[NLRS] W9FZ/R Jan VHF Sweeps Travelogue (long)

[Bruce Richardson]

Wow! Of all the contests I've been in, that was one of them.
Ok, this one had a few more challenges than most :-) .  I
appreciate the thanks I've received--you're welcome--but I
had a good time despite the challenges.  While I still
activated 8 grids, I knocked off five hours early to watch
the Packer game (awwwww shucks).  That meant I had less
operating time in each grid than I'm used to.

First off, we KNEW it was going to be cold. And when it's
cold, quite often the conditions aren't so good.  Well, it
turned out to be REALLY cold and conditions were not good at
all (for the most part).  I loaded the radios on Thursday. I
was able to do that in a cold garage and it wasn't too bad.
Then on Friday I loaded the antennas. It wasn't bitter cold
that day. Just standard runny nose and cold hands tying down
the antenna rack to the roof rack.  The antennas are stored
in a barn and the coaxes had been coiled.  Well, they took a
set to that coil. I was too kippy with the 2304 coax and
while bending it, the jacket cracked with a "snap". I looked
at the braid and it looked ok. So I went with it anyways and
it seemed to work but will have to be replaced.

Saturday morning, it was bitter cold. -8 at the house and
seemed to average -10 to -12 while I drove along. I started
out nice and early for a comfortable drive to the grid
corner west of Wausau, WI. I stopped in front of the bank in
Hillsboro to take a picture. Though my car said -12, the
bank said -5.  I've taken January rove pictures in front of
the Hillsboro bank many times over the years. I remember the
first year was in 1991 and it was my first contest with
three bands. Got back underway.

Soon, the first challenge arrived to nibble into my time
margin. While I'm driving east of Mauston, WI, the tire "low
pressure" warning light comes on. Hmmmm. Could be a slow
leak. I pull over and measure all the pressures.
32/34/34/30.  Wonder if it's the 30psi or if it's just COLD.
I drive to the next town and (on 2nd try) find an air hose
that works.  I pump all to 40psi.  I stupidly used my bare
hand on the air chuck and while holding it on the four
tires, I "burned" my thumb and first finger. It's hurt for
three days now but seems to be getting better.  Hmmmmm
Warning light still on. Well, it must just be COLD. I'll
have to watch them.  As I'm driving northward on I39, it
occurs to me that it MIGHT be the spare.  So when I stop for
lunch in Wausau, I press on the spare sidewall with my
thumbs and it seems softer than perfect but hard enough if I
had to use it as a spare. I did not measure it because I
didn't want to take time to drop the spare.  Anyways, this
fiddling around ate up my time margin and I arrived at my
first location (EN-44) fifteen minutes late.  I'm pretty
sure it was -12 at my first location.  To be honest, most of
my time was spent inside a heated car.  But the few minutes
at the start and end of each grid raising or lowering the 6m
dipole WAS kinda brutal. I teared up pretty badly and I had
to have my gloves off for some of my knot tying.

Well, it's not the first time I've been behind schedule :-)
.  Over the next few hours I slowly caught up.  On Saturday,
I started in EN-44, moved to EN-45, then EN-55, and finished
in EN-54.  All the spots are within about 5 miles of each
other.

Highlights of the first day are many. The beautiful blue
sky, bright sun, and sparkling white snow made for a
pleasant day. Charlie N0AKC was wonderful with all his Q's
and following me around.  John KB9TLV also did a good job of
tracking me but I had a heck of a time hearing him on some
bands.  Bob K2YAZ came in just fine across Lake Michigan on
7 bands while I was in two grids.  And the Twin Cities guys
like W0ZQ, N0KP, and KA0RYT were great.  Ken W9GA and Jerry
WA9O did a fine job hunting me out from Milwaukee.
Conditions were not so good and had lots of profound QSB. CW
was really important on this day. It made q's SO much easier
to just whip through them on CW.  So much easier than asking
for repeats on phone.  Get this, on Saturday, I had 118
total QSO's and 69 of them were made with CW (58%). Another
highlight was Multi-op K9NS finding me in my second grid.
After that, we continued to work many times throughout the
remainder of the contest.  I think it peaked at minus five
during the day.

