Month: February 2021

2021 ARRL January VHF Contest – Texas Convergence

N0LD/r and K5SRT/r – OKRover’s January 2021 VHF Contest

Executive Summary

The OKRovers wanted to make the January 2021 VHF Contest a little special.  We teamed up with several rovers from Texas (TXRovers?!) to see what we could do to together!  We decided to meet at the grid square corner SW of Ft Worth, TX – near Hico, TX.  However, we met briefly at Chalk Mountain Roadsite park for some warm sunny scenic views and to safely (COVID-19) meet each other and to take some great pictures!  Our OKRover teams experimented with some new technology and put Microwaves on the air with a new device – more on this to come!  The OKRovers got matching embroidered sweaters with “OKRover”, name, and callsign. The result was the highest score that we have ever established for each of our two Oklahoma rovers, some awesome memories, some new friends, and the first time we actually stopped early from sheer exhaustion! Harvey, Nick, and Randy had worked with K5MNZ, Steve Heyroth in Wichita for many years; Steve met us at Chalk Mountain and took pictures and video of the rovers.  It was good catching with Steve – he elmered Randy to get his license 24 years ago!

Our microwave contacts were numerous due to the careful inclusion of other rovers which had microwaves – and meeting up with WD5AGO in Tulsa for some microwave action!

The bands were flat!  During the contest we heard Mexico once on 6m Digital – we made one QSO with EN61 (near Chicago).  We didn’t get a burst of tropo this contest either, although morning wasn’t too bad.  We called on 6m voice many times, but QSOs out to 75 miles were the limit.  2m, 1.25m, and 70cm were nominal with a few QSOs out to ~200 miles.

Who Are We?

  • OKRovers:
    • N0LD/r
      • N0LD, Randy Wing
      • W0HG, Harvey Jones
      • KB0YHT, Nick Farlow
    • K5SRT/r
      • K5SRT, Ross Terry
      • KG9DUK, Alex Naas
  • TXRovers:
    • K3EZ/r
      • K2EZ, Andrea Slack
    • KA5D/r
      • KA5D, Kyle Dehaas
      • KB5PRZ, Kourtney Dehaas
    • W5TN/r
      • W5TN, David Douglas
    • KD5IKG/r
      • KD5IKG, Tim Groman


    • New Capability

    The OKrovers purchased Hack-RF microwave radios.  Although not originally designed for extended voice QSOs, our own Alex Naas, KG9DUK has been customizing the microcode.  We put 2.3G, 3.4G, and 5.7G on the air.  Tommy Henderson, WD5AGO, built some microwave antennas for our team! 

    Randy Wing, N0LD, purchased a new FT-9700 and thus we had a very easy way to switch back and forth from voice, digital, CW on the radio.  The radio was challenging to get digital capability functioning… we were working on this every bit of the way from OKC all the way to Hico, TX.  But it was functioning!  (We really wish the memories weren’t band specific.)

    Planning

    With 6 grid-circling rovers, 2 more portable rovers, new microwave bands to activate, our planning process needed to be meticulous!  We held 3 Zoom meetings to coordinate the details – including key regional fixed operators.  Our Zoom meetings spanned 4 states! Then the OKRovers held a couple just to discuss some special microwave topics and to do a thank you for the September 2020 VHF Contest participation. We began planning and meetings in November 2020!

    However, now that we have done experienced the 6 rover grid cornering conditions we know a lot more about timing unique to new our new capabilities. Holding a hand held device and antenna in the cold takes a little more work than just being inside the vehicle!  Randy, N0LD provided spiral bound planning guides for the TXRovers and the OKRovers. The plans covered which frequencies, modes that we were going to grid-circle on. The plans also detailed how we were going to grid-circle.  We modified the plans the day of the rove, but the truth was that we seriously underestimated how much time it would take to grid-circle and the plan wasted some of the microwave rover’s efforts. However, we all benefited from the close proximity and the contacts, although sometimes we descended into chaos!  This was a good learning experience – next time, we won’t make the same mistakes (perhaps we will make all new ones!)

    Nick, KB0YHT was actually going to participate as a rover in our early planning. Eventually, his plans changed and we included him in the N0LD/r rover. Ross, K5SRT/r wasn’t sure whether he was going to go, but we finally seduced him with the microwave talks and the need for a safe place to stay for two nights!  (Thanks, Ross)  Alex, KG9DUK was initially going to be in N0LD/R with Harvey and Randy, but with limited microwave radios and experience, we separated Alex to the K5SRT/r vehicle.

