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Hey good evening everyone! But it's time for
HamTalk Live, episode number 249, VHF Contesting
and Roving, recorded live on Thursday, March
4th, 2021. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Jim Wilson, K5ND.
and we will take your calls live a little later
in the show. Last week, John Portun, W6NBC was
here to talk about building an ugly ballon. If
you missed that show, you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube and you can catch the rebroadcast
of HamTalk Live. Saturday afternoons at about
3 .30 p .m. Eastern Time over on WTWW that's
5 .085 a .m. again Saturday afternoons around
3 .30 in the Eastern Time zone and we want to
thank WTWW for carrying the show every week.
Well a couple of announcements here before we
talk to Jim One just came in this afternoon a
note from Christian K zero STH who Appears on
the show from time to time. He has the 100 watts
and a wire show and They are teaming up with
another ham with a YouTube channel And they're
trying to raise some public awareness on behalf
of a Detroit area ham That's been diagnosed with
end -stage renal failure. Phil Ross AB8 PR Has
been told that unless a matching kidney can be
located from a living donor soon He will require
dialysis and that's a time -consuming Intervention
and it's not considered a cure. So Christian
K0STH and Alexander Bayaderes, W7HU, are turning
their respective channels on YouTube into some
venues for the Papa Phil Challenge. They hope
that a compatible donor can be found in time,
so 100 watts at a wire is about the intersection
of Life and Ham Radio and Alexander's... channel
w7hualex Live streams the contacts that he makes
many of those are international contacts weekdays
from 3 to 6 p .m. So they have teamed up to try
to get the word out on this and They've put together
this weekly Wednesday program called the spirit
of radio and nod to the prominent ham radio plays
a prominent role ham radio plays in public service
and Bayadere says, uh, the only thing we ask
in return is those who watch the live streams,
post the link to Papa Phil's video from his website
on their social media pages. So they're trying
to, uh, to get the word out here. So for more
information, visit the Papa Phil website at Papa
Phil can, can Papa Phil can .com. And, um, they're
also going to do a special event. So they're
gonna be on 17, 20, 40, and 80 meters from March
13th through March 20th sharing Phil's story
and using the call sign Kilo4Papa, K4P. So they'll
be on sideband and FT8 special event QSL cards.
If I could talk tonight, goodness. And a downloadable.
I just need to slow down, I think. A downloadable
digital certificate will be available, so check
that out. The PapaPhilCan .com and the special
event for Papa Phil, and hopefully he can find
a match soon. Also to remind you about the QSO
Today virtual ham expo returning here shortly
in about nine days actually, March 13th and 14th.
Early bird tickets are $10 as part of the speaker
lineup. ARRL CEO David Minster and A2AA will
deliver the keynote on Saturday, March 13th from
12 to 1 Pacific time. And he'll be talking about
advancing amateur radio and current ARRL initiatives.
And also our guest tonight, Jim Wilson, K5ND,
will be presenting at that expo about VHF contestings
so you can see some of the things that we're
talking about tonight so Get your questions ready
to go for Jim if you're listening to us live
on Thursday night You can give us a call after
the interview Let me go ahead and give you the
phone number so you can have it ready. We'll
let you know when it's time But the telephone
number when it's time will be eight five nine
nine eight two seventy three 73 again, 859 -982
-7373. And we also take questions via Twitter.
The Twitter handle is at HamTalk Live. And if
you're on Spreaker, you can type in the comments
there, too. That acts kind of like a little chat
room. So we'll check those throughout the evening
as well. And I'll be back with Jim right after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
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connectors? HamTalk Live. The longer you listen,
the later it gets. Welcome back to HamTalk Live.
Tonight, Jim Wilson, K5ND joins us on the Orlando
Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Jim
is retired from the Boy Scouts of America headquarters
where he spent 21 years in publishing and communications.
He's now a freelance writer and the past president
of the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association. Check
them out at k2bsa .net. And he is a well -known
author, including some VHF contesting articles
in the national contest journal, where we share
some of the pages. So Jim, glad to have you back
tonight. And, uh, there's been a lot of stir
about, uh, hearing about your roving setup, especially.
