W3DHJ/rover

After several years my VHF Rover web page was got weighed down with too much added material. It was becoming a real hog to load for some visitors -- I'm sure. So, I broke a Big Chunk of it out and created this web page: Sagas, Tall Tales, Anecdotes, Yarns, Whoppers and Fabrications (the last referring to the construction and assembly of my Rover outfit -- not to be confused with "Alternate Facts".  HI!HI!)

2007 ARRL June VHF -- The Eagle

In June, 2007, I had an absolutely surreal encounter with an eagle. I was parked to the side of a   r  e  m  o  t  e   gravel road in DM87. The eagle came down from the heights to about 5 feet off the road about 200 feet out in front of me. He proceeded to glide down the center of the road towards me. Nary a wing flap the whole time. As he glided past me, I could have reached out the open window and grabbed him. No noise at all in his passing. I swear he was staring at me as he passed. About 100 feet behind me, he rose in a thermal and reached 2-300 feet within seconds. It was one of those pee-in-your-pants moments.

And, of course, I had my mic in my hand - - not my camera...

2008 ARRL June VHF -- K8GP 2M QSO

The most memorable QSO of this contest occurred on Sunday morning. I always over-night in my own bed -- the best motel in the 4 grids I normally trawl through. I had plans to go back out 'early' on Sunday. But, I stayed way out in DM87 fairly late on Saturday night, and I just could not throw myself on the floor that easily the next morning. So, it was 8 A.M. when I was getting ready to drive off.

I got in the car and turned on the rig to see if "all systems are go!". I heard this tremendous signal low in frequency when the rig came on. I tuned down and BINGO!, there was K8GP FM08 at 5/9+. I was positive I hadn't work him at all on Saturday -- so I gave him a shout and he came right back and we 'exchanged'. I started logging it and looked more closely at the display on the IC-706 to see what frequency we were on. The numbers looked Real Weird! HOLY CRAP!! I'm on 144.197!!!

The chatter I heard later informed me I had probably slept through the best of the 2M E-skip. sigh.......

In a later email exchange with W3ZZ, Gene told me: "It was the longest reported (2M) contact at 2176 km (1352 miles)."

Wowser! Little ol' me with 110W and two stacked, homebrew halos from my driveway.

CQ WW VHF July 2008 -- KK6MC/r

Duffey (on the left) along with his loving wife and driver, Ginger (taking this picture) dropped in at my DM87 site during his 2-day rove from Hastings, Nebr. (EN00) to his home QTH in New Mexico (DM65). He was roving with a homebrew 6M halo and a homebrew 3-el 2M Yagi on a 12 foot mast. Six Meters was open at the time, and we probably lost something like 100 QSOs from DM87 between us while we spent 30-some minutes swapping lies. (Sorry, guys!) This was my first 'path crossing' with another rover, and it made my outing that day a little more 'special'.

You can find a lot more about Duffy's VHF Rover activities on the New Mexico VHF "denizens'" web site.

Let me explain here the covering on my windshield (on the car in the back.) Summer temps out in this country can soar well over 100°F. I made an outside sun blocker from a twin-bed-sized mattress cover. I cut off all the edge material -- leaving just the pad. To hold it in place I close the car doors on it and lift up and set the windshield wipers on its lower edge. Works a treat! Of course, rovers in SUVs or trucks would probably require the queen-sized version. HI!HI!

ARRL June VHF 2009 -- KR0VER/r

On Saturday I went north to start the contest in DM79 and then moved east into DM89 before turning south into my usual quad of grid squares. As it turned out, Eric, KR0VER was running the same route before turning north. So, we ran as a "rover pack" out to Colorado Highway 71. Here we are just south of the DM89/DM88 line before he turned north and I continued south.

That's Eric standing outside the vehicle. And, that's Eric's dad (also, Eric) doing the driving for him. What a dad!!