    We were all unsure how to minimize our potential COVID-19 exposure.  It is hard not to shake hands!  We decided to bring sanitizer and to use it after stops at gas stations.  We brought snacks that were individually packaged to avoid spreading of germs via hand.  We managed pretty well; none of us contracted COVID-19 as a result of the contest; despite record illness in OK and TX.

    Pre-Positioning

    The OKRovers headed south on Friday, January 15, 2021 from Oklahoma City and overnighted at Ross’s family cabin on Lake Texoma.  We were able to segregate our vehicles by the two cabins to maintain social distancing.  One member of each team had already had COVID-19, so that reduced the chances of contact.  Saturday, we were up early, departing at 7 AM for Chalk Mountain – arriving about 11:20 AM.  The TXRovers had a late start out of Austin but arrived about 11:40 AM.  We took a lot of pictures and had an impromptu lunch – Kyle, KA5D made lunch with Kourtney, out of his Volkswagen micro-bus rover.  The hour went by quickly; we all headed to the grid circle and arrived about 5 minutes before the contest which started at 1 PM.  It was a beautiful 60 degrees with light winds.  (As Texas and Oklahoma just went through a record below freezing number of days and record snowfall – doesn’t this sound awesome?)

    Texas Rover Convergence

    The two groups circled the Hico, TX grid corner from 1 PM to 7 PM. The team had four rovers serve as the base by doing a slow circle, while the two limited rovers (KA5D, W5TN) did the fast circle. It was noted that we were foregoing the high value microwaves; if we were to do this again, we would break into two grid cornering groups and that way there would be less “dead space” while rovers relocated.  We did get very efficient at walking through the bands. Teleporting rovers to the next grid location would be an excellent new capability in future roves!

    At 7 PM, we lost the sunlight.  The TXRovers needed to get back to the Austin area and hit a grid circle farther south. The OKRovers needed to get back to the Cabin at Lake Texoma to rest up. As we traversed the FTW/Dallas metroplex we made many local contacts. We had time for some Cracker Barrel; made some contacts in the Kingston, OK area, toasted the day and each other’s friendship and was in bed shortly after midnight.

    Sunday Morning Activities – Benington, OK grid corner

    Somehow, we got up and were on the road a little after 7 AM!  Unlike Texas, Oklahoma was decidedly cooler, 37 degrees!  We got some breakfast in Durant, OK, and then we headed over to the Benington, OK grid square corner.  We approached the corner from the NE corner – because of the predominantly highway path to the corner.  Unfortunately, the N0LD rover is 14 ft and the train bridge was 13 ft 10”… on the west side… Alex noted that the side closest to the stream – the east side – had a greater clearance… he said “too bad we can’t back through the train trestle!”.  I said “hold my beer”.  With the help of the rest of the team, Randy backed through the east side of the bridge with perhaps an inch or two of clearance!  (see photo). It might have been faster to go around, but we all had a lot of fun navigating this trestle.

    Facing three grid square corners, we knew that the microwaves were more time intensive that the other bands.  We decided to prioritize the higher microwave frequencies!  We got about half the grid corner executed and then Andrea, K2EZ showed up on 2m asking for directions into the corner!  After she ran the grid corners further south in Texas, Andrea drove most of the night and then got a little sleep in her rover, but she was running behind!  We met her in Bennington, OK and we walked through some microwave frequencies. Turns out three rovers in Bennington was an unusual sight!  We explained what VHF contesting with rovers entailed to some colorful locals. Handuts are so useful!   We decided not to corner but the line-dance at the grid corner. Again, we prioritized Andrea on the microwave frequencies.  As Andrea headed east towards Memphis, we finished the N0LD/r to K5SRT/r grid cornering.  Seeing our allotted time expire – and being lead-time away from our rendezvous with WD5AGO in Tulsa, we decided to skip the McAlester, OK grid square corner – and opted for…

    Sunday Afternoon Activities – McAlester, OK EM24 / EM25 line dance

    A line dance consists of the 1st rover crossing into the new grid and making contact on all the bands with the 2nd rover.  Then, the 2nd rover comes forward into the new grid and you make contact all over again.  Then the first rover crosses BACK into the old grid and you can make a whole new set of contacts.  Unfortunately, the grid line is right on a bridge on the Indian Nation Turnpike! (see photo).  The wind was now approaching 35 mph gusts out of the NNW.  This was a bitterly cold set of contacts!  A few times while heading north at 80 mph, we were concerned that we were approaching the rated capacity of 120 mph of wind loading on the antennas.  So, we reluctantly dropped 10 mph and the vehicle didn’t shudder as much. We did stop for some lunch in Henryetta, OK, but it was quick and we got it to go. 