So thanks for being here. Well, thank you, Neil.
Thanks for, uh, for inviting me and, uh, And
really, before we get started, I want to congratulate
you on being named the 2021 Carol Perry Educator
of the Year, a well -deserved recognition of
all that you're doing in education and ham radios.
Congratulations. Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate
that. And that means a lot. I know you have worked
with youth for a very long time and have opened
a lot of doors into youth and amateur radio as
well and You've done a fantastic job and I know
Bill is is carrying that on and if we can get
rid of this this COVID stuff, it would it would
help tremendously and get some kids on the air.
But tonight we're going to talk about VHF contesting
and roving. And so for someone that's just getting
into the VHF side of things, where should they
look to operate and what modes, what bands, how
much activity is really out there? Okay, well.
That's a lot to answer, but actually before...
In 50 woods or less, no. Exactly, and mail it
in for a magic decoder ring. Yes, there you go.
But actually, the phrase I want to use to describe
VHF contesting, and I borrowed this from W5ZN.
magic bands with super results from average stations.
Okay, so that's the thing that I like about this.
There's a lot of magic happening on these bands,
particularly six meters. It's Joel Harrison,
W5ZN, I've forgotten his name. He got me into
VHF contesting. I'm not sure he knows that from
his sessions at Contest University. He gradually
roped me into this. They're small antennas, they're
high gain antennas in a very small space. So,
and actually right here now, I've got a six meter
antenna up in my backyard on the top of a push
-up mass, a fiberglass push -up mass. And that's
what I operate on six meters. And just a few,
well, in January, I worked North Cook Islands,
E -51WL on FTA. And I copied LU5FF from Argentina
just last week. I didn't manage to work him,
but there's stuff happening on these bands. But
the question was, well, for contesting, where's
the action? And it's six meters, two meters,
a little bit of action on 222, 432 is good, and
all the way up from there. That's what covers
VHF contesting. As far as the frequency goes,
there's some national calling frequencies for
single sideband. It's 50 .125, 144 .200, 432
.100. FM is also used in VHF contesting. There's
even a category called FM only. And it's getting
a lot of attention. And there's some great guys
working FM only in the contest. So get your handi
-taki out and work it. But I'll also share that
FTA is probably the majority of activity that's
happening in VHF contesting these days. Some
people are happy about that. Some people are
not so happy about that. And that happiness and
displeasure isn't restricted to VHF contesting
by any means. But also as far as the amount of
activity, VHF contesting is really a regional
activity unless there's a big opening on six
meters. And then it can be nationwide and even
worldwide to a certain extent. So typically,
well here in North Texas, after the first couple
of hours of the contest, the activity dies down
because you've already worked everybody that's
here in the area. But if you're in the Northeast,
or Chicago or Los Angeles, some of the bigger
communities, the Atlanta area, et cetera, Florida,
there's a lot more activity simply because there's
a lot more stations out there. So that's the
500 words or less answer to that question. Oh,
very good. Can you give us some some tips on
VHF contesting to have a better experience? You
know, of course, you know, we always talk about
antennas being like, you know the thing but What
suggestions would you have for for getting your
VHF? Contesting station the best experience you
can have You know, the first key is one, turn
the radio on with whatever antenna you happen
to have. If you're typically working repeaters,
fire up FM on literally on the calling channel.
146 .52 is open for contesting. Another way to
make the experience better is to reach out to
your fellow club members. Reach out to the club
and say, Let's all get on the air. Let's all
make something happening. Let's make some noise
and have some fun with this. You don't have to
be a competitor at the national level. You can
be a competitor at the club level. And you can
also bundle the activity from your club to enter
the club portion of these contests. And let me
give you that overview too. There's four major
VHF contests during the course of the year. There's
one in January. There's one in June. That's typically
very good for six meter activity. There's one
in July. That's the CQ contest. That's got some
different rules. That's only six and two meters.
But it's also good for the six meter activity
because that's when sporadic E is happening during
the summer. And then there's the September contest.
