[NLRS] Rover report, K0PG & K9ILT

[ADUHAWK@aol.com]

It was a dark and stormy night. It was the best of times, it was the worst of 
times.  I am born.  Those are all of the grabber first lines from great 
literature I can think of at this hour, and somehow, they all fit when I 
describe our weekend.

The original plan was just to run 6 & 2, to take it easy on ourselves and 
just work a ton of contacts on 6.  Then I started thinking about the fact 
that there was still room for another radio on the back seat, and then I 
thought "what the heck, how about ABCD." 

The microwave bands can slow you down since you usually have to stop to get 
the antennas on the other station.  We were planning on activating 15 grids 
-- a new record for us.  Since we were going to concentrate on 6 this time, 
we figured that we could take 903 and 1296 out for the UHF contest and the 
September QSO Party.  As usual, some improvements were to be made.  I thought 
I would go up a size on the amplifier power cords, and put several sets 
together.  They go from the back seat and floor into the trunk to the deep 
cycle batteries, which are conveniently kept at 13.8 by the alternator 
through a battery isolator.

I had some new coax (thanks John) and was ready to go another 6 inches or so 
in height.  More on that later. I had made a sked with the N0UK crew on 2 
meters for 1800Z Saturday from what was likely to be a tough grid over a 400 
or so mile path.  I was eager to get going, and for everyone who has ever 
roved, it is difficult to get launched on time.  We just made it, and pulled 
away from our building at 11:30.  Our ETA at our starting point would be 
about 1755 UTC, if everything went well.  It did.  All the way to the four 
corners of EN61,51,50,60 we worked station after station on 6.  My 6 meter 
Squalo, purchased with $10 of caddy money in 1964, performed flawlessly 
following the cleanup and new ss hardware treatment.  It was on top of our 
tripod stack mounted on a roof rack at about 10 feet above ground.  The 4 el 
2 meter beam was just below, with the M2 70cm antenna a foot above the 7 el 
220 (yes, I've had it that long) beam.  I went with the short boom on 2 in 
order to cast a wide footprint.  It worked well.  In fact it worked amazingly 
well, but more on that later.

As we exited I 57 at Chebanse, Illinois, we turned to face west, it was a few 
minutes until contest time, but I called CQ anyway.  K9AKS, north of Dubuque, 
in EN42, QRP  portable came back immediately with a 5-7 signal on 2.  When we 
arrived at the spot, I dialed up 144.165 and found N0UK calling me on CW.  At 
the opening gun we exchanged reports from EN50, and we were off.

Six was great, and we were really cleaning up on 2 as well. We went through 
our bands with the usual suspects, and crossed the Kankakee/Iroqouis County 
line into EN51.  We were pleased with the signals into EN53 and 44.  We even 
made some nice Qs off the back into EM59.  It was getting hot, and we noticed 
that after I rolled down the window to answer the first "What the heck is all 
that stuff on your car" question that the a/c wasn't working very well.  A 
quick look at the temperature gauge showed it approaching the red line.  Off 
with the engine and up with the hood.  The expansion tank was bone dry.  It 
was just about time for us to leave anyway, so we planned a quick trip to the 
gas station 6 miles away in Chebanse for some of that Ethylene Glycol stuff.  
On the way into town, the temp went down, but I bought a gallon of Prestone, 
and slurped some into the expansion tank.  We made a pit stop and got back on 
I 57.  We were now, 10 minutes behind schedule.

We now had an hour or so in EN50 on the way to EM69/59.  I figured another 20 
Qs each on 6 in maybe 15 grids.  Nuthin.  We were kept busy on 2, and made a 
few Qs on the higher bands with locals.  

When we turned east on I 74 to get to Homer (Doh!) Illinois we made some 
contacts into Ohio and Indiana.  We had good luck in EM69, and then headed 
off for the long trek across EM59.  It kept surprising us to do so well of 
the back with 200 mile Qs into Ohio, and right-side of the beam contacts into 
the Kansas City area.  Several stations had read our plans and were waiting 
for us.

We nipped the NE corner of EM49 and moved into EN40.  We were further slowed 
down by stations off the side needing the higher bands.  Out in the country 
you can just pop onto a convenient cross road or parking area and aim the car 
in the needed direction.  I don't want to give the impression that it was any 
bother at all, we really appreciated the contacts.  It just slowed down our 
progress.

We had planned to overnight in EN42, but we were really getting dingy and we 
stopped in Galesburg, at the northern edge of EN40.

After a good night's sleep we got going early and had a whole bunch of 2 
meter and up contacts.  Pat had a whole flurry in the middle of a small town. 
 We found a spot we could turn around in right next to the water tower.  It 
was leaking.  We worked Curt K9AKS and many more from there.

