[NLRS] Rovermania reaching out and good tropo this weekend

[Todd Sprinkmann]

  KC9BQA here in EN63ao, 40 miles north of Milwaukee,

  I'm posting this to the 3 active groups I know of in my region.  Those are the BC'ers, the CVVHF'ers and the NLRS'ers.  I should probably find a way to get in touch with groups in Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, as well.  If anyone can provide me with leads in those directions, I'd appreciate it.  Rovermania and contests work best when we all think outside of our 175 mile club range.

  Rovermania this year already sounds tasty.  I know I'm on the NLRS fringe, but this year, I've pushed quite a few more chips into the pot.  Last year, all I could offer was 432.  This year, I will have 222, 432, 903, 1296 and almost surely 2304.  All my bands will have good stacked beams up between 80-110', with no obstructions.  I've also decided to mount separate beams for 144 and 432 on my microwave tower, so that I will be able to listen toward the Rovermaniacs (as well as everyone else) in TWO different directions.  I was very frustrated last year at how sharp things were on 432, so I'm trying to increase my odds of getting through.

  If W9FZ is good for an all-nighter in August, well then I am too.  :)  With active strong stations like the K9MU contest station, N9DG a little bit north of Madison, K2YAZ in northern Lower Michigan, and plenty of others as well, there's all kinds of potential links between the Gophers and the Badgers.  All we have to do is keep banging the drum and make Rovermania irresistible for anyone within 200-500 miles.

  I've said this before and I'll continue to say it... I hear plenty of NLRS signals in the contests down here, and I plan on working any/all of you during the Aug and Sept. contests.  When Bruce was wrapping up his rovering last Sunday evening, Ken W9GA and I heard more than a few of you calling him on 144.240.  I was trying to get folks to consider moving up or down 5 to really pump up our scores in the last hour of the contest.  And this was with very ordinary conditions.  Every contest, I bump into a handful of stations that can't believe they are working 200-300 miles with S3, S5 signals.  To me, THAT'S what keep folks interested in contesting.


  This weekend, conditions are expected to be quite good.  If we can get this high pressure system to park over or just east of us, we should see some nice tropo.  W0ZQ can probably comment further on the tropo potential -- he really understands the weather and vertical temperature profiles necessary for good enhancement.

  I will be on the air quite a bit this weekend, trying to get out into Minnesota, Iowa, etc.  I realize that a lot of folks might be burned out from last weekend's contest, but since we really haven't had any tropo yet, I think this is a great time for us to stretch our beams, as it were.  Because of all the aurora hoopla, I missed some chances to turn west and northwest and really call CQ toward a lot of you.  I missed K0FQ, who is usually a chip shot for me.  I know there were other NLRS rovers I missed as well.  I'd like to see if we can make some skeds during prime tropo times this weekend and make up for that.

  So to summarize... I'm a big YES in the fixed station category for August and September.  And I'd like to get some coordinated activity going this weekend, esp. if the expected tropo materializes.  I'd also like to encourage everyone to look north and remember we have good stations like N8LIQ -- Ed up in EN56, as well as at least two VE's in the Thunder Bay region.  

  So who's interested and when?  Let's get some RF out there and expand our ranges.

  73,
  Todd  KC9BQA  EN63ao  40 miles north of Milwaukee