That's how I'd make it a better experience, is
find more people to work, encourage your club
to participate, not only as individuals, but
I got it down here somewhere. I've been doing
presentations to clubs on VHF contesting in six
meters, and in talking to, and the questions
have offered more insight than probably my presentation,
but. The ARRL club categories, a local club is
10 or fewer members submit their logs and then
you're in the club competition. The CQ contest,
it's only three entries to get you into the club
competition. But don't stop there. Have the competition
within your club. Who gets the more points? Who
gets the more QSOs? The more grids as multipliers.
So I think activity and participation, it will
make your experience better. And then of course,
you can always, what us fanatics do is we buy
more antennas, we buy more amplifiers and radios.
You can always do that. That would be it. A lot
of the stir on social media and everything this
week with the show. was concerning a couple of
pictures of yours that I posted with your roving
setup. So let's talk about that because I know
there's a lot of people interested in that. If
you're like me and you've spent most of your
time in very unpopulated areas, You may have
to go to the activity. So let's talk about that
for a little bit. Well, you know, that my rover
operation ties into what I was just expressing
is that making contacts is what it's all about.
And what I was experiencing VHF contest here
in North Texas was literally after the first
hour or two, that was it. Now, Sunday mornings
there would be some tropospheric opening and
so some things will happen there. Maybe six meters
will open up. But the excitement that was happening,
if you were still in the chair, was whenever
a rover would happen to drive through the area.
And you'd work them and whatever grids they activated
and whatever bands they had. And finally I said,
well heck, why don't I do that? Let's set up
a rover. Let's go out and fire up in one grid
and work all those stations, go to the next grid
and work all the same stations. And then the
next one and the next one after that. So that's
what I decided to do. And I really went through
three phases of my rover operation. And the photos
that you're showing is phase three. But my first
phase, I literally had a painter pole, the things
that you attach to a roller when you're painting
a wall. A painter pole, I put a couple of diamond
yaggies on it, one for two, one for 432, because
that's all I had. And I had an ICOM IC910, which
it had just two bands. And I drove out, fired
it up, set the pole up, and worked a bunch of
stations. worked him here in Dallas, worked him
in Austin, San Antonio, et cetera. And I had
a blast. And so that comes back to my point as
well. Turn the radio on, start participating,
and then start making improvements. So phase
two, I got a fiberglass push -up mast, some better
antennas, put a 9100 in there so I had the six
meters on the air as well. And then phase three,
My problem with the Phase 2 was I had a stand
-up operation with the radios in the back of
my SUV. It was 115 degrees during the CQ contest.
That wasn't pleasant. And then it was raining
during the September contest. That wasn't pleasant.
So I said, I need to, and then it was also, I
just set everything up every time I stopped at
a grid. So I said, I need to get over this. Let's
set it up inside the car and mount the antennas
on top of the car. And so that's basically what
I, I modeled it after a, a tower, a three -legged
tower, put the rotator on there and a mast and
mounted the antennas. You can mount the antennas
very close together without a lot of problem.
And so I drive, I park, and I point the antenna
at the stations that I'm trying to work. That
is one difference with my rover operation. I
don't operate while I'm in motion. Now, that
is not a winning strategy, but I do not do multitasking
and driving and trying to work stations would
not work for me at all. But this is what I've
chosen to do and I have a lot of fun with it.
And I can set up the station that I want. Uh,
because I can't put up a tower here at my house
or, or permanent antennas. So that's my, my way.
