[NLRS] Rovermania V - W0ZQ/R results

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

Summary:
Band  QSOs   Mults
-------------------
222:   63     18
432:   94    17
903:    44    13
1.2:   57     13
2.3:   28     9
3.4:   22     5
5.7:    14     3
10G:    39     8
-------------------
Total:   361    86  Total Score = 215,109

Club: Northern  Lights Radio Society

Comments:  Last year I was wet and cold, lost  my keyer to water shorting it 
out, and ran with the car heater most of the  time.  And oh ya, propagation, 
well, it was a challenge.  What a  difference a year makes !   This year, 
although the weather was warm,  it never got as hot as the weatherman had 
threatened and oh my goodness, the  tropo !  
 
Saturday afternoon I was down at the St. Charles grid corner,  EN33/34/43/44. 
 Although I had to battle the corn, eight feet tall and  fields & fields of 
it, I still had a good time.  Thanks to K2DRH  (EN41), KM0T (EN13), KB9TLV 
(EN45), N0KP (EN34) and the Wisconsin guys for all  the Q's from there.
 
After EN44 I ducked down to EN33, just south of I-90, that has some really  
nice vistas.  Check out a couple of the pictures I took on the ARRL's UHF  
soapbox section.  Highlights from EN33 include working K0AWU (EN37) on the  four 
lower bands, and 10GHz, on SSB, nice !   I brought my 902  bandpass filter 
along this time and I feel that I was hearing much better on  that band this time 
with no desense.  In addition to the stations listed  above K0MHC (EN26) found 
me as did NG0R (EN25).  
 
Next it was a short drive over to EN43.  As I was setting up I heard  N0UK/R 
and K0HAC/R in EN33 near Beauford and we were able to work on 222, 432,  1296 
and 10GHz across the long part of the grid, corner to corner.  Right  around 
dusk I decided to move toward home and a warm bed.
 
On the way home I stopped in EN34oi, just south of Cannon Falls, and the  
tropo was coming up.  K2DRH was easy SSB up through 3456, big S9+ signals  from 
N9TTX/R and W9FZ/R both in EN32 to my south, N0PB in EM39, and K9CVC in  EN44 
was good up through 2304.  Things were really smoking about this time  and the 
bands were in excellent shape !    On the drive home I  was able to work NT0V, 
EN08, on 222 CW while I was mobile.   By  midnight I was home and in bed, 
happy in that fact, but sort of wondering what I  was missing !
 
The alarm went off at 5:15am, and after a quick shower it was off to  EN35ad, 
just west of Buffalo.   First in the log, at 6:46 am was N0KP  ... a little 
grumpy but happy for the Q's.   Much to my surprise,  Matt, KA0PQW called me 
too .... good morning Matt !   In the middle of  a pile up working KC9BQA, 
KB9TLV, K9CVC, and NG0R, I worked Bob, K2YAZ in EN74  on 222 but was disappointed 
that I wasn't able to move him up the bands - we had  made that path before up 
through 902, but I was just too busy at the  time.   
 
After EN35, it was down the road to EN25 and the cell tower site just south  
of Howard Lake.   Waiting for me was N0KP, NG0R, KB9TLV, W0GHZ, K0MHC,  KM0T 
and K0AWU.  K0AWU and I were able to do a clean sweep, 222, 432, 902,  1296 and 
10G, from this spot for the first time albeit we had to work for it on  those 
high bands.  
 
After EN25, it was south, south of Hwy 7, into EN24.  My usual spot  was full 
of eight foot corn, so what to do.  I had passed a work site where  they were 
putting a new pipeline through a soybean field, and it was dry and  sort of 
high, so I knowingly trespassed and operated from there.    After about one 
hour the farmer who's land I was on came out to inform me that I  was 
trespassing, but after some apologizing on my part, some double clutching,  and showing 
him the shack, he was OK.  Rovers, don't do this.   
 
So time was running down in the contest and I had not worked KM0T from EN24  
yet.  From EN24, Mike is at about 221 degrees, or at an angle from due  south 
or west meaning that you have to shoot across those darn corn  fields.  I 
think I spent maybe 15 minutes driving around trying to find  SOMETHING that had a 
decent shot to Mike, but to no avail, so finally I just  found the best spot 
I could.  We did OK on 222 through 3456, and 10 GHz,  but we struggled on 5.7 
before we finally pulled that out.   
 
My plans had me back to the Scott County Tower site by Noon, but I did not  
arrive until closer to 12:30.  I was happy to find that N0UK, K0HAC, KC0P,  
WB0LJC, W0GHZ, and KC0IYT had already worked each other on 10GHz off of downtown  
and were waiting for me !   Thanks guys.   
 
So another Rovermania is behind us.  Each year is unique.  For  me, this 
represents a personal best, I was almost always busy, and the tropo was  just a 
hoot.   I never left a grid if I new someone was still looking  for me and the 
car (rotator) got a good work out.  
 
If you played in the contest, don't forget to send in a log  ....  paper logs 
are OK.
 
73, Jon
W0ZQ
 



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