[NLRS] 10G 2nd Weekend W9FZ report

[Bruce Richardson]

Wow!  Glen had a good report of what we did.  I'm so glad Barry, Wally,
and Bill were on.

Yes, the wind was fatiguing.  But it was a beautiful warm, sunny day and
I really enjoy driving around up there.  The wheat harvest was going on
and I find the colors beautiful at this time of year.  The gold of the
wheat, the bright green of the rushes/reeds around pothole lakes and the
beautiful blue of the sky and the darker blue of the water.

Saturday, the RRV worked so well.  And it probably would have worked
Sunday if we just would have stayed in the valley :-) .  Unbenownst to
me, as we worked west into EN08 (and intending EN-07) we took ourselves
right out of the good angles from Sisseton.  We were gonna be heros for
supplying those rare grids.  Next time, we'll stay in the valley.  Also,
if something isn't working, we should have made a more profound change
to get back making Q's of some type with Sisseton.  So when the first
spot didn't work, we should have started south--instead of west--to
regain contacts with Sisseton.  Again, the only motivation for going
west was to be heros in EN-08/07.

I thought Liaison worked reasonably well in a mix of .260 and cellphone.

We had 85 Q's the first day and 19 Q's the second day (thanks Gary and
Lenny).  For me, I had 400 unique points and 18671 distance points for a
grand total of 19071 for the 2nd weekend.

I've put up some pictures at:
http://w9fz.com/ham/10g20042nd.html

Longest distance was 324km from EN18jn to EN15kp.  Tried with Mt Tom,
W0GHZ, and W0JT once each during the weekend unsuccessfully.

Would I do it again?  Most certainly!  If conditions were really good,
I'd still try the hero effort to EN-08/07.  But if it's normal or poor,
I'd stay in the valley and push back to where Q's can be made.

Oh, we wasted some time on slow gravel roads.  Next time I think I'd be
a bit more efficient in travel times.  It all comes down to experience.

Thanks to Sisseton for "being there".  Ya know, if the fixed stations
weren't there, there'd be no point in roving--so I'm glad you guys
waited by your radios.

Bruce Richardson - W9FZ

"I don't know if it's "excessive-compulsive" or what......but it's
something."