I don't, I don't really have Reese, um, homeowners
association restrictions. I have, uh, uh, financial
and wife lead types of restrictions. Yes, those,
those can be just as powerful if not more. So
Yes, definitely well your your latest phase You
know inside of the vehicle is just fabulous you
know seeing the tower and rotor on top and And
then the, you know, computer screen and the rig
inside of the car. It looks great. And when I
was trying to figure out a roving satellite operation,
I was like, okay, Jim, tell me what your ideas
are because I can't do that tower and rotator
and everything that you did. And so, uh, started
looking at a couple of different directions and
found something that was a decent compromise,
but, uh, still trying to improve on that, but,
uh, Uh, so far I've kept it to, uh, to satellite
roving, but, uh, it's been a lot of fun. So,
um, I know we have some questions about, uh,
about the roving, so we'll, uh, we'll tackle
those here in just a little bit. Um, but, um,
tell me a little bit about this, this, uh, rotor
setup. How do you, how do you make all that work
on the car? Well, yeah, actually I encourage
You and the listeners I have a video on the website
that that shows me setting it up for I think
it was the June 2020 contest where I lift the
whole thing and put it up on top of the car,
but I my Building skills are restricted to two
by fours in plywood. And so that's what it's
made out of screwed and glued together in a fashion
to exactly fit on the rooftop rack. It's an Equinox
that I have there. Then I use some ratchet straps
to strap it onto the top of the car. After that,
I call it my flight test. I take it out and drive
70 miles an hour. If it flies off, then it didn't
pass. If it stays on, it passes. It's a Yesu
450 rotator. That's their smallest one. That's
mounted on the plywood. I have a DX engineering
mast. It's an aluminum two -inch mast that's
going up from there. I used a DX engineering
thrust bearing and then a tower tray, I guess
it's called, or such. So that basically established
the dimensions that I needed. And then Lowe's
hardware has this, it's called SteelTech. It's
SteelTech that manufactures it. I buy it at Lowe's,
but SteelTech... has these things that are normally
set up to do shelving. So they've got some connections
for the shelves and pipes and things like that.
And so I use three of those as the legs, put
the thrust bearing and such on that. And it's
all bolted in place. comes to a total height
of twelve feet uh... so i put by literally put
a sign on top of on the windshield of my car
that says your twelve feet high do not forget
this trees trees have a tendency to uh... to
bite you and i don't ask me how i know that but
uh... uh... so at the top is a moccasin for six
meters uh... then uh... at present time i have
a I use Directive Systems Rover Yagis. They're
Yagis that are all eight foot boom lengths. So
the two meter Yagi is, I think it's five elements.
Am I thinking that right? Might be five or six,
I've forgotten. The 222 is I think 10 elements
and the 432 is 15 elements. And so they all have
the same boom length except that moxin that's
up there. Mount those, route the cables. And
then, yeah, route the cable from the rotator
into the car as well. And pretty much all set.
The other challenge is RFI. You're sitting in
a metal box. Oops, sorry. No, go right ahead.
Yeah. I'm sure you have a lot of a lot of RFI
running around, especially with all the the electronics
in the cars these days. Yeah, electronics in
the car, but mostly it's those antennas and and
you're sitting in a metal box just a few feet
away from them. But ferrites are your friend.
And so I've been able to by and large eliminate
the the RFI. So, yeah, it works. And your story
about the 12 -foot restriction also reminds me
of the good old days back at Hamvention when
people would drive down Main Street in Dayton
and the electric trolley lines were right above
the street. I've heard there were a few incidents
with antennas Wow, I had not heard that one So
yes, you have to remember that and and I relate
to your your driving test because I did that
with my My satellite setup that I did. I said,
okay, but today's the day I'm gonna drive highway
speed and let's see if it falls off. So thank
goodness. So I've been there and done that. All
right. Well, let's take a break right now. And
then we're going to come back and we're going
to take some questions and phone calls at nine
or eight, five, nine, nine, eight, two, 73 73
and on Twitter. And we'll have the joke of the
week and all that. When we come back right after
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and more for your ICOM rig. So let's see here.
Oh yes, it is time once again for the joke of
the week from N9GSU. So take it away, Rick. Now
it's time for the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke
of the Week, the part of the show where Rick
tells us a ham radio joke. The HamTalk Live Ham
Radio Joke of the Week is brought to you by QRM
Labs. Now, here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU with today's
HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. All the computers
on the International Space Station are Linux
because You can't open windows in space. Find
out what's up with that feed line up there at
the International Space Station right now. Well,
thank you, Rick, and he'll be back with another
joke of the week next week. And now it is time
for your phone call. So if you have a question,
give us call 859 -982 -7373 or tweet us. It's
at HamTalk Live. And if you're listening to us
on WTWW or the podcast edition, you won't be
able to reach us. We're recording this live on
Thursday night. Okay, well we actually have a
caller on the line waiting, so good evening.
