[NLRS] W0AMT/Rover UHF Contest (long)

[Jon W0AMT]

The UHF contest is my favorite of the big 4 contests each year.  John and I had
a great time.  Thanks to all the stations that pointed our way when we were out
in the cornfields of rural Minnesota.  We were right on schedule all day
Saturday and about an hour behind at the end on Sunday.  It was worth the delay.

We had plenty of time to find a good shot the East from EN24, unfortunately we
didn't find a good spot till after the contest had started.  At the start of
the contest we worked W0ZQ on 222 and 432 ssb but had to use cw for 1296, shades
of things to come.  After that we moved about 1000 feet down the road and had
much better signals and worked W0GHZ on 222, 432 and 1296 ssb, I am sure we
could of worked Jon on 1296 ssb from there.  About 1835 we drove about a mile
north and worked a bunch of contacts from EN25 with good signals, all contacts
made on ssb.  We got going toward EN23 right on time and on the way down through
EN24 we worked KM0T on three bands.

After a drive that didn't take as long as I expected we found an ok spot in EN23
and worked several contacts.  We then found a nice spot in EN33 with good views
to the North-East and South-West. The weather was beautiful at our location in
EN33 and we stayed there for a while hoping to work more contacts.  We departed
EN33 having missed KM0T, we finally hooked up about 10 miles north of the grid
line inside EN34,  We worked Mike in EN34 and drove back to EN33 and worked him
again

We stopped for a sandwich in Mankato and then headed back home.  We worked
several stations along the way North while mobile,  I think we worked a 1296
contact mobile contact.  We worked the KC0LMS / KC0QHW / KC0QHX  family station
on 432 from EN34 and EN35 and then again in EN35 on 223.500 FM.  Nice job Russ,

We departed the cities about 1020, very foggy start.  Along the way north in
EN35 worked K0AWU in EN37, three bands, 70 miles an hour, you just have to wait
till the roads turn slightly West of North.  We arrived in EN36, Hinckley on
schedule and worked several contacts on three bands,  We worked KM0T on 222 and
432 but the signals on 1296 just were not there.  We departed Hinckley on
schedule.

We worked K0AWU  and W0ZQ on 1296 from EN46!!  We found a hill with a clear shot
to Grand Rapids and worked Bill on three bands,  the other side of that same
hill was all trees toward the cities. We worked several stations on 222 and with
good signals. We worked most of those same stations on 432 ssb but the contacts
were on the weak side. At this point we had a friendly visit from a Wisconsin
State Police officer and a Washburn County Sheriff after a 20 minute delay
getting the truck pointed on the proper heading we hooked up again with Jon and
worked on 1296 cw, signals were weak but readable.   115 miles through some
pretty thick foilage, very cool.

We departed EN46 about 45 minutes late and worked 3 contacts while mobile in
EN45, sorry we didn't get a chance to work more stations in EN45. We wanted to
finish the contest in EN35 with a good shot into the cities.  We stopped on the
top of the hill in Saint Croix Falls and worked many stations till the contest
was over.

And I was worried that it would be a slow contest.

Grid     QSOs
 EN23     11
 EN24     15
 EN25     11
 EN33     12
 EN34     19
 EN35     31
 EN36     12
 EN45     3
 EN46     10



 Band     QSOs     Value     QSOPts     Mults
 222         50             3         150             7
 432         49             3         147             7
 1.2          25             6         150             4

 Grids activated:                                      9

 Totals:     124                      447             27

 Claimed Score: 12069

73, Jon
W0AMT