[NLRS] Buck Hill

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

On Sep 21 2008, Scott wrote:

>I was at a picnic on Saturday near I-35 and the Elko/Newmarket exit and 
>on the drive North on I-35 afterwards I went by a ski hill in 
>Burnsville.  I think that was buck hill?  I thought about stopping for a 
>visit, but wouldn't have known where everyone was anyways or how to get 
>to the top, so I kept driving.  Looks like it would have been great 
>weather for operating yesterday.  Today looks pretty good too :)

Yes, Scott. That was Buck Hill. Sorry you didn't venture up there, I am 
sure you would have had some fun talking with the guys and watching the 
action. I thought that WB0LJC had given out the directions to the Buck Hill 
site on one of his email messages, but maybe I am mistaken about that. The 
route to the top has changed a few times, since they are continuing to 
build and modify their ski support structures, but basically at the present 
time, you enter the main parking lot for Buck Hill, go to the northwest 
corner of the parking lot (onto the dirt half of the lot, off the paved 
half), and there is a dirt road to the top that starts by the blue 
dumpster, immediately goes over a small berm (which tends to obscure the 
fact that it is the path to the top, and then you just go up and up. There 
are two different parts of the hill that have been used for contesting. The 
second-highest level has spectacular views to the south and east, but no 
view to the north since it is on the south slope of the hill. We have 
easily placed 6-8 operators with 10 GHz equipment at that spot, and even 
had enough room that several people brought out large umbrellas and 
portable screen tents to keep the sunshine exposure under control. There is 
an even higher level on the hill, which does have some view to the north. 
The problem is the ski buildings: the ski jump ramp, the chair lift 
machinery, etc. which clutter up the top, and the limited operating space. 
You can fit fewer people up at the top, but it's great for a small number 
of folks doing a multi-op for the VHF or UHF contests.

In any case, once you find the dirt road to the top, at least in daylight, 
you would have had no trouble finding the operators.

I was up on Buck Hill for the August half of the 10 GHz contest, but I was 
out with the rover pack for the most recent September weekend. Both were 
awesome good times. The weather was terrific, unless you were hoping for 
some rain scatter or some phenomenal tropo, neither of which were in play 
for either weekend around here. But conditions still worked out well, as a 
few others have already mentioned. Tons of fun!

73 de WØJT
See you at Microwave Update (MUD)