    Sunday Afternoon Activities – 4:15 PM – Glenpool, OK watertower

    As we approached Glenpool, OK on highway 75 – WD5AGO on Turkey Mountain, worked us on the bands.  Our rover antennas were aligned!  Alex in K5SRT/r made a 2.3G QSO from about 20 miles out.  As we setup at the base of the watertower, we could see the top of Turkey Mountain!  We made contacts on all the microwave bands at about 12 miles away.  We would NOT have been able to do that without the custom antennas that Tommy, WD5AGO constructed!

    We were able to work KF0M, John in EM17 (Wichita) on all the bands through 23cm – about 180 miles.  We worked W5ZN, Joel on 2m about 220 miles from the watertower!

    Sunday Evening Activities – 4:45 PM – Tulsa grid corner

    This grid corner has been in every one of our VHF Contest plans!  It has a high density of hams.  However, sometimes there is a football or basketball game in the early evening and this impacts our plans.  There must have been something going on, but that is OK, because we had set up a sked with WD5AGO, our microwave elmer.  We worked him on all the bands from all 4 grid square corners – and we worked each other’s vehicle as well.  Working the top of Turkey Mountain from 8 miles away wasn’t easy; we were right at the edges of making FM contacts on 3.4 and 5.7 Ghz.  The grid square corner is buried in a housing development, by moving around a little, we could find a gap between the houses – but since it was now dark, we were struggling. We were cold, tired, and ready to call it a day, so we didn’t climb Turkey mountain for our normal Tulsa and greater KS/AR qsos.  Instead, we headed back towards OKC.  We were able to work KF0M on 2m digital, which was very satisfying, from the truck stop on 35 halfway to OKC.

    Sunday Evening Activities – 9:30 PM – near Choctaw, OK

    As we approached OKC we were able to make some qsos with the growing number of VHF contesters:  WD5G, KG5HFO, N5UM, and AA5KD.  These guys really pleased the OKRovers, giving some wonderful qsos close to the end of the contest from our own grid square!  Both K5SRT/r and N0LD/r set personal record high scores.

    Lessons Learned

    1. Observation:  Grid square cornering is a busy, complex, frustrating business.  2 vehicles are bad enough to plan, 3 require some careful walkthroughs and frequency planning.  More than 3 is possible, but be prepared for a lot of logging, some boring qsos, but extremely rewarding amounts of points.  Typically, 2 limited or classic rovers can exhaust 100 qsos (the rule limit) at one grid corner.  However, unlimited rovers are unfettered by this.  Unlimited rovers are amazing training grounds and support systems for teaching new rovers.  Summary: Plan grid corner execution carefully and rehearse it more than you think you need to.

    2. If you are taking a new radio out for a run, don’t count on it being easy, take the time to learn it before you go out.

    3. Set reasonable goals, provide plenty of time between points.

    4. Remember why you are contesting! It is to have fun! 😊 Change the plan, even if you worked hard on it. Swallow your pride and learn to adapt.

    5. Be humble, not a task-master. Our team adapted very well to the Sunday schedule – we had alternative plans if we had the surprise opportunity like K2EZ showing up at our grid corner in Benington, OK. We executed those and came away with more points than if we had stayed on schedule. We could have done that better at the Hico, TX corner, but I stuck to a diminishing returns plan that could have resulted in many more grids and points.

    6. Enjoy the journey, things like Chalk Mountain, meeting our area 5 fellow rovers, meeting locals, train trestle’s, microwaves.

    7. Don’t forget the local fixed stations, they are waiting for you. We missed some QSOs because of our newly found Microwave equipment which we were really exercising to the detriment of perhaps not working as many grid multipliers as we should have on the other bands.
    8. Checklists would have helped.

    9. We could benefit from the GPS device that announces when we cross into a new grid!