[NLRS] At least the August UHF was fun :)

[Todd Sprinkmann]

   I'm at about 110 Q's, and about 11K score, when I 
called it a night at 1am.

   Don't know how much I'll be on in the mornng, and 
radar is already filling in big-time again to the south.  
Wind's supposed to pick up quite a bit tomorrow, too, 
and the rotors don't turn very well above 20-25 mph.  

   This contest is hard to describe -- feels like I tried 
hard, and should have more than 11K.  

  At times, it seemed like the prop to the Twin Cities 
was pretty decent.  Worked W0VB and W0ZQ on 
multiple bands.  WA0VPJ/R was loud in EN43, and 
I heard both sides of multiple Q's he had with MN 
stations. This was about 9pm, I'd say.  If there had 
been a smooth way to get guys like K0SHF, W0GHZ, 
and a few others to slide around once they were done 
with VPJ/R, I think we would have gotten a nice little 
WI/MN run going.  VPJ was great -- he even let them 
know I was hearing copyable signals.  

   Worked K0MHC in EN26 on a sked at 11:30pm on 
222 and 144.  He was at least S3 on 222 initially, but 
rapidly faded to the point we couldn't even discuss 
432 or 50.  Thanks for the two bands, Jim, and the 
new all-time grids.  We'll clean up the rest another time.  
You've got a great station and you listen hard.  

    Ran thru 1296 with K9CVC, and they were fairly 
loud.  Found W9FZ/R in EN56, but prop was real 
flaky.  I wonder how Bruce feels about pine trees 
after a long day in the U.P, LOL.  KF8QL/R had a 
nice rove, and added a lot to the score from Michigan.  
Got Ed N8LIQ up in EN56 on both 144 and 50, 
he was about S1-S3, Q5 copy.  

    Worked thru 1296 late tonight with a few stations in 
EN82.  N8IEZ and W8PGW.  They were almost 
better on 1296 than they were on 144.  Come to 
think of it, 144 seemed really doggy all day and night. 
Also got thru 1296 with W9IIX in EN61.  As well 
as AF9J, Ellen sounded real good as she did double 
duty with the HF contest.   

    We did stir up some new FM activity on 146.49, 
.55 and .58.  Worked 10Q's there between 4-6pm.  
AA9WW in eastern Fond du Lac county (EN53) 
was really banging away on 146, and they also have 
432 and 6 as well.  If you hear them on tomorrow, 
give them some contacts and help them if they have 
any questions.   

    I didn't look S, SW or SE nearly enough, I guess.  
Huge gaping holes in my grid map in those directions. 

   Well anyway, usually I'm thinking about being up 
at 6-7am, and putting in a full day on Contest Sundays.  
Not really feeling like that tonight.  

    Best wishes go out to SMC-land.  There's some 
amazing rainfall totals coming out of ILL.  Afraid 
Ike is going to make a bad situation even worse.  

    73, 
    Todd  KC9BQA   EN63ao    40 N of Milwaukee
    50 thru 2304