[ILQSO] N9REP/m Long, but hey!

[Wendell Smith]

I decided on Sunday morning to become a
mobile station- the prospect of spending a sunny
day inside the shack was the final straw!
Put the 847 on a milk crate next to the seat,
assembled and tested the hamsticks, made a
couple of sandwiches, and off we went!
Copilot Tundra doesn't drive, and only works
the BARC bands, so he was of little practical
help, although he spoke to several other rovers
and ended up deterring a possible attack by a
stray cat.
Operated from the roadside in McHenry/Lake/
Cook for a few hours. At one point a guy came
on and said I was splattering all over the band-
at least he was friendly about it so I turned the
processor down. Plum forgot to get his state-
oh, well.  Later, K9PG and I qsy'd from another
station- he proceeded to ask if the freq was
clear, waited, and then we worked. Suddenly
another station came on and said the freq was
in use! The guy said that the freq we were on
was a "calling frequency"(on 40m) just like
146.52, it took him time to get to the radio,
and just because no one was using it
did not mean that it was not being used... didn't
give his call, either.
Good to know the start of the bell curve remains
firmly in place.
Finally, went up to 15 meters and heard a
carrier and then a voice calling CQ AM-
switched over to AM for the first time in my
ham career, and worked W9AD in Cook
county- I really surprised him when I mentioned
my location- about a mile away! We had a
pleasant chat, and then it was time to move on.
I decided go QRT while enroute to the next
corner because I knew I would lose all of those
calls for the other counties. Finally reached
the area of Kane/Dupage/Kendall/Will.  My
faithful DeLorme atlas showed a road at the end
of a airport- great, I thought- watch the planes
while on the air! HAH- the only things in the
air were soccor balls and SUV's- sprawl as far
as the eye could see. Asked several people
where the junction was, with blank looks- at
least they knew which county they sent their
taxes to! I finally narrowed it down to a
couple of blocks and found a small gravel patch
next to a open park area- just across the street
was a construction office with trailers, and
an open Porta-potty! Not one to turn down an
almost sure thing, I went back on the air. About
a half hour later a local ham drove by and
asked what contest was going on- I then asked
him where the juncture was, and he pointed
west and said about 40 yards away! YESSS!
Stayed on 20 until the contacts slowed down-
found a semi-tolerable place on 40 and made
quite a few there. While chatting with N9CO
in COlorado( I knew there was something
funny about that call) he mentioned that my
signal was quite distorted- I turned the
processor down and he said it was better-
it got me to thinking today. Both times I got
reports of bad audio the processor was set at
my normal position for the Heil headset w/
the DX element. For various reasons I was
using the stock Yaesu hand mike. It must have
more punch than the Heil. Also, if you hear
someone with bad audio during a contest do
you mention it to them, or do you just think "lid"
and go on?
Decided to try 80- called
CQ until I was blue- did some S&P and picked
up a total of 4 Q's and 8 counties! N2BJ,
KF9TL, K9ZO, and N9DT went in the log!
While working N2BJ in Will, he complained
about all of the QRM- I couldn't hear a thing-
real small antennas on 80 are great!
Left the site about 8pm for the ride home and
just gave out Kane for another 25 q's on 40.
Had several stations calling while in Aurora
and the noise suddenly rose- 20-60 over 9!
Something wrong with that town... My
apologies if you were calling me! What a
blast- steering with one hand, clipboard in the
other, mike in the third, and a pen in the fourth-
Hey, Tundra, give me a paw! As I was only
interested in one kind of pile-up, my rate was
rather low.
Quick question- I operated from Kendall, but
never made a q with anyone from there- do I
get to count it as a mult?!?!?!
Never was asked to go up the bands, and did
not get a single 8-q bonus.
Top counties-
Cook 7 q's
Adams 5
Lake 4
McHenry 4
Will 4
Whiteside 3
Kane 3
Menard 3

DuPage 1
Kendall 0
Grundy 0
DeKalb 0
Boone 0

So much for the activity level around Chicago!

Subject to another recheck, here is the tally:

McHenry/Lake/Cook  86x3 ssb,am
Kane/Dupage/Kendall/Will 87 x 4 ssb
Kane  25x1 ssb

32 counties, 40 W/VE, 4 DX= 76 mults

47,956 points

Amount of fun- priceless!

My shack is not any closer to
Sweepstakes than it was last
week, but after JOTA on Saturday
and ILQSO on Sunday, I really
don't care!

73, and thanks to all for a great time!

Wendell N9REP
and Tundra, Dog of the
Wild Frontier