From the top down Eric had 2M, 6M (halo), 220Mcs, 432Mcs, and a cross boom with 902Mcs, 1.2GHz, 2.3GHz, and 3.4GHz. For 5.7GHz and 10GHz, he gets out of the van and waves a horn around by hand. At least that's the way I think it all went together...

Makes my lil' 2 band mashup in the background look wimpy.

Visit Eric's VHF Activity web page: www.kr0ver.org

2012 ARRL June VHF - Dead in the water

On Sunday around 1900Z I stopped a couple of miles down a desolate gravel road at my usual DM87 site after driving out of DM77. I had been listening while driving the 9 miles and 6M was hot and I wanted to get back in the action.

In my rush to pile up the contest points (heh), I started operating immediately upon rolling to a stop. I parked and killed the engine to eliminate the RFI hash, BUT I DID NOT TURN OFF THE IGNITION, and ... AND ... AND I LEFT THE DAMNED HEADLIGHTS ON !! (Since I never opened the car door, there was no idiot chime to warn me about the headlights.)

In less than 30 minutes I had a useless battery. I was stuck - stuck - stuck ... way and the heck down a county/ranch gravel road. I had to walk 1/4 mile out into sage brush and cholla cactus to get a cell phone signal.

I am married to a Saint! My wife drove 110 miles round trip to come out and give me a jump start. (heh... A ranch truck drove by us just as I was un-hooking the jumper cables. That was the first vehicle I'd ever seen on that road.)

However, monitoring 6M during that time (it takes little juice to just RX) indicates that 6M propagation laid down some during the 2 hours I was out of commission.

Irony: For just that bone-headed possibility I have -- for years -- mounted a bright yellow paper sign on the dashboard -- just over the steering wheel -- that says: HEADLIGHTS!!  Doesn't do me any good, I guess.

FollowUp: During the CQ WW VHF contest a month later, I did it again. sigh... This time, though, it was simply due to long operations at a high Q-rate. Luckily I was on a paved county road and I was able to wave down a car within about 10 minutes. They were friendly people and gave me a jump start.

Update: Beginning in 2013, I added a 45 watt solar panel system to the Rover configuration. (Read "SolarPower!!" below...)

2012 CQ WW VHF -- AB0YM/r

I was pleased to meet two other rovers in this contest: AB0YM/r on Saturday, and KR5J/r on Sunday (see below.) On Saturday - about mid-afternoon - George pulled in at my DM87 site.

Here's George standing outside his rover truck. He had a KU4AB 6M Loop (Halo) under which he has a 2M Yagi. The mast sat in a ordinary "roof peak" tripod mounted on a wooden frame lying in the truck bed. The 2M yagi was a stock Directive Systems "Rover Special" with 6 elements on an 8 foot boom. He rotated the yagi by 'rotating' the truck. On the back corner of the truck you can see a 2M halo that he can employ to catch signals from any-which-a-way... George has a website here.

His 6M transmit was snafu on Saturday - seemingly milliwatts for power out. But I did manage to work him on 6M when he got within a quarter mile of me. Talk about a "captive rover"! Later (after the contest) he found a cracked solder joint at the female connector on the 6M Loop.

Southeast Colorado was in deep drought in 2012, as evidenced by the toasty brown prairie grass you see in the background of the above and below pictures. Whereas in past years I would see 3-4-5 herds of pronghorn antelope over a weekend, this time I saw one solitary animal on Saturday and one small herd on Sunday.

2012 CQ WW VHF -- KR5J/r

Julian showed up at my DM87 site on Sunday near the end of the contest. His wife was riding shotgun and logging for him. So he was all set up to contest while rolling down the highway. You can just see her - hiding from the camera on the other side of the passenger door.

Julian had a 6M PAR Omniangle above a Elk 2 meter-440 log periodic - which he was using on 2M. Since it is a log periodic, Julian expects to use it on 222 and 432 in the future.

His mast is attached to a bicycle carrier receiver (similar to, but smaller than a trailer hitch receiver) in the center rear of the vehicle. Though it has been doing "just fine" without guying, Julian is thinking of guying it to the roof rack.

