[NLRS] K9ILT/R CQWWVHF Very long.

[aduhawk at comcast.net]

It's has taken a couple of weeks for us to get this together, but here is our report.

This year we thought that we would go north through the Cheese Curtain and run some Wisconsin grids.  We usually run in the south central and western part of the state, but in order to do something a little different, we thought that a rove along the Lake Michigan shore would be fun.

We took a scouting trip over the July 4th weekend, found a couple of good looking rover spots and had some fun in Port Washington, Cedarburg, and Manitowoc.  We decided that Upper Lake Park in Port Washington would give us a great shot over the lake into Michigan, Indiana, and maybe even Ohio and Ontario.   It's a really pretty spot with a great view and plenty of room to turn around.  We poked around the lighthouse and St. Mary's Church.  Even though I tried to convince Pat that antique stores aren't open on the weekends in Wisconsin it didn't work, so we made a few visits to those venues as well.  There was a minor detail that we didn't know about the third Saturday in July in Port Washington.  IT'S FISH DAY!

Fish Day is described as the world's largest one-day outdoor fish fry and a major attraction.  Lot's of blocked off streets, a parade, and an arts and craft fair at -- you guessed it -- Upper Lake Park!

There was no vehicle access to the park, although throngs of people were on their way  to see the goods and the classic cars on display.  So, we lost our high spot. All the way up from EN61 I had been rehearsing: "Who's the VE3?" "Would the W8 try it again please."
So we had to find a different spot.  We kept as close to the lake as we could, and pretty soon we were ar a dead end next to a field.  There were trees between us and the lake...and all those W8s and VE3s, but it was time to par-tay.

We ran into N9UX/R with a couple of minutes to go.  He was in EN53, and he said that we didn't have much of a signal on 2.  Well, he didn't either, so I didn't think much of it.  At the stroke of 1800Z we exchanged reports on 2 and headed to 6.  He had a booming signal there...kind of odd.  It's usually the other way around.  Oh well, I had checked the 2 meter beam out on the analyzer before we left.  It was perfect.  So was the 6 meter loop.  It must have been conditions, or a problem at N9UX/R.  It couldn't be us.

We stayed in our spot for twenty more minutes.  We weren't hearing anything on 2, so we decided to start toward Manitowoc in EN64.  We would travel through EN63 for awhile, so we were bound to make more Qs.  On the way, KB9VQC called us on 6 with a huge signal.  We exchanged reports and moved to 2.  Nothing.  Not a peep.  We had no luck CQing as we went north to Two Rivers and a nice park on the lake shore with a nice open shot east and south.  We found W9GA, but he was weak on 2, dynamite on 6.  We easily completed with K2DRH on 6, but had to go to CW on 2.  Something was wrong.  I pulled out the analyzer and took the LMR400 off the amp and plugged it into the analyzer.  When I turned it on the needle slammed against the peg.  Hmmmm, that's what happens when there's no antenna on the analyzer.  

Pat knows the drill, she climbed up on the roof of the car and did a visual inspection. (Pat has less of an "impact" than I do on the roof.)  She wiggled the connector and moved the balun around a little bit.  I turned on the analyzer again and it was working! SWR of 1.2:1! Yippee! I attached the coax to the amp and went back to work.  We managed some EN61Qs, but then everything went dead again.  Six meters was working fine, but the band wasn't open.  We decided to push on to our hotel in Sturgeon Bay out on the Door Peninsula.  We were only about an hour away, and we could find a shady spot in the parking and lot tear it all apart.

We enjoyed the rest of the ride and checked in at our hotel.  I took the coax off the amp and everything became clear.  We use a 20 foot run of LMR400 with Ns at both ends.  The beam has an N connector, but the amp uses an SO239.  I use an adapter at the amp.  I didn't like the strain that was being put on the coax by the bend I had to make to reach the back of the amp, so minutes before we left in the morning I ran inside and picked up an N to SO239 elbow adapter.  When I took it off the amp to start the teardown the adapter fell apart in my hands.  With the coax straight into the analyzer, all was well.  Pat took the pieces out of my hand and walked over to the trash can.  Bend, schmend, it worked! 

We were off to Bailey's Harbor and EN65.  On the DeLorme, it looked like there were some nice spots with a good shot from about 60 to 190 degrees.  We went north of town a bit and drove along Moonlight Bay.  There was a nice opening in the trees and an empty spot we could back into on the inland side.  We worked lots of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan stations, including K8DOG/R in EN74.  A little later, even though there were lots of "don't even think about entering" signs we drove out onto what amounts to a causeway that leads to a lighthouse.  We made some more Qs.  Six meters was stilt dead, but we were working 250 miles with no problem.  Our best DX was K9ZO in EN50.

Activity started to slack off, and we were pretty hungry, so we headed off in such of food.  The Coyote Roadhouse was our next adventure.  It was a nice little place on the side of the road.  It has an outside porch and the joint was jumpin'.  The only place we could park was in the front, up against the outside porch.  Anyone who has roved knows what came next.

Do you remember the Spielberg Stare? Like in Close Encounters of the third Kind when all of the scientists stared at the space ship and the aliens with sort of glazed-over expression? Well that was just like everyone on that patio.  And we only had two antennas! We run a Radio Shack tripod u-bolted to a Yakima roof rack.  For this two band event we had a modest 5 element 2 meter beam and a KB6KQ 6 meter loop on top.  It's about 12 feet tall all together.  We should go back in September.  Wait till they see antennas for seven bands!

What's that for?  "There's a bear with a radio collar that's causing some trouble.  We're helping the DNR track him down."  They bought it.  We were seated on the deck and took a look a the menu.  A waitress ran out, stood next to our SUV and had her picture taken.  Pretty soon a fellow who had been sitting inside, at the bar came out to chat.  He sat right down at our table and told us that he had been selected by the group inside to find out about our antennas.  I asked him what kind of story that he wanted to take back inside.  I offered storm chasers, wildlife trackers, and since War of the Worlds had just opened I told him that we didn't want to start a panic, but...

Then I said, seriously, there's an amateur radio contest on this weekend.  We participate as a rover station, driving from point to point, making contacts with home stations and other rovers.  He looked me in the eye and said "Nah!" "My dad's a ham.  His antenna is a whip-thing on a magnet."  "What you have there isn't ham radio."  I offered the bear-with-the-radio-collar story.  He liked that better.

We bagged it for the night and were on the road at 1400Z running down the peninsula, heading off for EN54, 53 and 52. We worked N9LR/9 in EN56 a couple of times.  Larry and I used to work each other when he was WB9MSV and I was NC9F.  He did my VUCC cards for the bottom four bands.   He has been going to the UP for years.  I was never able to hear him from home in EN51, so it was good to finally make contact.  Traffic on route 41 was intense, so we got off and looked for smaller routes to head south on.  We drove through the Horicon Marsh...not the smartest thing to do if you're looking for high spots but the flora and fauna was interesting and it was a very nice day.

Six meters finally opened up when we were in Oconomoc and we made a few Qs.  Signals were very loud and then very gone.  Pat said "I guess that's why they call it sporadic."  As 2100Z approached we were in Crystal Lake on Route 14.  We pulled into a shopping area and spent the final twenty mintues in the Wall mart parking lot, rotating and making contacts.

Our score, a puny 7K, but we had a lot more fun than that indicates.  If it hadn't been for Fish Day, and that bad adapter we would have made a much better start.  Wait until next year!

Thanks for everybody who rode along with us and helped us enjoy the scenery in our favorite way.   We will be gone during the UHF test, so wee'll see you all in September. 73, Tim K0PG and Pat K9ILT "The Colvins of the Upper Midwest"