With a good amount of well-equipped rover and fixed stations being QRV for Rovermania II, we thought a multi-op effort would be a worthwhile adventure from EN44. This was our first attempt at taking on such a feat and didn’t quite know what to expect. We operated from the W0AIH/W0UC antenna farm. The weeks previous were spent getting new 432, 902, and 1296 yagis up, running heliax, building amps, and constructing an azimuth/elevation system for 10 Gig. Thankfully, with the combined effort of all the operators, we had enough equipment to have four operating positions. We had problems with our 222 and 432 amps and the 902 and 1296 amplifiers were not yet completed. The 10 Ghz dish and transverter were successfully mounted at 70 feet but we could not get the elevation rotor to work (K9MU made several trips up the tower to manually adjust the elevation). By the time we got all the problems ironed out the contest was in full swing. Signals from the E/SE got good after 0200z. We found W3WKH EN90, KB9VXQ EM59, K8TQK EM89, N8AIA EN82, WA8RJF EN91 and K8MD EN82. Things came to a halt at 0500z which gave us time to sleep and try to fix our 902 receive problem. Tropo activity picked up again at around 1000z Sunday morning. We worked W9THD EN71, K8TQK EM89, K4TO EM77, W8PGW EN82, K9MRI EN70, and W8MIL EN74 on both 222 and 432. VE3TFU EN92 and W8GG EM88 were worked on 222 and we completed 1296 Q’s with K8MD and WA8RJF. Tropo from the E/SE slowly fizzled down and was nonexistent by 1300z. Stations were no longer hearing us on 1296 so we broke out the Bird meter and gave it a test. There was no output from the transverter. Now we knew were that strange smell came from. Thankfully N9TTX had a spare FT-736 with a 1296 module. 88% of all our QSO’s after 1200z were supplied by rovers!
Overall, 42% of our QSO’s were with rovers. Our longest rover QSO was with K0SM/R in EN10 on 432 CW! It would be nice to see rovers on a more easterly route next year. I’m not sure of the paths from the cities to IA, SD, and NE but for us in WI and northern MN it is a difficult path. Perhaps an easterly move would benefit us all? Just a biased suggestion for Rovermania III!
Our hats off to all the rovers, especially W9FZ/R, on a job well done! We are pleased with the contest and will be QRV for Rovermania III next year!
Rovers worked:
W9FZ/R – 30 Q’s 8 Grids
W0ZQ/R – 9 Q’s 5 Grids
KC0IYT/R – 8 Q’s 3 Grids
K9JK/R – 8 Q’s 3 Grids
K0MHC/R – 7 Q’s 3 Grids
K9AKS/R – 6 Q’s 2 Grids (EN51/EN41!)
WA0VPJ/R – 4 Q’s 4 Grids
K0SM/R – 3 Q’s 3 Grids
N0EDV/R – 2 Q’s 2 Grids
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Equipment Breakdown:
