit on both Voice and FT8 to handout points to those I could actually get, and those that were able to, I took out the transverters and HTs where I could and handed out extra points on 902, and 1296. I was planning on getting on 10ghz as well, as you can see below. I got everything setup, warmed up, and ready to go, but I started having a TX issue with the transverter. I gave it a quick once over to make sure everything was connected correctly, nothing was loose, I hadn’t broken a connection on a jumper, but it appeared that all of the quick fixes were okay, so there’s more to troubleshoot there still.
I’m planning on putting in a hard effort in June – I’ve finally started on integrating 5ghz into the setup after having the transverter sitting there for a couple of years now, so I should be a full 10 band rover this next time around. I’m also planning on additional switching to be installed ahead of time.
The page has been dark for a little while, so I’ll try and keep up on it a little bit more again! Not much new in radio going on lately for me – still playing around on the FT-710 and have been chipping away at some new grids and parks occasionally, but for the most part I’ve really only been active on 2m during drive time. While I have the local repeaters programmed into memory, I usually stick on 146.52 simplex during my drive time.
I’ve been getting out with the camera a lot more in recent weeks, and should have some fun Solar and Lunar photos to post here in the coming weeks.
The site may change formats in the coming months, I’m considering converting this page to something a little different too – I’m still working out the details, but stay tuned!
Roving On 