[NLRS] Sept Contest KF0Q/R

[Matt Burt]

Missed the September test last year and hadn't roved for sept since 1999.  I
needed to stay pretty close to home this year so why not just do the four close
grids?  As can happen this time of year I figured  the bands may not hold up,
and the weather may not be pleasant,  (hate it when I'm right...) so I set my
sights low.

Attempting to out step Murphy I tested all my feedlines prior to placing them on
the rover.  In all I found 3 feedlines with issues that couldn’t be used. 
Rover setup went pretty good as the rain held off and I was in position calling
CQ within a half our of the contest start (maybe a first for me..).  Trouble
was I could not raise a soul on 144 or six until finally W9RM went in the log
on 50.  As we all know now conditions on 50Mhz were deplorable...   I wasn’t
enjoying my spot at the farm either as I couldn’t find a level place to park.	

After hearing nothing on 144 and the least action on six in years I decided to
move on and check out my gear some more.  The Gun Club is just a few miles away
so I stopped and checked a few things out.  I made a few q’s on six and
discovered that the 144 feedline connector failed at the connection to the 
brick!  (Guess Murphy is hard to defy...)

As home was only 10 miles away I decided to pick up a couple of things and try
again.  Within an hour I arrived back to EN43 with a new working feedline on
144 and my 180W brick for 50.  Things became much better and I kept busy for a
couple more hours in EN43 and then EN44.  Next casualty for the weekend was my
902 transverter.  I must have pumped enough RF into it without the PTT to blow
the front end.  Good news was that 1296 seemed to be OK as was 3456.  (2304 did
offer some troubles most of the weekend that became impossible to use by mid
Sunday).  Saturday night I returned home to find that one more item failed (6M
moxon) due to one of the many trees that I have to steer around on the way to
the site!  Last equipment change was Sunday morning whereas I put the Mosley 3
element beam on the rover in place of the moxon.

Activity Sunday morning was pretty good.  I found a nice looking rover spot SW
of St Charles in EN33 and made some contacts.  Almost worked Bruce, W9FZ/R from
here while he was in EN46!  He had a great signal but couldn’t hear me.  N8LIQ
however; ended up in the log which was a nice surprise. The dirt road I was on
ran N/S but didn’t have much room to pull over when confronted with the large
volume of traffic (dirt road on a Sunday??) So I moved to the east to a spot
that Jon, W0ZQ had used before for the rest of my EN33 operation.  The new spot
was pretty good and I stayed there a couple more hours.  Even through the trees
I was able to work 7 bands with K2DRH from this spot.  It was also during this
time I learned that John, WA0VPJ and Mark, AI0Z were near by (very near by...)
across the freeway from me.  Before the WA0VPJ rover team left the area we had
a nice eyeball qso and exchanged a couple of quick rover stories ... was nice
to visit with them and many thanks for all the qso’s guys!

After refueling in St Charles I meandered my way around Elba toward Wabasha.  On
the way I pulled over a couple of times for more qso’s with WA0VPJ/R as I
passed through 2 grids.  I finally arrived at the hill by Wabasha; EN33wj just
after 3:00.  I parked next to Rogers’(KI0F) place and made quite a few qso’s. 
I tried a couple of sites up there that worked pretty good.  
By 8:00 I was back on the road headed for home.  I set only one sched, K2DRH
from EN44 on the way home.  I arrived back at the gun club a few minutes before
the sched with Bob and made a few more qso’s.  Sched was a success (all working
band sweep..).  Stopped on the road in EN43 and grabbed a few more qso’s ...
last with Gene, N0DQS before I pulled the switch.

Conclusions:
The bands pretty well stank around here... participation seemed moderate but it
was a bit of work to make any qso as can happen in September.  Many CW q’s on
six and some busted ones too!

1296 and 3456 were pretty darn good ... several qso’s with W0ZQ as well as N9TTX
on these 2 bands.

Really missed 902!  My all reliable transverter for the last 7 years finally
gave me a problem!

No q’s on 5.7 and 10G... had my gear warmed up all weekend but was not going to
happen.  Site in EN34wj however should be great to the Twin Cities and Eau
Claire! 

Seemed like deja vu while heading home Saturday night and hooking up with K2DRH
at the same exact spot on the road in EN43 as the June Contest for a quick
sweep!

No problems with the law or land owners (usually stay in a tractor path) this
time out... the “ARRL” sign on the door may help .. although the rover got lots
of attention at the Kwik Trip in St Charles.

In spite of rotten conditions serval almost sweeps with many of you: N9TTX,
K0AWU, K2DRH, KB9TLV,N0VZJ, and WA0VPJ/R (7 times!) to name a few ... all the
others tnx for following me around!

The low expectations was the correct theme for me... with all the problems and
ho-hum conditions it was nice to not have an aggressive schedule to keep up
with.  Coming back from the deficit of having only 1 q in the first two hours
to the final result is very satisfying!  

Station: KF0Q/R

Band    Q's    M  
50      49     14
144     86     19      
222     41     12      
432     41     11     
902      0       
1296    11      3
2304     4      2
3456     8      2
5760     0
10368    0

Grid bonus      4

Totals 240    380pts X 67  = 25,460 claimed

Interesting stats:

QSO by grid:

EN33    58
EN34    54
EN43    64
EN44    64

Got to fix some stuff before the next effort...  Tnx for the bandwidth 
73,
Matt
KF0Q/R