[NLRS] W9FZ/R -- My Best Rovermania yet!

[Bruce Richardson]

My Best Rovermania Yet!

I've participated in most of the Rovermania's and this was
my best one yet.  The previous three years, I've run the
exact same route (EN-43/42/52/53 Dodgeville and
EN-44/54/55/45 Wausau).  It's a great route and has good
access to the Twin Cities and Milwaukee/Chicago.  But I
needed some new variety. In the past 3 years, I've not
worked KM0T at all on account on being just a bit far away
and he was busy with closer in rover traffic.

I picked an all-eastern-Iowa rove for this year.  I started
in the northeast corner on Saturday for EN-33/43/42/32 West
Union and in southeast Iowa on Sunday for EN-40/30/31/41
Fairfield.  I knew I should have a better chance with KM0T
and would have easy shots to K2DRH.  I must admit that one
of my motivators for trying something new was the CSVHFS
Reverse VUCC award.

The biggest reason this year was so good was due to good
conditions on Saturday and Saturday night.  Activity levels
were adequate but the good conditions made it fun.

I drove 1170 miles door to door. That has some $ value and
gas was $270.  Admittedly, having to drive to Hillsboro, WI
to pick up my antenna rack adds a few miles.

I ran 222, 432, 903, 1.2, 2.3, and 10G.  The weeks leading
up to the event were quite busy and I didn't know if I'd get
to repairs for 2.3 and 10G.  The last time I used the 2.3
GHz rig, it heard fine but wouldn't transmit.  Could not
duplicate the failure on my bench so it made me look like a
good repairman J .  My 10G setup has been apart for quite
awhile due to a blown front-end. WA9O assisted with a repair
a few months ago but I had not reassembled my system.  It
takes time to put things back together and I finished just
prior to hitting the road for the farm.

Let me hit the lowlights first and they really aren't too
bad:
Not working Michigan.
Not working W9SZ more-I didn't point SE as much as I should
have. Only N0GZ on from Cedar Rapids-thank goodness for him!
Notable callsigns W0GHZ and N9DG missing. Not working some
of the other rovers that I hoped to. I accidentally stomped
on a QSO in progress between N9TTX/R and N4QWC-ooops! Sorry
Dave!

Many, many highlights!!!!

1. Murphy stayed away one more time.

2. Good conditions Saturday-I worked from EN-37/26 to
EM29/66.  Not all places in between but that's better range
than normal.  Conditions were back to normal (poor) on the
back side of the weather on Sunday.

3. Beautiful weather-not too hot, not too windy.  One of the
nicer lightning displays I've ever seen while driving in the
middle of the night.

4. All the activity!  I was called from many directions and
(again) didn't handle it all that well.  In some ways,
activity is down in our region.  Old stalwart callsigns were
missing from this one.  But I was quite impressed by NG0R
(EN25), K0MHC (EN26), KC9BQA (EN63), and N0TTW (EN32)
finding me consistently with many bands. Heck, Thanks to one
and two band guys like N9TZL finding me many times as well.
Hey I appreciate regulars like K0AWU, W9GA, KB9TLV, N0KP,
and N0VZJ too ya know.

5. Every 2.3GHz QSO. 20 Q's in 7 grids. I'm running 6w and
was thrilled to work a nice dispersion of stations:  W0ZQ/R,
KM0T, K2DRH, K0MHC, and KI9R.

6. Every 10GHz QSO. 10 Q's in 5 grids.  KM0T (5), KC0P/R,
N0HZO/R, W9ZIH, and WA9O.  WA9O had some rainscatter assist
across the front on this 280 mile shot from EN30 to EN53.

7. Sweeping with K2DRH from every grid. Bob was patient to
come back later when I was busy. Every sweep went easily
with no fuss.  5 Q's each from 8 grids.

8. Nearly sweeping with KM0T. Mike did a great job of
finding me on longer paths. 6 Q's each from 5 grids, 5 bands
from 1 grid, and 2 bands from 1 grid.  Conditions really
deteriorated in the last hour of the contest. We now know
that we were both calling in each others direction and
weren't heard on either end.

9. I generally liked the spots I found. I'll share the
lat/lons and some Google maps of the locations I found.

10. The rover activity helped me!  Most years I don't work
very many rovers.  This time I made 49 Q's with rovers.
That's 17% of my 295 Q's.  None of my rover-to-rover
activity was orchestrated/requested/scheduled.  I had six Qs
at six miles distance all the rest longer and a 52 mile
average distance (120mi long).

11. Having a middle of the night rover-to-rover eyeball QSO
and Shack-Tour with N9TTX/R in EN-42.  It was nice to take a
break for a few minutes and talk shop.

12. Although scheduled to knock off at 10pm on Sat night, I
kept operating till 1am from EN-32. Conditions were good and
I spent time banging away with K0AWU, and K9CVC on 2.3 and
10G where appropriate. I'm glad we tried!

And the results:

RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs	Grid	QSOs
EN41	16	EN32	57	EN42	62
EN33	51	EN30	21	EN43	57
EN31	19	EN40	12	

RoverLog Score Summary, Using new rover rules:
Band	QSOs	Value	QSOPtsMults
222	69	3	207	19
432	97	3	291	25
902	39	6	234	12
1.2	60	6	360	19
2.3	20	12	240	7
3.4	0	12	0	0
5.7	0	12	0	0
10	10	12	120	5

Grids activated: 		8

Totals: 295	      1452	95	

Claimed Score: 137940

Thanks again to all of you who were on the air!

I'll be QSL'ing some of you. Send me an email
If you need any QSLs.

73
Bruce W9FZ/R