I took down at 10pm local and got underway headed south. A
beautiful moon lit up the snowy countryside. It got colder
and colder. It was -15 to -18 most of the drive during the
night.  I pulled into a cheap motel in Dodgeville, WI about
2am. I had pre-arranged my late arrival with them.  I
thought I set an alarm to get up at 6am to be on the air at
7am.  Well, I guess I failed setting the alarm because it
didn't go off.  I was awakened by other noise in the parking
lot outside my motel room. Checked my watch--it was already
7:03am. Darn!  Well, I showered up and fired up the car for
the day.  Here's where more challenges surfaced. It was -14
and the knobs on the radios would not turn very easily. The
LCD displays didn't display very well.  And the 6m rig tends
to howl (audio) when the temp is cold. So I set the heat on
high and hoped the vehicle would warm up quickly.  I hustled
out to the spot I like to use for EN-42 about 2 miles north
of town.  

I actually made my first Q at 7:52am. Late, to be sure, but
not too bad. I slowly caught up throughout the day.  Sunday
was another sparkling day.  Temps warmed up to 3 degrees at
the peak.  Plenty of additional highlights on Sunday.  I
worked Bob K2DRH from all four grids on all bands except
2304 failed in my last grid.  I'll have to fix that before
the SBMS contest.  The big Multi-Op K9NS was a near sweep.
They hunted me out most of the time and I worked them when I
found them CQ'ing down the band.  Over in Milwaukee, W9GA
and WA9O again made a point to look for me. Ken does a great
job of letting me know that he hears me when I'm pointing in
some other direction. I spin his way as soon as I can tidy
up in the original direction. He has been amazingly patient.

Some more highlights are operators on multiple bands in
grids I traditionally don't work.  For instance NG0R now on
many bands from EN-25--what great news.  Vince, N0VZJ gave
needed mults from EN-35.  John W9RPM gave four bands from
EN-43.  Later, I was pleased to work KA0RYT/R on many
bands--several for new mults.  Jon W0ZQ and Dave N0KP,
again, did a fine job working me all the way from the Twin
Cities on this second day. They were smooth sliding to 222,
432, and 903 for additional CW Q's.  I must mention that
conditions were usually best on 432. And 903 did
surprisingly well.

I went QRT at about 23z to go down to my little house in the
valley to watch the Packer game. 

Sure, activity seemed down. But I knew most of the operators
I worked all weekend. For me it was great to work all of
them --multiple times in most cases.  Yes, I CQ'd to dead
air at times.  But at other times I was getting swamped. I
was working multiple stations in one direction when I would
be called off the back by familiar stations.  I hate to make
anybody wait.  What's good about the grids I activated is
that they are reachable from two major population areas.
That's good for activity but a challenge for spinning the
beams.

Conditions on Sunday were better but by no means good. I
didn't work into Michigan, Illinois, or Iowa like I usually
do.  CW again played an important part being 42% of my
QSO's.  While I was repositioning between EN-53 and EN-43, I
listened to N0KP and W0ZQ ragchewing up in the Twin Cities
and I was down in deep valleys. So, conditions were ok there
for awhile.

I'm actually quite pleased with the weekend. I feel a sense
of accomplishment for eeking out so many contacts via CW.  I
hope I helped many of  you with QSO volume at a minimum and
some needed grids at best.  I feel that meeting or
conquering challenges made this a rewarding weekend.  Also,
to activate 8 grids and still knock off five hours early
gave me all the activity I could ask for.

Downsides:  Not working EN-64. Not working EN-63. Low
activity.  The Packers losing.  Oh, I heard a few stations
on .200 I would have liked to work but I couldn't get their
attention through the madhouse.  The downsides really aren't
too bad this time.

I wish we had more rovers in the region. I want to go
Rove in other places but we need a rover to activate the
grids I did in future contests. I recommend them--plenty of
activity in multiple directions.  Thanks again to all who
worked me and waited for me.  I appreciate you for being
there to work.

73
Bruce Richardson W9FZ/R

Score:

Band    Q's   Qpts  Grids
6       35     35     10
2       79     79     16
222     51    102     11
432     61    122     12
903     17     68      5
1296    17     68      7
2304     4     32      2
                       8 rover grids
Total  264    506     71   TOTAL  35926