Welcome to HamTalk Live. Who's this? Good evening.
My name is Joe Durnow. My amateur call is NE3R,
November Echo 3 Romeo. I know Jim a little bit
through Scouts, and I've heard him on the satellite,
so I don't think I've ever worked him on the
air. So I had a question about the 23 centimeter
band. And if Jim, do you expect more activity
on the band since the ICOM IC -9700 has been
such a hot seller lately? Yeah. Hi, Joe. Thanks
for calling in. And Joe is... There was the on
our staff at I think a couple of Jamborees and
including most serving as a QSL manager for the
K -2 BSA operations. So it's good to hear from
you and thanks for calling in. 23 centimeters.
I would expect there'd be some more activity.
The challenge there, of course, is the 9700,
it's 10 watts out, which is fine and a good starting
point. I also have the IC9100 with the 1296.
plug in or however it goes. So it's 10 watts
out as well. And I've been giving some consideration
to the the ARRL 22 megahertz and up distance
challenge that happens in August and thinking
a little bit about putting a maybe tying an amplifier
into that and a loop yaggy and getting out roving
for 23 centimeters. For my own VHF contesting
activities, I enter limited rover. So that's
just the bottom four bands, six, two meters,
222 and 432. And I do that to simplify my station,
but that's always the temptation in VHF contesting,
adding more bands, getting up into the microwaves.
and their categories for that operation. I will
say also that one of the discussions that's going
on and probably has been going on for quite some
time is the participation levels in contesting
at those bands. that you're talking about, 23
centimeters, 900 megahertz is another one, and
so on. The normal routine in VHF contesting is
to find somebody typically on two meters and
say, let's work the bands. And you go up right
up to 10 gigahertz if you've got it, and you
work them in each band. If you're operating FT8,
that's really hard to do to even send the message,
hey, let's go to the next band. So that's a real
discussion. So I would hope there's more activity
on 23 centimeters, but I don't have any experience
there myself. All right. Thank you, Tim. Yeah.
Thanks, Joe. Thank you for calling in. Okay,
Joe. Thank you for calling and we appreciate
you Taking the time to ask a question here with
Jim k5 nd. So thanks a lot and seven three All
right, eight five nine nine eight two seventy
three seventy three is the phone number if you
would like to call in Give us a call right now
And we do have a couple that came in ahead of
the show. So let's take those. Pete, N1QDQ is
looking at some support and rotor solutions for
6 meters, 2 meters, and 70 centimeters. So you
want to take that one, Jim? You betcha. Well,
you can. You can see quite a few photos on my
website, k5nd .net, on how I've approached it.
But I'll tell you, the thing about rovers is
every rover installation is different. I've seen
a lot of guys with pickup trucks and tripod -type
of towers out of the truck bed. Guys like myself
where I'm pushing the mast up next to the car.
Check out Andrea N2 or K2EZ. Do I have that right?
Is it N2EZ? Well, one of those, she's got this
huge setup on her car for quite a few bands.
I know they're 85, oh, not thinking of the KA5D.
He has a Volkswagen, a Vanagon or a mini bus
type of thing with antennas on top of it. A lot
of guys use their trailer hitches and they've
got a set up there that they just slide into
the trailer hitch and the mass comes up off of
that. Sometimes it'll fold down for travel and
fold back up for operation. You name it, they
got it. One of the fun things for me has been
the Central States VHF Society has for their
annual conference a Rover Bowl. And the rovers
drive their rovers there, set them up and let
you tour them and they answer questions. And
every single one is different. I'm having a video
playback. One guy at the last one I attended
in, which was in Wichita, had made a six meter
yaggy out of a walker. Oh, wow. Took the tubes
apart and all that sort of stuff and put the
thing up. So you name it, people are doing it
in a good place. You know, check out websites.
Look at the rover listings in the contest results.
check out their QRZ pages. There's a rover group
on Facebook where there's a lot of pictures and
they're trading what they're doing. That's another
good place to look for ideas in what you want
to do for your situation. Okay, well, thank you
for writing in Pete and hope that Answers your
question. We've got another one. We'll get to
here in a second, but we have another caller
on the line So let's see who we have here. Good
evening. Welcome to ham talk live Hello, hey
good evening, this is Aaron in Virginia whiskey
for Juliet Sierra tango Hey nice to hear you
on you have a question here for Jim tonight Yeah,
I've got two questions if I can and I thank you
for taking my call and First time listener on
the program. So real interested. Thanks for having
it One question just curious if during the contest
when you're roving if you keep an ear out on
any FM such as 1 4 6 5 2 or anything like that
and Also curious, as you're out rovin' or maybe
ahead of time, how do you go about picking good
locations to stop? Okay. Well, great. Well, Aaron,
I will say that it's best practice to listen
to those FMN channels. I don't do that. But the
guys that win the contest, that's what they do.
And I know I've worked with, they're the OK Rovers.
Actually, you might check that. I think it's
okrovers .com or something like that. But you
might check out their website. It's a group of
rovers. And they circle, they go to different
grids and work each other and make a lot of contacts
that way. But I know they do a lot of FM work.
Typically, I think what they're doing is, one
of the reasons that I don't do that is all my
antennas are tuned for the single sideband portion
of the bands and they're also horizontally polarized.
But what they do is they do that and they have
whip antennas and things like that up there,
omnidirectional antennas, specifically for FM.
They also do a lot of work with local clubs and
let them know, hey, I'm coming through. I'm coming
through on this day at this time, get on the
air and give me a lot of contacts. So that does
happen. It doesn't happen from the Wilson Rover,
but it does happen. It's absolutely best practice.
Now as to route, what I do, is I go out and look
at them beforehand. And then over the last few
years, I found some favorites that I focus on.
Mostly you can use Google Maps and there's some
other summit location maps and things like that.
But you can analyze those maps really closely
and figure out where a good place might be. Um,
the, um, one where I've done that, uh, a fair
bit is, uh, typically for one of the summer contests,
I go out to the Texas panhandle and I roll from
out there and, and I try, I've set up a route
around. where four grids come together. So around
a grid corner so that I can move very quickly
from one grid to the next grid to the next grid
and so on. And then take off and drive. So that's
how I do that out in a panhandle. Here in North
Texas, there's similar places where I've found
What I try to do is find high places, places
without trees. That's very easy to do in the
Texas Panhandle, where there are very few trees.
Here in North Texas, west of Dallas, it's pretty
easy to do. There's some ridges and things like
that out there that I operate from. East Texas,
where I also operate, it's a little bit more
challenging with the trees and the ups and downs,
but I found some places that work. And the other
trick is to plan your route so you're driving
north and south, unless you're circling a grid
square, you know, the four corner thing. North
and South, if my memory's serving me right, is
about 70 miles grid line to grid line. East and
West, it's about 100 miles. So, you know, optimally
you want... your travel time to be the smallest
amount of time, particularly for my operation,
since I don't operate when I'm driving, operate
when I stop, and I get in the back seat and start
pointing the antenna. So that's what I look for.
And then my, adding still more to that, my route
typically starts west of Dallas. move south so
that I'm south of Dallas, pointing closer into
Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. And then I
go back up the east side of Dallas, doing the
same sort of thing, ending up in Oklahoma, actually.
So hope that answered your question, Aaron. Yeah,
absolutely. That's a lot of good info. I really
appreciate it. Thanks for taking my call. and
answering both questions so well. Thanks again.
Have a good night. All right. Thank you 73. All
right, Aaron. Thank you for calling. And thank
you for listening. Thank you. Bye bye. I thought
we were going to have the long time caller first
time listener thing there, but it's supposed
to be the other way around. Yeah. All right.
Well, we've got another one here. We're actually
over time here. So We'll see if we get another
call but let me get this one in because this
came in early. Chris, AD4ZU in Tampa has four
questions. Batteries, serial or parallel? External
portable power source, what would you recommend?
