[NLRS] W0ZQ operations

[Doug Reed]

Last year when we were doing Sept contest Sunday morning contacts with
Mike, I tried the west side parking lot at Maplewood Mall near Kohls. It
doesn't look that good because you have trees near the horizon at about 1/4
to 1 mile on the south-west-north. But it was good enough that I had no
trouble hearing Mike and the horizon is about equally good from SW to NW.
For any rain-scatter operations I think it would be excellent. I don't
think I could see IDS but I was able to bounce off it OK. If you don't have
anything better, this would be an option. 

There is also a city park about 1/2 mile east of the mall at McKnight and
Lydia Ave. The park is on the side of a hill and rises as you go east two
blocks. From near the top of the hill you are looking over the top of
Maplewood Mall and can easily see the IDS towers. The view would be from
about due west to not quite south-west. An excellent horizon in that
direction but blocked by trees in all other directions. The reason I don't
use that spot is that it is still the same grid as Maplewood Mall and
another spot near Home Depot at Hwy 36 and White Bear Ave. 

The parking lot of Home Depot at Hwy 36 and White Bear has a good view west
toward IDS towers and maybe 10-15 degrees either side. You can also look
north from about NW to ENE with a fair view. A better view north can be had
from Ariel St east behind Home Depot and about 40' higher. Approach from
the north side of Home Depot on Ariel and you will have an excellent view
from about NW to ENE in your rear-view mirror.....

Those seem to be the best spots in my immediate area. My other spot at the
liquor store in Sun Ray shopping center at McKnight and I-94 has a view of
IDS but has always been a tough location to work people. Something about
the bounce angle from IDS. About 1/2 mile east on the north side frontage
road between Century Ave and McKnight Rd, right in front of the 3M Center
buildings (approach from Century), is a very nice knoll with a good view
from about WNW to SW. It is a good 60' higher than the liquor store and
I've used it for Skywarn spotting a couple times. But the only good place
to park for 10GHz work is next to one of the 3M Center roads and I've
avoided it because it would probably make their security guards a little
jumpy. But it should be a new grid square......

I expect our usual Mounds Park location would work fine for anything to the
west. 

Anyone who wants to continue farther east can hunt locations in Hudson and
particularly in the state park that over looks the river. As I remember we
couldn't quite see IDS from the park but the horizon was several miles away
in every direction from about S to NW or maybe NNW. For rain scatter, it
should be more than good enough. And it adds 10-20 miles so you'd
automatically be the "farthest" station from John in SoDak..... 

At 08:08 PM 5/26/2004 CDT, wb0ljc at juno.com wrote:
>Try Highview Ave. It is the first road west of the Lakeville 
>airport. There may be some reasonable looks to the
>west. The best locations are probably north of 225th St, 
>which is the southern boundary of the Lakeville airport.
>
>One site to try may be the TCRC Field Day site in Rosemount.
>It has a good horizon to the west.
>
>Jon is right about the Burnsville site. There are views to the west
>that would work for the EN15 site. I'm not sure they are open 
>enough for the other two sites.
>
>I will not have a cell phone, but will have a 2M rig with a vertical
>whip. I will listen on 146.46 for updates from those of you with
>cell phones.
>
>73,  Gary  WB0LJC