2025 ARRL September VHF

On the station front, no changes to the RF producing parts of the rover. The only change I managed to accomplish since the last outing was to swap the LTE router for a new Starlink Mini. The LTE router has served me pretty well for the last two years, but even in IL/MO where I’ve spent most of my time I’ve found areas where coverage has been poor. Starlink had announced a new plan that would have similar cost to my LTE service, so I took the leap. In testing prior to the contest and over this past weekend it has worked great. Unfortunately, I didn’t even have it active for a month and Starlink has already killed the plan I was hoping to use. Such is life I guess. The cost will likely be higher, but so far the service for my needs is much better as well.

On to the contest… The weather man was predicting it to be dry and miserably hot for the weekend. Turns out, they were right. I had also decided to switch it up and go classic rover and run high power even though I still don’t have the antennas for the higher bands on the mast yet. Probably not the best choice when the weather was predicted to be 95+. So, after packing some snacks and plenty of water/tea in the van, off I went to Taum Sauk Mountain in EM47. As the contest started off, it seemed the bands weren’t all that great. They continued to be not all that great for the whole day. Worked a couple friends back at home on phone, but the rest were all the usual dead band FT8 grind. By 2200Z what little activity there was was all but gone. Surfing the internet on my now rather good internet connection was way more interesting than the contest by that point. So, I packed up and headed north. I had intended to stop in EM48 on the way back towards home for the night, but with the dismal propagation and activity I completely skipped that as well and just went home.

Since I was home and snoozing earlier than expected, it actually wasn’t that bad getting up at ~0400 local and back on the road toward the EM49/EM59/EN40/EN50 corner. I wanted to be there early enough to hopefully catch some morning meteor scatter. I got setup in EN40 and was on the air by 1100Z and worked a handful of stations over the next hour. After that it was just back to the same mostly FT8 grind with the few friends mixed in on phone as I moved to new grids. 222 and 432 especially were pretty good early. On the couple phone runs with friends the signals seemed to get louder the higher we went. But, by late morning that had faded and by early afternoon the multipath was so bad I was having trouble decoding stations on those bands at all.

While Saturday was hot, Sunday was worse. By early afternoon it was even miserable in the van with the A/C running full blast and not keeping up in the uninsulated van sitting in full sun. By that point I was ready to call it but decided to stick it out and try to get to at least 200 Qs. Just as I was closing in on 200, Paul N9PCS pulled up behind me. We had talked a couple times prior to the contest and he had asked if I was going to be at that corner for Sept. So, I knew he may stop by for a quick tour of the rover at some point. After a few minutes chatting with him in the (hot) van, he took off and gave me a few more Qs on 144/432 on his way back home. Yes, it’s a contest, but it’s always good to take some time for an eyeball QSO with others interested in the craziness that is a rover. From that perspective, it was worth the extra time sweating in the van.

After making the couple Qs with Paul and having made it past the 200 mark I was aiming for I had had enough though. It was time to get the van moving and cool off some. Packed up ~2100Z and headed back for home. When I hit the driveway, I made another quick phone run with Jeff K9KLD and even added in a 902 FM contact since I had the HT in the van with me. But then it was time for a cool shower and some real food.

Until next time… thanks for the Qs!

Gear:
Flex 6600 / Q5 Signal 5BVUX
50 - 500w - Directive Systems 3el Yagi @ 20’
144 - 350w - Directive Systems 6el Rover Yagi @ 12’
222 - 100w - Directive Systems 10el Rover Yagi @ 10’
432 - 150w - Directive Systems 15el Rover Yagi @ 8’