KA6U Update - July 29, 2022 2200UTC I am putting the Roving trip on hold until September I have decided to return to Florida for the month of August and continue my trip in September. I have covered all of the states I planned (plus 2) in the western US (farthest away from my home base). This was the hardest part of the trip. I don't have as much energy as I did last year so it is hard to keep going continuously for months :-) My plan at this time is to go up the Northeastern US for several weeks in September to cover ME, NH, VT, MA, CN, RI, etc. I may then go in October and early November to cover the Southeastern states that are much closer to me in Florida. See you off the Moon again in a few weeks. 73 Peter, KA6U
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KA6U Update July 18, 2022 - 1330UTC I have arrived in Northern Kansas in EM19xu. Operations for July 19 are as follows: Kansas EM19 July 19, 2022 0530UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0530UTC - 1130UTC 70cm - 0530UTC - 0700UTC 2M - 0730UTC - 1030UTC 222 - 1100UTC - 1200UTC I expect to have Internet coverage at the activation site. Peter, KA6U
KA6U Update - July 16, 2022 - 1530UTC Activation plan changed for this week I am going to delay the Kansas and Nebraska activations by one day. I will activate Iowa at a later date: Here is the updated plan for activations next week: Kansas EM19 July 19, 2022 0530UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0530UTC - 1130UTC 70cm - 0530UTC - 0700UTC 2M - 0730UTC - 1030UTC 222 - 1100UTC - 1200UTC Nebraska EM19 July 20, 2022 0600UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0600UTC - 1200UTC 70cm - 0600UTC - 0730UTC 2M - 0800UTC - 1100UTC 222 - 1130UTC - 1230UTC I am not planning operations from July 21 - July 24. I will be attending the Central States VHF Society annual meeting in Wisconsin from July 22 - July 23. On July 25 or 26 I am planning to continue activations in the Midwest until the New Moon. 73, Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - July 14, 2022 - 1300UTC Thank-you everyone who has contributed to my fuel expenses on the trip. I have repaired my RV and will leave Denver to go to Seneca, Kansas on Sunday July 17. Here is the current plan for activations next week: Kansas EM19 July 18, 2022 0500UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0500UTC - 1100UTC 70cm - 0500UTC - 0630UTC 2M - 0630UTC - 0930UTC 222 - 1000UTC - 1100UTC Nebraska EM19 July 19, 2022 0530UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0530UTC - 1130UTC 70cm - 0530UTC - 0700UTC 2M - 0730UTC - 1030UTC 222 - 1100UTC - 1200UTC Iowa EN12 July 20, 2022 0600UTC Moonrise 23cm - 0600UTC - 1200UTC 70cm - 0600UTC - 0730UTC 2M - 0800UTC - 1100UTC 222 - 1130UTC - 1230UTC I am not planning operations from July 21 - July 24. I will be attending the Central States VHF Society annual meeting in Wisconsin from July 22 - July 23. On July 25 or 26 I am planning to continue activations in the Midwest until the New Moon. 73, Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - July 7, 2022 - 0300UTC Thank-you everyone who called today. 61 QSOs uploaded to LoTW. Great conditions on 23cm. First QSO at -1 degree elevation. 70cm was challenging with Faraday and lockout. Eventually I started switching polarity between TX and RX which worked well. 2M was not as difficult as previous days. For QSL cards please contact Ian W6TCP (see QRZ.com) Here is the automated polarity switching system I use. This works well on 70cm and 222Mhz. The time to switch polarity is about 8 seconds. I found a great location on another country road. There were about 2 vehicles per hour and half of them stopped!. The people in the rural midwestern US are curious friendly and I greatly enjoy their visits. I handed out QSL cards to everyone who stopped. One of my visitors was driving a giant truck with two trailers! As usual half thought I was a weather chaser and the others asked about aliens. And of course you know the answer. :-) Later in the afternoon the wind
KA6U Update - July 6, 2022 - 0230UTC Thanks to everyone who called today. 64 QSO's uploaded to LoTW. Conditions on 23cm and 70cm were excellent. 2M conditions ranged from OK to very hard with asymmetrical propagation and Faraday. There was an enormous strong thunderstorm on the edge of the activation location. I sat and waited for it to move far enough away so I could set up. As a result I was QRV at moonrise on 23 and 70cm. I was able to make QSOs on 23cm starting at 1 degree elevation. Same for 70cm. Here is the station shortly after Moonrise. The wheat in front of the 23cm antenna wasn't a problem. I was having problems with one of the IC705's overheating driving the 70cm PA with 6 watts. So I installed forced air cooling for the exciter. The hose connects directly to an air conditioning outlet in the truck. Works perfectly. I had continuous QSOs on 23cm and 70cm. Zoom in on the photo and you can see the dual band operation. Everything worked great today./ He
KA6U Update - July 4, 2022 - 1500UTC Thank-you everyone who called yesterday. 60 QSOs across 23cm, 70cm, 2M and 222. I operated on two bands continuously with no problems. The operating location was in a field of Barley. The farmer stopped by and he told me the grain in the background will be in Coors Beer this winter. 23cm dish shortly after Moonrise. Ground noise is actually not bad at all and I can typically make QSOs starting at moonrise. If all I operated was 23cm, I can park and be on the air in 15 minutes. I picked yesterday's operating location because it is right on the main East/West railroad line in the Northern US. There was continuous rail traffic in both directions all day. No noticeable interference from the trains, though I admit when the trains were passing I was not watching the radios :-) After the activation yesterday I drove 320km to North Dakota. 250km were on the road shown below. The scenery was spectacular. Grasslands with low hills in all directi
KA6U Update - July 3, 2022 - 0230UTC I have arrived in Billings Montana. Later today, July 3 UTC, I plan to activate DN66FD85 100km East of Billings, Montana. Moonrise should be at about 1600UTC Operating plan: 222 Mhz MS before Moonrise ~ 1430UTC 23cm and 2M EME at Moonrise 1600UTC 23cm and 70cm EME 1900UTC - 2030UTC 222 EME 2100UTC - 2200UTC After operations in DN66 I will drive 3 hours to Bowman, North Dakota. No operations planned on July 4. 73 Peter
KA6U Update - July 1, 2022 - 2300UTC I have arrived back at the hotel in Washington, 12 hours after leaving this morning. Today was a very easy day except for 2M EME! All station equipment worked perfectly, the weather was great. I ran dual band operation almost continuously the last few days. Working very well. I hit a bug in WSJT-X driver for ICOM705 sometimes but not too big an issue. The 23cm station has never worked better. Solid tracking all day with no adjustments and 30 23cm QSOs. 65 QSOs uploaded to LoTW. If anything is missing, please send me an email and I will correct. NO operations tomorrow, July 2nd. I will be driving about 12 hours to Billings, Montana. I will make several stops at favorite places along the way. I first traveled this way over the mountains of Glacier National Park over 50 years ago and have been back many times since then. Sunrise this morning at 5 AM local time at the operating site. Priceless Here is the operating location with 23cm and 70cm