K3LFO/W3DIO Rover Site

We are beginning the preparations for the next big contest. We have some problems with SWR on 1296 on the high power amp. Fortunately we were able to limp along and the problem didn’t prevent us from making any attempted contacts but we need to resolve it so it stops tripping the SWR bypass in the amp. We also have a few amplifier projects that we should try to get atleast 1 of them in before September. There is also some scheduled maintenance that we keep putting off on the mast/rotor that we should probably do but I have a feeling it will end up having to be post contest work.

June is just not our contest! If it wasn’t so much fun just to get out and make contacts I’d think seriously about skipping it next year. Once again this turned out to be a 6 meter contest due to E skip! That puts most rovers at a disadvantage due to a small 6m antenna, limited power, and reduced activity on the upper bands. To make maters worse, the tropo to the NE was limited to short haul only (150-200 Miles) for most of the contest. For those of us who participate for the thrill of the VHF and above contacts, Saturday was a big bust score wise! Working 6m on E skip just isn’t as much fun as making a 370 mile contact on 2304 or 3456 with 1 watt!

We decided to run the Rover on our old route one more time starting in FM27 and working our way up to FM28 then FM29 and FM18 on Saturday. Normally FM27 costs us an extra 2 hours of travel plus fuel to pick up just a few contacts. This time we made sure some of the Multi-Multi’s and big gun single ops knew we were starting. The sky opened up about 10 miles from our destination in Crisfield. To make matters worse the 1296 Amplifier was shutting down due to high SWR! We had to shut it off and run 8 watts on 1296 for the rest of the contest. The contact count for this grid was up slightly but not really enough to make it worth while. The thunder storms seemed to follow us around all afternoon and evening.

With the poor results from Saturday we decided just to run out to Sideling Hill in FM09 on Sunday and call it a day. We’ll save the gas money for August or September.

There were a couple of high points of the trip. We managed once again to complete with K1RZ on all 8 bands from every grid! That included 1296 with a bad antenna and 3456 with 1 watt at 140 miles. We also completed with WA2FGK up to 2304 at 212 miles from FM09.

We’ll be out looking for good uW Tropo in August and September.

73,

Jim K3LFO & Dave W3DIO

The K3LFO/R Rover team will be out running 50 Mhz through 3456 Mhz for the June Contest. We are planning a medium rove starting on the eastern shore of Maryland and ending up on Skyline Drive. Our route and approximate times are listed below. We were going to leave out FM27 because we don’t get much activity there and it’s another 2 hour drive, but we decided to give it one more chance. So PLEASE look our way during the first ½ hour of the contest in FM27.

We’ve fixed the rover starter battery and taken care of a few other service problems. The RF systems have been checked out and all is working well. We even netted the transverters on frequency. It’s not perfect but within 1 or 2 Khz versus the 18 Khz off frequency we had on 3456.

Our run frequency on 2 meters will be 144.245. If you call us and don’t hear us try back in a few minutes as we will be returning back to this frequency often in between searching and pouncing.

DISCLAIMER: All times are relative and subject to change due to band conditions!

Saturday June 13

1800z-1900z – FM27bx (Crisfield, MD, Eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay)

2100 – 2230 – FM28aw (Queen Anne, Army Reserve Center)

2300 – 0030 – FM29aa (Rt 481 & 304, Community Center)

0100 – 0200 – FM18ux (Near Bay Bridge Rt 50 at Airport)

0200 – 0330 – Travel to FM19jj (W3DIO’s Home QTH Driveway and sleep)

Sunday June 14

1200 – 1400 – FM19kj (Mount Airy, MD)

1530 – 1800 – FM09ur (Sidling Hill near Hancock, MD, elv 1200’)

2100 – 0300 – FM08us (Skyline Drive – Hogback Overlook, elv 3385’)

Note: More details and updates to this may be forthcoming…

Equipment:

50 Mhz TS-2000x TE Systems Amp 400w out PAR MOXON 5.6 db

144Mhz TS-2000x TE Systems Amp 400w Out DS144-6RS 10.1db

222Mhz DEMI 222-28 Mirage Amp 110w Out DSFO222-10RS 11.4db

432Mhz TS-2000x TE Systems Amp 185w Out DSFO432-15RS 13.5db

903Mhz DEMI 902-28 30w Out DS3333LY 18.5 db

1296Mhz TS2000x DEMI Amp 120w Out DS2345LY 20.5 db

2304Mhz SSBE TV Spectrum Amp 50w Out DS1345LY 20db

3456Mhz DEMI 13-144 1w Out DS976LY 23.4db