Day 12 May 20th
A fun filled day of site
seeing exhausted both Jeff and I. After twelve hours of Zion
National Park and the surrounding area I think we will be
sleeping in tomorrow. At least I hope so.
Timothy
Day 11 May 19th
Jeff and Tim left Colorado for
Utah today and encountered some snow flurries in Vail followed
by some rain then on to clear weather.
We made a safe journey to
Cedar City where we will be spending a couple of days site
seeing. Brian will rejoin us tomorrow.
We were able to check into the
California Rescue Communications net on 40 meters today and made
contact after the net was closed.
As always we will continue to
post on Twitter when and where we are active.
Thanks for all the contacts.
73
Day 10 May 18th
Today has been another long
day. We have had few contacts due to poor band conditions due to
weather. The weather has also caused us to be off the air for
some time in Colorado and Kansas. We have had tornado watches
and needed to concentrate on the weather and NOAA weather radio.
K9PUP is doing well and has
been a real trooper.
Brian made a slight detour to
visit friends and we hope to meet back up in Utah.
We are spending about 10 hours
/ 600+ miles per day on the road.
Hope to be in 40 meter range
Thursday. We will be in mountainous terrain tomorrow and don't
have high hopes for much in the way of contacts. Hope to talk to
you all soon.
73
Day 9 May 17th
Well we left Dayton this
morning and drove in the rain most of the morning.
We stopped to pick-up K9PUP in
Indiana and she has been trying to stir -up DX with her unique
way of calling CQ.
It was a long day on the road
but we made some good time. Worked a few DX stations from VE
land (Canada) to the north of us.
Thanks to all the contacts
from the meeting tonight with a special thank you to Richard
K6RBS for assisting with HF.
Congratulations to all of
those who passed their test tonight!
73 for now.
Day 8 May 16th
The 2010 Dayton Hamvention is
in the history books. Although none of the SOARA members won any
prizes, Close raffle numbers were called, one off of Don
KE6BXT's number and four and nine numbers off of Timothy's
number.
Well we did not get anytime to
do any sight seeing as we had to do chores including laundry and
repacking the truck. Let's just say it is coming home with more
than it left with.
We are departing the Dayton
area in the morning and will be on the air tomorrow. Watch for
our spots and catch you down the log.
Day 7 May 15th
More of the same today. One
nice thing that happened while Timothy was walking through the
flea market. He was flying the club colors in the form of the
official blue SOARA polo shirt and baseball cap when he walked
by a gentleman who said "SOARA?". I turned around and Paul
Metzger, K6EH introduced himself as a past member.We had talked
for a few minutes then it was off to more shopping... I mean
sight seeing.
A few more purchases were made
throughout the day and a few more forums were attended. We had
an eyeball with Kriss, KR6ISS.
SOARA members were spread out
thin for dinner going in all directions but Jeff, Timothy and
Brian met up with Mark, KD6WLY and Laura, K6VIX (new eyeball)
with their friend Greg and had a nice visit over dinner.
Tried some more PSK 31 and
DStar tonight but no luck.
Off to the final day of the
convention tomorrow then back to more regular contacts starting
back up on Monday.
73 for now.
Day 6 May 14th
Well it was a busy day of
attending forums, meeting fellow hams and cruising the miles of
aisles at the convention center.
We had eyeball contacts with
Gordon West WB6NOA and Mark KD6WLY.
We attempted some PSK31 before
bed but had no luck. Maybe tomorrow.
Day 5 May 13th
We'll the Contest University
went well and Jeff and I picked up some tips to help us in our
stations and on field day.
The DaytonTrek contest team
AD7YT, AF6GL and NJ6N were joined for dinner by KG6GI and KE6BXT
who are now eligible for 5 eyeball points.
There was also an unannounced
appearance on the 147.645 machine in the afternoon that also
gave out a few points.
Keep listening and talk to you
soon. Timothy McGowen
Day 4 May 12th
Well we arrived safely and got
checked into the Contest University.
Although we managed to avoid
most of the rain, the thunderstorms around us made for poor
conditions.
Up early in the morning (5:30)
so it is off to bed now (11:15). Timothy McGowen
Click the small picture above to see a screen
dump from APRS as they were about to cross the Missouri !
Day 3 May 11th
Still a little behind schedule
but have to be in Dayton tomorrow night as we have the Contest
University from 07:00 am - 5:00 pm. on Thursday.
The weather made HF near
impossible today. Hope to get more contacts tomorrow. It is only
day three and we have approximately 40 percent of the total
contacts that we had last year.
We are trying to get some
evening contacts for you but with the time change and trying to
make up lost travel time it is hard. We are spending about
twelve hours a day on the road, set up camp, then get dinner
about 9 or 10 o'clock.
We have a busy schedule in
store and you should not expect contacts on Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday. We will try Sunday night if we are still standing
after the Hamvention. We will be back on the road Monday and
will contest until our return on the 22nd.
SOARA folks should listen to
the repeaters as we may find a minute or two to pop in. As
always we are trying to spot on Twitter.
From Springfield, Missouri 73
from the DaytonTrek team
Timothy/Jeff/Brian
Day 2 May 10th
First I would like to welcome
all the new members to the group. We have had a great response
to people following us both here and on Twitter.
We are still behind schedule
travel wise but made up some time today. We are at least for the
moment out of harms way but had I-40 not have been closed last
night we would have been right in the middle of the tornados in
OK. We are spending the night in Amarillo, Texas.
It is currently 11:25 p.m.
here and we just finished dinner. We are trying to clean up and
work PSK31.
We have had very poor internet
connectivity and have not been able to upload any pictures.
We are trying to work as many
of you as we can but we ask you to keep in mind a few things:
1.This is our vacation and it
is a lot of work. we still want to enjoy ourselves.
2.Because of weather and other
factors out of our control, we are unable to predict when and
where we will be at any given time. This is one reason we set up
the APRS monitoring on the webpage.
3.The atmospheric noise in
this part of the country is unlike anything we experience in
California. Because of this our ears are not quite as good as
the should be. Also the noise goes from zero to S9 and back
again within seconds. Be patient and we will try to pull you out
of the noise.
Are QSO's are up quite a bit
over last year due to better equipment and propagation.
The best way to see our spots
is to check the webpage and follow Twitter. These are posted
real time.
See you all down the log.
p.s.
Also we got the hardware and
software problem fixed so that our county reporting will be up
to speed. Thanks for your patience.
Day 1 May 9th
Well we got off to a late
start because Jeff got late relief from work and we found the
I-40 closed due to high winds. We stopped short today (in
Flagstaff, AZ) and will need to make up the mileage in the next
couple of days. Well the contest portion of the trip is off to a
great start with better equipment and propagation than last
year.
I want to thank all who have
signed up to this group, we have had a large increase over last
year.
Hope to have better reports
and some pictures in a couple of days but it is late and we are
tired. We will be out of here early in the morning and hope to
catch you on the bands.
73 for now.
Timothy/Jeff/Brian
