Being a Rover Day by Day
as told by
David, NJ0W
W6S/Rover 1
SATURDAY, Sept 12
W6S Sunrise over the Painted Desert. Operating Route 66 On The Air from the ruins of a ’20s gas station along Route 66 West of the Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona Friday and Saturday.
SUNDAY, Sept 13
Today I set up on an abandoned section of Old 66 about 25 miles East of Flagstaff (about 8 miles West of the Barrenger Meteor Crater). Specifically this piece of 66 is on the South side of I-40 at exit 225 Buffalo Ranch Road where 66 bent South so departed from under I-40.
Band conditions were better today so managed a number of contact getting the total for W6S up to 843. Started out with the I-V but had to take it down around sunset due to t-storms bearing down on me from the Southwest. I continued for another 3 hours on the screwdriver with good success.
Overall a good day on 66.
MONDAY, Sept 14
Drove out to a spot 3 miles East of Winona (don’t forget) where the ’20s & ’30s Route 66 alignment (still a forest service road) diverge from the old telephone lines for a short distance. You can see the old telephone poles diverging off to the right in the picture. I just ran on the screwdriver today as there had been some rain and the ground was still damp so I didn’t want to drag the I-V wire through the muck. It did pretty well with good reports from Mexico to Canada. Nothing outside North America tonight though.
Got on the air just before sunset and had a pretty good run on 40m for about 2.5 hours. I even picked up KW7I Larry in Oregon in the middle of the pileup. Too bad I couldn’t stop and chat as it was running pretty hot at that time. Just threw in to say ‘Hi’ to Norm and kept going. Pileup etiquette was pretty bad until I said something about it slowing things down and then it straightened out some. Had a keyer again tonight but they went away after a bit when I just ignored them and worked through it. Fortunately there were enough strong stations that made it possible. Another one came back at the end but the band had gone dead by that point. I’m thinking it was the same local station as last year as it was in the same area and the tone was very pure (and pegging the meter when the band was dead). Unfortunately, I didn’t have my HT along to get any DFs on the signal.
After 40m died, I dropped down to 80m, made a couple W6E Barstow contacts and then headed home as there was a lot of lightning static from a t-storm near Flagstaff.
TUESDAY, Sept 15
Drove out to Two-Guns and set up next to the iconic Conoco gas station in the older part of the ruins. The wind was really gusting so didn’t try to put up the I-V and used the screwdriver which worked pretty well.
Managed a fairly consistent run with just few pauses when the band would drop on 20m and 40m until 9pm when 40m completely dropped out. Tried 80m but too much static (loud clicks and pops) to get anywhere so called it a day. I’ve attached a pic of the truck next to the Conoco ‘Tower’ ruins.
THURSDAY, Sept 17
Headed out this afternoon and decided to try a new spot out on 1940s Route 66 near Walnut Canyon National Monument road. I have attached a pic of my op location where I am sitting in the shade (nice for a change) alongside The Route with Flagstaff’s Mount Elden in the background.
When I first set up, it started out real slow but after a bit I settled into a pretty good run on 20m. Didn’t take long though before it turned into a free-for-all with stations crowding in causing excessive QRM. Took it as long as I could but when another W6 set up 1 KHz away I gave up and headed down to 40m. The action there was slower but much easier on the ears. Had a good run and when 40m faded out I dropped down to 80m for a couple contacts. Not much action though so after CQing for a while I stepped back up to 40m where things were hopping again. Had another good run for an hour or so until a jammer dropped by playing machine gun sound affects. Kinda different but annoying none the less. After 40m petered out again I called it a day to get an earlier start tomorrow.
Today there were numerous periods where the band was open but I wasn’t getting any takers. I’m guessing that the pool of participants is starting to get shallow after all the contacts. I gave out one Clean Sweep and heard another while looking for an open frequency. Lots of stations were reporting getting close too. The biggest problem reported is getting contacts with closer-in stations. I’ve had good luck with 40m for that but 80m just doesn’t have much business.
FRIDAY, Sept 18
Planned on getting an early start today. Unfortunately Rovers can have something to deal with that rarely occurs at a home shack. After loading up the truck and noticed I had a flat <sigh>.
Fortunately I was at home so I had my floor jack available vs having to use that miniature torture device known as a hydraulic barrel jack that is provided as original equipment with the F-150. It didn’t take too long to change the tire using my spare spare (Rovers usually have two available; the middle of nowhere is a long way from anywhere) but it put me further behind than I already was.
To make up some time I headed out to the ’20 & ’30 Route 66 alignment about 2 miles East of (don’t forget) Winona. It is close by and by using the screwdriver I was able to get on the air quickly on a section at the top of a rise yet far enough away from the Twin Arrows Casino to not have line-of-sight to all their RF noisemakers.
Had a fairly good run on 20m and then dropped down to 40m for a fairly good run that slowly descended into a frustrating time trying to pick out callsigns that were mostly RS 4-1. 40m didn’t close, but the signal strengths were mostly abysmal. When it finally died completely I rejoiced. I quickly checked out 80m with no success and then headed home with a few hundred more QSOs in the log.
SATURDAY, Sept 19
After the club breakfast I headed out to a spot on Old 66 near the Meteor City Trading Post (it can be seen in the lower right of the attached photo). Set up the Inverted-V antenna where I parked on the rise the the Northwest where I’ve worked before during previous years.
Started out slow but picked up quickly and I worked 20m until mid-afternoon when the band got very crowded and I kept getting QRMed by all the Salmon Run stations. Gave up and headed down to 40m just before it took off and had a nice long run. Managed 492 contacts total over 10.5 or so hours.
Worked Art NN7A during one of the openings up towards CO. Nice sigs. Finally found the right menu on the radio to turn down the mic gain on the headset boom mic. One of the stations I was talking to recorded and played my QSO back and it sounded good. No more complaints.
One more day to go. I’ll be setting up a little later tomorrow but will try to get on the air for 3 or 4 hours.
