[NLRS] Roverpack wow

[Bruce Richardson]

Wow!

Boy I had fun and got a good dose of radio!  We had six rovers in
three cars:  WA2VOI, N0NAS, N0UK, KC0IYT, WB0LJC, and W9FZ.  We
drove out to Montevideo on Friday afternoon and met up at the
motel. We went out for a slow but tasty Friday night dinner at a
grill.  My trip-odometer clicked "700" as I pulled into the garage
at home.

Saturday morning we were in position at a spot pre-scouted by
WA2VOI.  Great spot--unfortunately conditions were not as good as
we expected them to be at dawn.  They were more like midday-lull
type conditions.  We discussed it later and feel that the
air/conditions were still disturbed on the east-end from the
weather that had moved through in the previous hours.  Over the
next 2 hours conditions improved markedly. Probably mostly due to
the air/conditions settling down.  Either way, we decided, based
on the first stop, to move slightly closer unlike our original
plan to move farther west.

We activated 16 spots on the first day. The first three or four
spots went at about 1 an hour.  There were 12 or 13 folks on the
Londsale site which is a wonderful number to work. Later in the
day, when conditions were good and we were truly up on the Buffalo
ridge with wonderful, scenic shots to the east-northeast, our pace
picked up quite a bit.  We activated four grids on the first day
so that anyone at Lonsdale, who also worked EN34, could get VUCC
if they need it (or another one).

We spent the night in Marshall, MN.  Had another nice dinner at a
grill.  The motels both nights were inexpensive, but each had it's
problems.  In Marshall, there were noisy, drunken baseball players
participating in a tournement.  So the rest quality was not so
good.

Sunday morning we started out just south of Marshall to
needle-pinning conditions.  That was fun!  I thought they would
last longer but they didn't.  I think we were back to just "good"
signals at the 2nd stop.

As you might know, we had BEAUTIFUL weather!  I really enjoyed the
driving around corn and beanfields.  Some might go "yuck", but I
really like it.  We went through a town that is home to "Boxelder
Bug Days" coming up in mid-September.  I'll have to go back for
that :-) .

Sunday we activated 17 spots even though having 90 minutes less
than the first day to accomplish that. At the Buck Hill end, there
were 8 ops during the first few stops but later there were up to
14 operators at one of the stops!  Impressive!

I had a great time. The part I appreciate the most is that there
were 8-14 people camped out at either Londsdale or Buck Hill to
work repetitively on 10GHz.  While we did beacon to each other for
peaking, all QSO's were SSB/FM this year.  WB0LJC and I had to
give up on a spot where signals appeared weak.  N0UK and KC0IYT
were also set-up.  Wouldn't you know it that signals improved
after Gary and I had taken down and moved about 8 miles east to a
better spot. :-)

I'm not sure where the break-point is, but six rovers times 12
fixed stations is 72 QSOs per stop.  When the number of ops at
both ends combined get up near that number (18), two-frequency ops
should be considered. We were not upset or even frustrated, but
it seems that efficiency could increase slightly when we get up
around that number.  Since we didn't pre-brief it, it was not
worth the inefficiency of switching over to a two-frequency in
mid-event.

Oh sure, we had some little rough spots, but in general, it was a
huge success from the roverpack end. I exceeded my goals of RF and
fun.  At times, we were really clicking along!

(There's always room for more operators enjoying 10GHz operations
:-) )

73
Bruce W9FZ




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