As we moved into the part of Illinois the glacier didn't flatten, the roads 
would twist and tun and go up and down.  Almost every time one of us would 
complete with a station, and when it was the other's turn, the road would 
turn the wrong way, or we would be down in a dip.  

We ran into a detour just as we went into EN42.  We had to go to EN52 in 
order to continue our northerly run.  More delay.  We made it into Wisconsin 
about 2 hours behind schedule.  More hills and valleys, and we picked up anew 
set of escort Qs.  These are stations who are with us every time we enter a 
new grid.  We can't over emphasize how important the encouragement and 
companionship of this part of roving.

Now it's time for the "Darlington Incident."  Darlington, Wisconsin describes 
itself as the "Pearl on the Pecatonica."  And it is.  It's a lovely town in a 
picturesque setting on route 23.  The Pecatonica lends itself to canoeing at 
that point, and as a frequent canoer in a prior life Pat likes to describe 
the fun of that activity under the right circumstances.  We arrived just in 
time for the end of "Canoe Days."  This is an annual event complete with 
carnival rides and all sorts of fun activities.  It ends with a parade down 
Main Street, which happens to be Route 23, the road we needed to be on to get 
through this burg.  The police had it blocked off.  We were following a stock 
car on a trailer through town, and the police, seeing our antennas, thought 
we were part of the parade.  We were guided into the staging area.  There 
were all sorts of people watching the parade vehicles line up.  That's when 
we got the longest and largest "Speilberg Stare" we have ever experienced 
while roving.  All this was happening while we were trying to get to EN43.  
Parade officials eyed us suspiciously and checked their clipboards for a 
"storm chaser" or "wildlife tracking" entry.  I saw our chance to escape and 
headed up a side street.  People were streaming down the sidewalks toward the 
parade route.  More slack-jawed stares.  You can't blame them, it is a pretty 
outlandish looking contraption.  That's when the "incident" occurred.

All rovers with antennas of any height have experienced the "twang" factor.  
That's when your antenna shakes hands with a local tree.  We were so 
interested in getting out of town, that we didn't stop to examine the damage. 
 The 38 year old Squalo was fine.  The 2 meter beam was not.  Director #2 was 
now inline with the boom and crossed over director number 1.  Director number 
one was swept back in a "V" shape toward the driven element.  The driven 
element was now swept back on the right side.  The reflector was OK.  The 
antenna still functioned.  We made 200 more QSOs with it in that shape, many 
several hundred miles away.  Still, I can't help but wonder.

We got to EN43 and made a few contacts.  We dropped back down to Dodgeville 
and headed east toward Madison, moving in and out of EN52 and EN53.  That was 
the only time we heard KM0T.  Mike called us from EN13 while off the back -- 
if you could still call it that.  We moved into a trucking company parking 
lot, and pointed west and made a whole bunch of contacts.   

We headed of to Madison where we contacted Rick, K8DXN/R on his way hoe to WV 
from The Cities.  We chatted for quite a while, and while we didn't realize 
it at the time our travels took us right past each other on I 94.  I spotted 
Rick's truck with the Par Omnis just before we passed each other.  

It was on to EN63 in Milwaukee and the turn for home into EN62.  We were back 
on schedule.  We made Mt. Trashmore in Glenview, Illinois, and had a nice 
relaxing time up there.  At about 7:30 a golf cart approached and I thought 
that we were going to be asked to leave.  It is private property, but the 
course ranger just stopped by to tell us that they were closing at 8:00.  No 
problem for us, we just drove across to the far western end of the grid to 
Nickol Knoll, another park on a landfill.  It isn't as high, but it has a 
good shot to the western half of the compass.    

We were really dragging as we got there, but a quick food stop kept us going 
and we made steady, if not spectacular contacts.  with 30 minutes to go, we 
set off for home.  We went into EN52 and EN51 with minutes to spare.  At 0300 
we made our last contact and turned everything off.

We each wound up with 323 Qs in the written log, but there could be a few 
adjustments.  We probably made 40 to 50 multipliers and get the 15 grid 
multiplier for roving.  The only bad part was little or no conditions on 6.  
The good news is we're getting a new 2 meter antenna.

Thanks for all who worked us and looked for us.  thanks for riding along and 
encouraging us.  Thanks for the nice emails since Sunday.  We will be 
entering the log into the computer soon, so we'll know the real score.

Next month we will do the CQ WW VHF.  It's only a 6 & 2 contest and the time 
isn't as long, but we'll be out there anyway.

                                                                   73, Tim & 
Pat