[600MRG] 630 M trip

[Ed Gray W0SD]

I operated from Quartzfest in AZ and with all the RV in the area the 
inverter noise at 630M was horrendous.  I actually was able to  work a 
few people who had very strong signals or who were close.  I also 
operated from where I stay in the RV park in Goodyear, AZ.  I had 
approval for 630M for these two locations.  I had more reasonable noise 
there but still a lot.  At that location I used a flag pole with a coil 
on top and a short whip.  I used the RV as the ground.

I left for the trip home to SD on March 27th Tuesday and headed toward 
MS. The worst was driving through Albuquerque, Oklahoma, Little Rock and 
Memphis.  The traffic on I-40 between Little Rock and Memphis and in 
Memphis was just insane.  I got to my approved location in  MS on March 
29t just at dark and set up on March 30th and operated that night and 
the night of March 31st.  I worked 22 unique stations from here.  I used 
an Inverted L with the vertical part about 40 feet and the end about 60 
feet high.  The total length was 135 feet and I use 6 radials about 90 
foot long each. I operated out of my 5th wheel and used my 2000 watt 
Honda generator, Elecraft K4D and 100 watt amplifier build by Tom WB4JWM 
which preformed flawlessly for the whole trip.

I left MS on Sunday March 31 and again in Memphis it was horrible as 
there was a traffic jam and I did not move for nearly one hour.  Again 
the traffic from Memphis to Little Rock was insane. I made it to 
Russelville AR about dark.  I had a hard time here figuring how to get 
to Cracker Barrel where I wanted to stay.  I got off of I-40 and  made 
the wrong choice and  ended up back on I-40, went to the next exit and 
went back and low and behold made another wrong choice and ended back on 
I-40 back from where I had just come from.  I went to the next exit and 
came back and again made a wrong choice and ended up headed to a fast 
food drive through the wrong way and  had to back up about 15 foot not 
knowing if anyone was behind me and was able to finally get to where I 
needed to be and got to Cracker Barrel.

The next morning I headed into the Ozark Mountains for Fairview 
Recreation area which was my approved location.  The set up was similar 
but with all the pine trees the Starlink Satellite did not work well 
but  was able to barely upload to Slack.  The problem at EM35kr was 
horrendous QRN.  The second night was much better.  I worked 18 unique 
here.  I got ready to leave the morning of April 3rd.  Unfortunately my 
F-350 which had been running rough since I was in MS on the way to 
EM53ee did not want to start.  This is not good as I am 55 miles from 
any town of any significance.  I ran the generator and powered my 80A 
smart charger on the F-350 batteries and hooked my 800 AH battery bank 
to the batteries and plugged in the tank heater.  After waiting about 40 
minutes I tried it and it started albeit running rough.  I headed for 
Clarksville down out of the mountains.  I put it in 4H and should of put 
it in 4L as I ended up using the brakes more than I wanted and could 
smell the breaks.  I made a wrong turn but realized it and after a few 
miles finally  found a place to turn around.  It is hard with a 30 foot 
5th wheel to get turned around.  Anyway I finally got to Clarksville, AR 
and was just getting ready to get on I-40 and steam came out from under 
the  hood.  I was close to Walmart on the other side of I-40 so I headed 
for there and had one stop light and it was boiling over waiting for the 
stop light.  The heat guage was pinned when I got in the lot.  I shut it 
down and when in to get some anti-freeze.  In the automotive section a 
kind worker suggested and gave me directions to 3 places that could work 
on it.

If filled up the radiator with the anti-freeze and the water I had  with 
me.  Well not good but not unexpected the water was running out of the 
bottom of the radiator with a stream about the size of your thumb.  It 
started albeit rough and the temperature was OK.  I headed for the shops 
which were about 3 miles away and 3 stop lights.  I had to wait at 2 or 
the 3 stop lights and it started steaming.  By the time I was getting 
close it was getting right to the red on the temperature gauge so I 
pulled over and parked, shut it down and turned on the flashers.  I 
walked about 7 blocks and found the garage the fellow at Walmart had 
suggest would be the best.    The fellow who owned it was named Jake. 
What a nice, honest guy.  What a blessing, PTL.  He said he could work 
on it and I could park  along the street.  So I walked back and filled 
it with water and started it up.  I had cooled down some.  I drove to 
the garage and parked and he determined the electric fan bearing went 
bad and the fan had gouged the  radiator and made the hole.  He had 
experience with this but the question would he be able to get the parts 
or would we have to wait over night.  Fortunately what a blessing he 
could get the new electric fan motor/assembly and a new radiator so he 
started to work on it.  He had phone call interruptions and things to 
answer for his hired man but he really knew what he was doing and in 
about 3 hours he had it working.  It cost about $1100 but really that is 
what the parts, etc. cost, ie very reasonable.  Again what a nice, 
honest guy!!!!

Very interesting that once I  got the electric fan repaired the F-350 
ran very smoothly.  Apparently the fan motor because of the bad bearing 
had tremendous drag and due very high current and effected the computer 
and the timing of the injectors.  It absolutely, positively was causing 
it to run rough and caused the starting problem.

I headed off for Springdale, AR north on I-49.  What a pretty drive and 
some fantastic bridges across valleys.  I just beat the rush hour 
traffic and stayed at Cracker Barrel.  I always eat there and ask if I 
can park and they are very friendly and nice. I stayed until past 8:30 
am to get past the morning rush hour and headed out and made it to my 
approved location in KS, ie EM28pm and got set up to operate that night 
which was April 5th GMT.  I worked 10 unique stations.  During the trip 
I worked everyone I heard other the N1VF who I missed here and I believe 
MS. I heard him but he did not hear me.

I headed off on Friday morning and managed my way through Kansas City, 
somewhat past the morning rush and got on I-29 headed north.  I fueled 
up at QT and had a hassle getting where I could get diesel.  BTW for the 
first time since starting the trip  the traffic was not bad.  I   got 
fuel at Sioux City at Sam's club and again had a big hassle getting to a 
pump and had to wait a long time. At QT in KC I should of used the  
truck lanes but here there were none so even though I walked in I still 
did not have it all figured out!!!  Anyway I got  into Akron IA where 
WB0TEM lives EN12 and got set up to operate from there.  I was able to 
dump my RV tanks there at the city park which had an RV area.  I worked 
Marc and then we went out to supper.  Marc needed Iowa!     BTW the 
bedroom slide stopped working here.

So I got home on Saturday, April 5th about 10 am.  There were wind gusts 
to 55 mph which really rocked the RV around.  I could not get into my 
own house but then remembered when I left  3 months ago I also locked 
the dead bolt which I never do so once I remembered that I was able to 
get both locks open.  Later that day I was able to use one of my power 
supplies and get at the slide out motor and get the slide out.  That was 
quite a major project. I still have not figured out how to get it to 
work more like it should.

So I traveled 2600 miles in 12 days through 11 states and worked a total 
of 50 unique states.  They have all been uploaded to LOTW which is quite 
a chore given I had to create 7 station locations.   It is tricky to 
operate when the snow is gone and it is not to cold and still beat the 
QRN season.  As you know we had lots of QRN the first night in AR.  It 
is also  tremendously hard to find locations to get approval for and be 
decent when you actually get there to operate.  You have no idea about 
local noise or for sure that you have the room for the RV and the antenna.

If you want a paper QSL please send an SASE.  It really cuts down on the 
time and work with paper QSLing.

Ed W0SD