Typical location route, you know, and how far
do you go on a contest? And then ideas on custom
mount fabrication. So there's a lot there. So
I'll let you do that. Well, and that's what I'm
the DC DC power thing. That's kind of where I'm
focusing in a lot of attention right now and
I'll just mention one of the things I like about
contesting is that from one contest to the next,
you always have something you can improve to
help increase your score, to improve operating,
et cetera. And where I've done the rotor, I've
done the antennas, I got the rigs, the computer,
now it's more about DC power. But I've been using
the power from the car, so I don't... and that's
12 volts DC. I don't connect them in series or
parallel, I just use the power from the car.
I'm also starting to play around with using supplemental
batteries, but I haven't quite figured that out
yet. As far as external portable power sources,
I know a lot of people use generators. That's
typically when they're going someplace and stopping,
firing up the generator. But I've not done that,
but that is something that's on my list. On location
routes during the contest, in the routes that
I've chosen here around the Dallas -Fort Worth
area, I'm typically putting in 750 miles over
the course of a contest weekend. It's been a
little different with the COVID restrictions.
In the past, I've stayed overnight at a hotel.
I'm driving home now between my west route and
my east route. But the answers I had for Aaron
would apply to selecting a rover route. And custom
mount fabrication, you betcha, that's what Pretty
much all of them are, but we don't have them
to buy off the shelf, but you can see ideas off
my website and the OK Rovers site and the Facebook
group on Rovers. It's a private group, but all
you need to do is ask to join that. Now, I think
I've clicked off those questions there, Neil.
Yep, I believe you have and that's K5 ND K Kilo
5 November Delta net so you can check that out
and then also you've got the The ham expo coming
up and there'll be some video along with that.
So you might mention that here real quick before
we go Yeah, I'm It's the VHF contesting Session
that that I'm doing at the QSO today virtual
ham expo and actually I'm I'm one of the last
presentations in the last hour of the Ham Expo.
I like to think of it as batting cleanup, but
it's more likely they're going to hand me a virtual
broom to clean up the place after my presentation.
I thought we were saving the best for last. Oh,
that's it. That's it. Yeah, let's go with that
one. So that's, yeah, there you go. Good. Okay,
well you can check that out and check out Jim's
website k5nd .net and Chris, thank you for sending
in those questions. So we're going to finish
this up here, Jim. So any final comments before
we go? Turn your radio on and get on the air
for these VHF contest January June July and September
they can be a blast get your bring your friends
along and and make it happen Yeah, I was going
to mention earlier when you said that that we
will guarantee that you will make more contacts
if you turn the radio on Yeah, oh, you know Neil
I have a quick quick story there and it's a guy
that you know Gabe who does a lot of satellite
or used to do a lot of satellite rover operations.
But during one of the contests, Gabe was on Mount
Scott in Oklahoma, working satellites. And I
sent a tweet to him and I said, Gabe, point your
antenna at me here in North Texas and let's work.
And we worked two meters and 432. And I said,
Gabe, turn your log in. And, and he, and if he
did, I think he worked a couple of other guys,
but he won the section for portable, uh, operation
in the contest in Oklahoma. So get on the air.
You can actually win in some of these categories.
Yep. Absolutely. I know, uh, Val in V9L is always,
uh, you know, uh, commenting on that as like,
you know, enter, you may be the only one. So,
uh, you can win. Exactly. All right, Jim. Well,
thank you so much for being here, and I hope
you're recovering from those 20 -degree temperatures
down there in Texas that is a blast back to your
past up north, and hope everything is going well,
and we'll be talking with you again soon, I'm
sure. Thank you very much Neil. It's been it's
been a pleasure and We'll be saying seven three
All right. Well, that is a wrap for this week's
episode of ham talk live Thanks to my guest Jim
Wilson k5 in and D and everybody in cyberspace
for listening and calling in and typing in And
I invite you back next Thursday night 9 p .m.
Eastern time When Lou Maggio, NO2C, Sally Rosato,
K2RYD and John Amadeo AA6JA will be here to talk
about the last man standing QRT special event
and I will be operating on that so hope to hear
you all on that toward the end of the month and
we'll be here next week to talk all about it
and for a list of all of our upcoming guests
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DX be yours. Thank you.