[ILQSO] KJ9C/m ROVER

[Mel Crichton]

I guess it pays to have redundant everything... (except the driver and vehicle) as nothing broke. I had trouble loading the 80 meter antenna, even though it WAS 1:1 on 3505  the day before. But I made a few 80 meter CW QSOs in spite of it. I was surprised that there wasn't more 80 activity, but I was too tired and too behind schedule to stop and put the 15 meter antenna back on the 80 meter mount. So most of the event was 40 and 80 meters, a little 15 meters, and a ton of phone QSOs. Thanks to W9QL  for the use of his 40 phone frequency...much appreciated. And he offered more than once. Worked 42 counties on SSB alone.

Got behind schedule due to TWO long trains and a five-mile-long parking lot on I-57 in Jefferson County.  Did a quick U-turn in the median and took local roads to get back on track, but had to abandon plans for Clinton county and hit Marion twice.... I hope the two posted CLIN stations were on.

Jim N9JF may have been joking about Illinois deer, but two were standing by the dark roadside in Lawrence County waiting to jump in front of me.... they, however, must have been Darwin's survivors of the species, as they waited until I passed to make their move. There was ample evidence along my route that other Illini deer were not as fortunate.

Overall, with the impromptu shortening of the route, the day came to just under 700 miles in just under 16 hours. The pileups at times seemed like a single roar, and the folks who did not zero beat my signal were first to get a reply.

This aging body can't take many more of these, but as always, once we made the first QSO adrenaline kicked in, and 580+  QSO's later it was over in what seemed like just a couple hours. 

There was a gorgeous sunset to go with the fall leaf show.

Mel KJ9C