[NLRS] W9FZ/R June Report

[Bruce Richardson]

W9FZ June Contest Rover report		

I had a great time!  I backed off a bit on my goals and intensity and it
worked out to be a pleasant event.   As most of you know, we had
EXCELLENT weather.  I should have written this up more quickly after the
event. I'm sure some details have already slipped from my mind.

I tend to live fast and this contest weekend was no exception. I landed
from a 5-day trip about noon on Friday.  I got to my apartment and dealt
with some Air Force responsibilities (and laundry) before loading up my
ham radio equipment in the early evening. I got out of town about 8am and
to the farm about 11pm.  In the morning, my Dad helped me load the
antenna rack onto the top of the vehicle. I hit the road about 11am in
order to be at my starting spot near Dodgeville, WI at 1pm. 

I was in position right on time-not early. I started in grid EN 42.
During the day, I worked my way from there to EN 52 and then to EN 53.  I
had to spend about 20 minutes talking with the farmer in EN 52 where I
operate to retain permission to operate there now and this coming August.
I also stopped by WD9BGA's house and spent about 20 minutes seeing his
place.  He did not get on for the contest but it was good to see Karl.

During these three grids, conditions were pretty good into
Chicago/Milwaukee and central Illinois. I thought conditions were poor to
the Northwest because I only worked MSP in the evening when things
started to improve in that direction.

I did no 10GHz throughout the event although I tried with K2YAZ from one
grid. All my other bands were working adequately. I have 6w on 2304 and
didn't expect much but had nice Q's on that band with K2DRH, K2YAZ, and
W0ZQ.  1296 worked adequately and activity levels were high enough that
it actually paid off very well on score.  There were plenty of ops in
EN-52 on. And I picked up EN-50 and EN-60 during the contest. But EN-51
and EN-61 were not found by me this year. Odd, for such a large city.
Another pleasant surprise was working into EM-39 (N0PB) and EM-58 (W9GKA)
on 3 bands each.

Openings:  I had two brief 6m openings. The first was 4 Q's running 1245z
to 1310z yielding grids  FN51, FN53, FN44, and FN31.  The second (Sun
eve) had 6 Q's and grids EM12, EM00, and EM02 .  The highlight was the
opening into North Carolina. It lasted a few hours (but only a few
stations heard/worked) and must have been tropospheric ducting because of
the breadth of frequencies supported--6m through 432 (all that were
tried).  The odd thing for a duct is that there weren't stations in all
along the front-only at the far end.  It started at 1140z and lasted
until 1520z. Stations worked were:
AA4ZZ EM96 (2, 222, 432)
KK4US EM75 (6,2)
W4NH  EM85 (2, 222)
While the distance is right for E-skip, the skip distance for E-skip
usually varies by frequency.  It was so broad on frequency, I'm
suspecting ducting.  But am puzzled why no other station along the path
were heard or worked. Thoughts?

My home grid is EN-43. My plan on this contest was to spend the prime
morning hours of Sunday on my favorite local hill and planned on staying
3 to 4 hours rather than a brief 2-hour stop. It worked out perfectly.
Conditions were again good to Milw, Chicago and Central Illinois. I
worked into MSP but only on a few bands.  The tropo opening happened
while I was in my home grid-nice!

Then I hit the road for the Wausau grid corner. It was about a 3 hour
drive. While pointed northward, I listened for N0EDV up in EN-67 but
didn't hear anything.  I got to the corner a little behind schedule. I
worked my way through EN-54, EN-44, EN-45, and EN-55.  I slowly caught
up. Now I was hitting N0AKC and KB9TLV adequately. They worked me on most
of my bands. Also, it was on Sunday in these northern grids where I began
sweeping with K2YAZ.  I still did pretty well with K2DRH from these
northern grids.  We only missed on a few bands. It's over a 200 mile
haul.  Working into the Twin Cities was still surprisingly difficult.

I worked several rovers and they were a joy to work over non-trivial
distances. WB8BZK/R, N9TTX/R, and W0ZQ/R come to mind. W0ZQ/R provided
some crucial mults.

As you might recall, I picked 144.250 for my CQ freq.  While I still
agree with the logic, I spent MANY minutes CQ'ing my lungs out to
no-response in key directions like Milw, Chicago, and MSP.  I spent VERY
little time on .200. I made a few announcements there that sometimes
seemed to get a response up on .250.  I appreciate those folks who found
me up on .250.

I was glad to pick up Gregg, K9KL on three bands in the last 15 minutes
of the contest. I'm not sure how many hours he was on, but I should have
been able to sweep him from every grid I was in (during which he was on).
I was sad to not work Erv K8EB more. I know for a fact that he was
looking for me like a proactive fixed station should. But apparently when
he was looking my way ON my freq, I was looking elsewhere. We did hook up
a few times on the first day, but didn't hook up on the second day as
much as we have in previous events.  Thanks for looking Erv, sorry it
didn't work out. 

Ken W9GA, and Todd KC9BQA, Jerry WA9O, and Duane N9DG were consistent
fixed stations looking for me and I appreciate their Q's and monitoring.
I could tell that N0KP, K2DRH, W0GHZ and others were also consistently
looking for me too.  I guess I thought activity levels were average and
think we are ready for more fixed stations to be on the air. I didn't
note many "new" callsigns.

After the event was over, I packed up and headed west for the Twin
Cities. I ragchewed with N0AKC and KB9TLV for a few minutes along the
way. I arrived in the Twin Cities about 2am. I got a few hours sleep and
then was up to start a 5-day trip for Northwest. Fortunately, the first
day was just one-hop to Boston.  Ahhhh, living fast. Basically, I had a
5-day trip, 2 days off spent away on the road with the contest, and then
another 5-day trip. Seems like I'm never home J .

I had a good time. It was nice to work all my friends throughout the
region multiple times. The openings were a nice pleasant bonus. Sure, the
CQ'ing to no response is frustrating but understandable. All-in-all, it
was a very successful event. Murphy stayed away, the weather was great,
and the scenery beautiful.  Email me if you need a QSL.

I did a paperlog for this event. Just for fun and verification, I typed
it all into Roverlog after the event. I prefer paperlogs so that is what
I sent in.

Here's some score info right from Roverlog:

RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs
EN45	42	EN54	32	EN55	44
EN42	45	EN43	89	EN52	43
EN44	39	EN53	45	

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rover rules:
Band	QSOs	Value	QSOPts	Mults
50	73	1	73		24
144	104	1	104		25
222	55	2	110		15
432	73	2	146		19
902	24	3	72		9
1.2	41	3	123		11
2.3	9	4	36		4

Grids activated: 			8

Totals: 379		664		115	

Claimed Score: 76360