I have had some limited successt in VHF contesting form my home QTH in Ottawa Ontario (FN25bh). However my antenna setup is a compromise, as I can not easily install a tower with seperate antenna's for each band. There is a small but dedicated VHF and up contesting group in the Ottawa Valley. I could always work the locals during the contests, but I struggled working any real DX and I knew I would never really be able to compete with my limited home setup.
Some VHF contest results from my home station: Jan 2004 VHF Contest, September 2004 VHF QSO Party
After working several Rover stations in previous contests, I decided to investigate this "Rover Cult" and give it a go!. I live close to the interesection of four grid squares: FN15, FN25, FN14 and FN24, so I figured why not give Roving a try!
I derived some my inspiration from some of the "Big Gun" Rovers as described on the Rochester VHF Group Rover Page:
Rochester VHF Group: Rover Videos
My first attemt at Roving was during the 50Mhz sprint on October 23, 2004. Details here:
This gave me a taste for Roving and I was hooked!!!
My goal was to create a resonable mobile and portable contesting setup that I can install and pack in my Ford Winstar mini-van. I wanted to be able to work on the 4 lower VHF bands (50,144,222,432) while mobile and also be able to work 903 and 1296 while stationary. I assumed that I could work many of the the "big gun" locals while moving, and would then park and setup external horizontal yagi antenna to work DX and some of the smaller local stations.
I did not want to make any permanent holes or modification to my mini-van, so my setup had to be non-intrusive and relatively easy to install and remove.
There is a weekly Ottawa Valley SSB Net here in Ottawa, so I planned to use this regualr net to test my Rover setup as it evolved.
As I have a FT-857 already installed in my van for mobile-HF work I will use this radio for 50,144 and 432. I had bought a 222 and 432 loop at a recent ham fest and I bought a new 144 horizontal loop from KU4AB so I was good to go for most bands.
The first challenge was how to mount the loop antenna's. I did not have the $$$ to buy several large mag mounts, and I wanted to make the setup easy to install and remove. I decided to mount a short mast on a hatch-mount bike carrier. This worked very well!
Here are some more details on the "Mk1" setup with 144 loop installed:
Now that I had a basic plan I moved forward and mounted the 432 and 222 loop antennas.I replaced the PVC mast with a much stronger 1" diameter aluminum mast. For 50 I used a hamstick mounted on a mag-mount. My 222 station is a Demi transverter and a HR2600 I/F rig. This gives me about 10w out on 222.
For 1296 I have a Kenwood TH-59 FM HT. This neat little radio puts out about 1w when power with external 13.8v. I can use this HT to work the local contestors who have FM capable 1296 stations.
This completes my mobile part of the rover setup.
Mk2 Summary:
50: FT-857, 100w, hamstick
144: FT-857, 50w, horizontal loop
222: Transverter, 10w, horizontal loop
432: FT-857, 20w, horizontal loop
1296: TH-69, 1w, HT rubber-duckie
I have been able to test this setup while parked at a lookout in Gatineau Park (FN25gm). This lookout is at about 1000' elevation and has a great view of the south and west over the Ottawa river valley. I was able to easily work most stations who checked into the regular Tuesday night SSB net. Success!!!
Pics of Mk2 setup:
Now that the mobile portion of my contest rover is complete I setting up a station that I can use while parked. The plan is to use a 3' tripod and about a 15' mast that is guyed or supported by the van. For 50mhz I will be using a Par Omni AO-50 Loop. For 144 and 222 I use 4 element Cushcraft yagi's. For 432 and 903 I have home brew 9 element "cheap yagi" as made by Rick, VE3CVG. For 1296 I will be using a home-brewed looped yagi, also made by VE3CVG.
As I want to be able to very quickly setup the external mast and yagi's, even if on my own, I decided to mount the 50,144,222 and 432 antennas on a short 3' mast. These antennas can stay attached to the short mast with coax attached and fit nicely in the back of the van. To switch from mobile to stationary all I need to do it setup the tripod and mast close to the van, attach a guy or support, attach the short mast with antennas, and then switch over the coax to the yagi antennas. If all goes well I hope to be able to setup or tear down in less than 15 minutes. To make the coax connections as simple as possible I color-coded the coax leads from the rigs to match the coax going to the appropriate antenna. Hopefully this will be as idiot proof as possible. For the 903 and 1296 antenna I have a seperate mast and 3' tripod setup.
Pics of Mk3 setup:
Here are a bunch of sites that I found very usefull in planning and setting up my Rover station: