VHF ROVER OPERATION:
Steve Addison, K4SJA, a club member form Booneville, brought along
his VHF Rover Station. These portable stations, complete with tower,
rotator, and rigs, are used in VHF contests where points are given for
working different grid squares, which are latitude and longitude divisions,
not political entities such as states. The Rovers thus move from
grid to grid to give contacts from different ones during the VHF contests.
Steve has operated in the contests from Pine Mountain near Jenkins
during his last operation before field day. Needless to say, mountain
top locations are preferred where it is possible to reach one and have
room to set up. In the picture below, assisting Steve are from the
left, Wayne Hensley, AF4YJ; George Williams, W4GLW; and Steve is on the
right. The metal utility trailer has the tower base set up on it,
and the antennas lie on top the sections while in transport. Once
stopped at the site, a few minutes will get the whole affair up in the
air.
Steve is well- equipped for the Portable Rover work as you can see from
the picture below. What's not obvious in the picture is the awning that
comes out from the vehicle to give him plenty of shade, and cover from
the rain. It did rain a few drops this year, but mostly the weather
was perfect and very comfortable.
As you can see Steve is working them with the IC-746 rig, the rotator
at the left end of the table, and the power supply is a small switching
supply just behid the rotor control. Two meters didn't really open
up very well, and the site is not at a great altitude (@1200 ft), but there
was a fairly good opening to the northeast and New England states.
Steve has just upgraded to General and we know he will have even more fun.
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