Fall and Winter 2009 – 2010
Time sure does fly by fast when you are busy! Bill K3EGE sent me a note to see what our plans were for the January contest and I realized we didn’t have time left to get everything ready. The decision was made to pass on the January contest. I’m hopeing we can be ready to go by June.
As mentioned before the main mast rotor failed at the very end of the September contest. We didn’t know about it untill we tried to operate during the Sprints. It was stuck on North. We plan to replace some of the mast items such as the main hinge pin and the stop bolt. Something is squeeling in the engine that needs some attention. It sounds like a water pump bearing but I hope it is just a noisy belt. All of the batteries need serviceing, the new 903 amplifier needs to be fixed, and the new 2304 DEMI transverter needs to be wired into the system and tested. It just never ends!
We invested in the Mini Winnie so that we would not have to rebild the entire Rover each time we went out but there is still many things that pop up that need attention. There are other benefits that still make it worth while such as having an on board bath room with running water, a full kitchen with refridgerator, and air conditioning. Someday we hope to get 5 and 10 Ghz running so it will be a complete 10 band Rover but for now 8 bands sure is a lot of fun.
73 and Hapy New Year,
Jim K3LFO
