[ILQSO] N9REP/m Long, but hey!

[John Geiger]

Hi Wendell,

Thanks for the report, and the QSOs on 20.  A couple
of years ago I was visiting a friend in Chicago, as I
was living in the Quad Cities at the time, and using
my atlas, and special Illinois atlas, I decided to
check out that 4 county intersection for a possible
contest operation.  Drove down US34, looked for all of
the proper side roads, and never could find the
correct street.  Glad to know it exists.

One of the great things about going mobile and
portable is all of the weird things you run into, and
the blank expressions you get from people when you
tell them what you are doing.  I was set up at the
Warren/Knox/mercer intersection in 2000, and had a
truck drive by me one way, and then on his return he
finally stopped to ask what I was doing. I explain,
but think to this day that he hasn't a clue of what I
was talking about.  Oh Well, maybe someday such an
operation will actually get someone interested in
becoming a ham.

Hope to see you again next year.

73s John NE0P/5 Lawton, OK


--- Wendell Smith <wjsmith@ameritech.net> wrote:
> 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
> 
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