Six meters was dead in the toilet on Sunday afternoon. So the time we took off to chat and get to know each other really did not cost us (or other OPs) any points. HI!HI!

2013 CQ WW VHF -- Solar Power!!

Starting with the 2013 CQ WW VHF Contest I employed the use of a 45 Watt Solar Panel system. Being first use, and being lazy, I just laid the solar panels on the ground next to the car.


I had "plans" to assemble the three panels into a frame which I would then mount on a vehicle roof rack. There was only one problem -- the old Rover Vehicle did not have a roof rack. That was a problem I solved by replacing the Mercury Tracer with the Subaru XV Crosstrek in time for the 2014 Summer VHF contest season. See the newer images below and elsewhere on the web site.



Oh ... you also need to read my "Cows!!" entry -- just below here!

2013 CQ WW VHF -- COWS!!

I thought I was aware of most of the problems a Rover might face.

Wrong!

Beginning with this contest, I was using a 45 watt solar panel system to help keep the car battery charged. Since it was my first use of them, I was just pulling the solar panels out of the back seat and laying them on the ground at each of my 'usual' grid locations (or, I leaned them up against the car in the early morning or late afternoon.)

While parked in open range in DM87, I noticed in my rear view mirror that a small group of cattle were working their way towards me. In previous years I've had (curious?) cattle come up to the car -- even slobbering and drooling on the road bra. I suddenly had terrible visions of a 900 pound steer stepping on my solar panels!

I moved the panels as close to the car as I could. But, three times I had to get out of the car and charge the cattle - while waving white towels (not RED! HI!HI!) -- and run them off. (Must've been a 'sight'!)
Really cuts into the Q-rate.

Update: After the 2013 ARRL SEP VHF contest, I 'retired' my 22-year-old Mercury Tracer, and I built a new Rover setup around a 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek -- which had roof rails on which I mounted a frame to hold the solar panels for my contest outings.

2014 CQ WW VHF -- Combines!!!

If it's not cows, then it's wheat! Well - - - wheat combine harvesters, that is.

On Saturday I was parked on a remote, gravel county road in DM89 -- having seen no traffic in many hours. I began seeing a "boxy" vehicle profile coming towards me over the slow rolling swales way down the road in front of me.

At first I thought it to be a UPS delivery truck -- but, no, it was Saturday. Next I thought it to be a truck of some type carrying a large, box-like item.

But, I did notice it was coming very slowly.

Finally it rose out of the swale out in front of me and I could see what it was. It was a 60 foot wide wheat combine harvester! ... coming at me on a 50 foot wide road!
And, there was a second one a 100 yards behind him!

I was trapped by bar ditches on both sides of me.

I had to back up nearly a half mile before I could pull into a field to the side and let them pass by. Luckily, I could back up faster than they could drive forward! HI!HI!

The image to the right (or, above right) was my view out the windshield as I was backing up.
And the image below was after the first had past.

2014 ARRL SEP VHF -- Antelope!!

Early in the evening on Sunday I was set up at my usual DM88 site. After I'd been there for an hour or two, I saw an antelope working his way towards me in the field on my left.

I was wearing headphones, so he would never hear any chatter from the rig. (And, as I remember it, there was no chatter -- neither propagation nor local vhf activity was playing in my favor.)

He crossed the field, and came under the fence. (Unlike a deer, antelope do not jump over a fence. They basically crawl, squiggle under the lower wire.)

All the while, he was wary of my vehicle. (Antelope are wary of everything.) But he came on, anyway.

My window was already rolled down and I steadied my camera on the outside rear view mirror while shooting several pictures one-handed. This was the last picture I got before he crossed 25-30 feet in front of me and went under the next fence and started across that field. Twas one of those "Wow!" moments not involving VHF DX.

