[NLRS] N0KP 10 G's NS Trip

[Scanner.Kleindl at VerizonWireless.com]

	Good Day Everyone 

	    What a week that was.  I was up in the range a week before the
contest and the weather was not like last year. The temps was off by 20
degrees.   The three days before the contest I was scrapping ice off the
windshield in the morning and the Lake had over 9 foot waves on it days
before the contest, and rain almost every day.
	So the big day Saturday morning Just before 7 am there was 6 of us
setting up and warming things up.  The Gremlins where hard it so soon.  Glen
transverter would not Rx or TX.  Chris had no power out. Doug would not
Transmit and we could not hear the U.P. boys beaconing.  That was not a good
sign and after 2 hours working at it, at Thomson it was time to move on.
Okay we moved down to the shore,  conditions still was not all that great.
So we stayed Low missing out on several stops it wasn't tell Taconite Harbor
when signals where so great!  that we took the time to do a little 1296.
W0ZQ and W9FZ experiment on that band and the signals was Huge.  We stopped
at Grand Marais this was about 8pm. Time to get something to eat and head
off to bed.  Just to reflect on this day Last year we made 13 compared to 8
stops this year.  

	Sunday morning we had a rain shower move though  very early that
morning.  By the time we showed up at are starting point the Fog had set in,
and I mean thick,  and out of the fog was W9FZ he reported that the rain
storm that hit us was on them.   After the rain moved on we tried working
them again.  The 72 miles across that lake was not easy all.  The audio was
extremely distorted and signals was in the water.    It was time  to move
on.  The conditions did not improve at all in Silver Bay the signals was in
the noise floor.   The Interesting part about that morning we drove down
shore and about in a span of 15 miles and the Temp went up by 12 Degrees.
The lake had some good waves to the north, But down south very little wave
action.  We finished up at Thompson around 9pm Sunday night. Again last year
13 stops compared to 10.    To  Follow up.   Yes   last year was wonder full
and it made easy to move up and down the Shore.  This year it took allot of
skill in Peaking,  Using the correct Beaconing timing, Morse code and
patience's.  This was my second time on this contest and I got to see the
good times and the bad times.  We Had to dig into are tool boxes, From parts
to good operating skills,  As in voice and morse code the correct way to
exchange are info.    Last my roll away station worked out great. only had
to setup the tripod up 4 times. 

	Enclosing:   Cant wait to do this again and I hope the new comers
that came with us on both ends will get a change to do it again.
		
	170 Qso's,    19 Uniques,    36,822  Pts
	 
	73's	
	Dave N0KP   

		Fill out those contest log sheets.  See in Sept for the
other half.