2000-01 VHF Contest
Posted: January 28, 2000 8:25 pmFiled under: amateur radio
Snow before the contest here but by Sat it had melted off enough that I was going to try to make it up on Roan Mt, Tn for our first grid. Made it to Hampton, Tn. and my partner’s house and then it started snowing like crazy. Now we could not use the van with the long yagis, amps and big batteries. So we spent a hour or so getting three bands going from his big Bronco. Antennas were only loops but they would have to do. By the time we traveled 20 miles to mountain top we had a blizzard effect with 25 mph winds and snow drifts… boy was that wind cold putting up the 6 mtr loop on the telescoping mast. Don’t know the wind chill, but any exposed skin could not take it for long. The Bronco’s heater felt wonderful. We had a nice little pile-up when we finally got started for the contest, two hours late. Just loops and no power, but plenty to work until about 10:30 when we again braved the cold to pull down the 6 mtr ant. Getting off the mountain with 8 inches of blowing snow was alarming enough that several stations monitored our progress as we slowly crept down. Greg, KB4NVD, made it look easy, he is an accomplished 4w driver in the snow, a careful driver. The wind was blowing the snow in waves in front of the Bronco…hypnotic pulses, almost alive; a wall of ice hanging from the bluffs reflected off our headlights…. wow, what a trip, what a sight, what a adventure, and we still had all day Sunday to rove!
After a good nights sleep at Greg’s house and a nice breakfast we were on the road to Whitetop Mountain? Yea, I talked him into it… you sure Mike? Yea we can make it! You’re a great driver, Greg!……. The trip up this mountain took my breath away, just ask K5OGF, Jim, who I was working while Greg fought the wheel as we went up the switchbacks…. I could not see where the road was! Fog was so bad I still can not tell you how Greg got us up there… I think I was pretty excited/scared…. the pucker factor was high. Later, Jim told me he thought we might have gone off the mountain the way I was gurgling in that high pitched voice! Was it worth it? I have never seen anything more beautiful in all my life. Not just snow but all the spruce trees were unbelievably gorgeous, covered in some sort of frost effect with all the needles now extended by a inch or so of frost. A once in a lifetime moment, almost religious, with a muted silence that deep snow brings.
I hope some of the pictures come out ok that we took, I cannot express how special this mountain trip was for me….I have lots of memories and stories from this trip. With our little loops and minimal power we still had plenty of stations to work, again most were local, sure missed having the yagis there. Still managed to work some good grids via cw, K8TQK
and KE8FD dragged us out of the noise from em89. Thanks to all who hung in there with our little signal. Locals were looking for us and kept popping up on freq, all were asking if we were ok? We had no enhancement on any band that I could tell… perhaps with yagis?
Getting off the mountain proved uneventful, although we could see where someone had spent some time getting out of a ditch beside the road. Drive back to Abingdon, Va. We both are drained, wiped out, very hungry, we need a supper break badly. I don’t think I can go to the next grid, Greg….. then out of the noise “n4ofa/r where are you?” 10 contacts
in a few minutes with everyone saying how they would look for us in the next grid…..Yea, we grabbed a couple of sandwiches and drove the two hours to the final grid at Walker Mountain.
No time to drive out the ridge, just set up beside the road and deploy the 6 mtr loop for the final time…where are all the folks calling for us? The loops just could not make it, only worked Tom, K4FJW, on 6 mtr cw and had to struggle with that contact. K4QI also on 6 but not able to work him on any other bands. 6 mtr par loop worked great for us. This
next contact made it worth the travel. Our friends in em85, Larry and Shane are calling us, 6 mtrs worked easily and we use this as a liason freq to try to work 2 mtrs…finally worked after a long time on cw… now 432…. ugg, we spent 45 min trying to help them get antennas on us…. Larry and I am on 6 while Shane is sending cw and moving antennas… yea, I hear some cw now…. maybe we can make it… After several more tries I am talking to Larry and notice that the cw sound is not on 432 but from the background as Larry is talking… we both got a laugh out of that. We gave them two multipliers at the end of the contest. No one else heard anywhere.
I got home at 2:00 am and woke everyone up trying to tell them about our Rover Adventure, I had to tell someone. Big increase in local activity during the contest, the result of our Sunday evening activity net to encourage more vhf/uhf ssb activity and it is really taking off. Just last night we had five stations just chatting on ssb here. Our net
sometimes has 25 checkins, some local, some distant stations that have been a big encouragement for all to check out our antennas. Results show up in the log here with about all our contacts being local guys, even quite a lot of the fm crowd from local repeaters trying out this fm simplex stuff. When we moved from one grid to another we had accumulated a crowd looking for us… amazing to hear old friends again active and first timers giving out their grid squares for the first time. Much of the credit for this
resurgence should go to Tom, K4FJW, Bristol, Va. who has created a list of local operators and sends out a newsletter via e-mail. He deserves a nice pat on the back. k4fjw @ 3wave.com. We now have over 125 on this list.
Things are happening here with new rigs on the air and lots of antenna work going on… (remember those distant stations checking in? Well, when they could not be worked with the little antennas … time to put up some bigger ones). Plenty of talk about adding new bands by some or perhaps a bit more power, even some of the fm guys wanting some ssb
gear. So those that pointed their antennas toward Eastern Tennessee this contest may have had a pleasant surprise, some stations to work, with more coming before next june.
Oh yes, before I forget, our activity net is Sunday evening at 8:00pm on 144.190, and we sure love to see the new checkins. N4FPR, Bob, is our net director and has a FB station, he does a great job including everone during the net. I can’t wait untill the June contest and another Rover Adventure.
Here is the contest log as submitted..
Mike Wechsler, N4OFA EM86RN
Greg Robinson, KB4NVD EM86