2015 ARRL JUN VHF -- U.S. ARMY

On Sunday afternoon I was set up on my "alternate" DM87 site when The U.S. Army passed by. The brigades at Fort Carson (just south of Colorado Springs) often go down to the Pinôn Canyon Maneuver Site -- which is located in center-west DM87. They do try to move back and forth without disrupting traffic on the major hiways and roads (I-25, US-50, etc.)
So they take the little-used, back roads as much as possible.
Well, so do I. HI!HI!  So, here I am on a very back road when they roar by on the way back to Ft. Carson. Luckily I was not parked on the side of the road at the time.
It took some time before they all passed by.

2015 W3DHJ  ROVER ABD

In 2014 I retired my old, reliable 1991 Mercury Tracer which had served as my rover vehicle and which can be seen in images above. It was replaced by a 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek (- now a 2016 -- long story...) which -- with a little work and some ingenuity -- was transformed into a very nice Rover.

Then, in 2015, I added 432.1/446 Mcs to my 6M/2M operations. So, here we see my current Rover lash-up.

There's the 432.1/446 - horiz./vert. WA5VJB Cheap Yagi on a put-up/take-down mast mount mounted to the cross rails of the roof rack. Actually, there are two 70cm yagis there: one 8-el horizontal (432.1 Mcs) and one 8-el vertical (446 Mcs) -- on the same boom -- each fed independently by RG-8X.

This picture was taken soon after sunrise on a Sunday morning in DM78 and I had the solar panels tilted up to about 75-80 degrees. The solar assembly is mounted via hinges on both sides of the roof rack -- hinges with removable pins. So, with an adjustable prop cobbled up from a twist-to-lock mop handle I bought at Goodwill, I can set the appropriate angle of the panels as the sun moves through the sky -- and as I move through the grids.

At the rear you see a mast mounted on the highest-rise hitch ball mount I could afford (heh...). On the mast I have two homebrew, phased 2M Halos "pointed" aft, and in between those, my homebrew 6M Halo "pointed" forward.

When underway, the 70cm yagi(s) are down and stowed in the back seat, and the solar panels are down and locked.

Anyway, that's the status as of 2018...

2017 CQ WW VHF -- Open Range Cattle

Cows!, again. heh - heh
Sometimes it can be difficult to move from DM87 to DM88!  HI!HI!
It's even more interesting when they all decide to lay down on the road.

2020 ARRL JUN VHF -- Capulin Volcano, NM

Early in 2020 I began thinking about doing a Rove which would include The Capulin Volcano National Monument in N.E. NM to my route -- DM86as. And it came to pass that I did just that. I left Pueblo, Colo early enough on Saturday morning to be at the upper parking and set up by 1800z. And it came to pass...

The NPS Ranger that was "monitoring" the parking area was also a ham, and he wanted to do a FaceBook post about my activity. And it came to pass...

Tho', the picture did cut off the upper 2M Halo in the rear and the 8 element 432 Yagi up front.

2022 ARRL JUN VHF -- W0WLA/r

It had been 10 years since I crossed paths with another Rover out there. But during the contest on Saturday I was given a "Heads Up" by a front range op that a new Rover was out and about.

Sure enough, from my first operating site (DM88) on Saturday, I logged W0WLA/R (Bill) in DM78 on 6M, 2M, and 432.

He informed me that this was his first ever Rover outing and that he was following my route description from my "VHF Contesting on S.E. Colorado's High Plains" web page on this website. How neat is that?!

He entered all my various operating sites' Lat./Long. data into his mobile device and parked in all my old wheel ruts. HI!HI! The direction he was doing was the reverse of the direction I was doing. So eventually we converged and sometime around 3:15 PM local he pulled up at my DM87 site.

He came out again in the 2023 ARRL JUN VHF -- again running my route in reverse. You see him here with his Cadillac Rover -- a 6M Halo and interlaced, HB, 2M and 432 yagis. He takes down and stows the antennas when moving to a new site.

Up until 2022 he'd been active on HF mobile (homwowners' restrictions) -- doing Colorado QSO parties and the like. This was his second summer VHF contest outing and he said he was having a ball.