Worked the VHF Contest Jan 16th 2021.
Started the day at 7am with final set up of the mast antenna's for the ride. The prior day was installing all the electronics.... Not an easy task.
While inspecting the truck, I found a leaking water pump on Friday at 2:30pm, burned the remainder of the day installing a new one to be ready for the long drive ahead of me.
Noon start I was way west in DM31ox, this is just outside of Lukeville which is the entrance to Mexico.
Made the trip on 2m and 6m with K7EME in Tucson AZ. Not a sound from anyone else. Worked this grid for an hour before heading north.
Next was Gila Bend, no contacts but a great lunch.... Why the Mask? Covid19 is a worldwide epidemic.
Then over to the Maricopa area to work several grids. By this time it was late, we were tired and I decided to make the run home to DM41.
Learned a lot with this VHF Contest and rover. Think I will try again in June..
Plan is to be LIMITED ROVER for the January 16th 2021 VHF Contest
Equipment available:
Yaesu 857d, ICOM 705, Icom 5100, Kenwood D74 (222mhz). Maybe the Dx 3000 running 100w on 6meter.
Will be starting in Tucson with DM42 a 1900.
Quick test 12.13.2020 - Yaesu 857d
Set up took 8 minutes. Drove down to the historic area of Canoa Ranch just outside of Elephant Head at exit 56 off the I-19 Freeway. Found several RV's set up in the desert.
Slipped the mast into the hitch (This is a 2' Extended square tube as it is designed to be used at camp, with my tailgate down and my truck tent).
Placed the Diamond A430S15R2 on the mast followed by the Diamond A144S10, connected the coax and slipped it up about 15'. First issue is the coax is cold and hard, very unforgiving as it is in the 36*F neighborhood (Will bring it inside prior to the January contest).
59 Signal report into the Globe area with N1AV (Jason) and AC7FF (Dave) working SOTA on Pinal Peak W7A/AW-009. I Figure this to be about 150miles on 144.41fm.
Also checked in on the SWOT Net 144.200usb with 59 reports both ways. 70cm was fair to KI7OFN, figure this was due to my coax not allowing me to swing the antenna, will fix this issue.
OK, on to the next step.
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