[NLRS] Need a few key 10G logs from 2015

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

For the August weekend, I guided a group with LJC, ZQ, PW, and SKM from 
Ellsworth to Waterloo and back. SKM had only a 17 dBi horn and worked 
only N0KP on the hill. Sunday AC0RA joined us and used ZQ's backup horn 
rig and worked only N0KP. September I roved solo west of I-35 and mostly 
norh of US 20 to within a few miles of the Minnesota border. Saturday I 
started out fairly close to home and even early morning the path to the 
hill was tough and going north a little didn't help much so I moved 
further north and found a low ridge that extend west for at least 100 
miles and made lots of contacts along it. When I headed south to Storm 
Lake for greater distance nothing worked. I suspect my battery wasn't 
being charged or I got over a ridge to poor territory though the failure 
was in an area I've made contacts from before. I replaced the battery 
because it tested poor that evening, but after a good charging it tests 
good so I have a spare. Sunday to test the rig I started out very close 
to home from the first grid of August and then worked further north 
working the hill. Late in the day the crew on the hill evacuated before 
the road got muddy and I worked Gary, Bruce, and Jannice from northern 
Iowa locations along with KFC at home. Submitted score about 60,000 points.

August we worked W0LGQ in EN21CI from EN32FG.
We worked the hill from
EN32FG
EN32II
EN32IF
EN32JH
EN32KJ
EN32ML
EN32RL
EN32QO
EN32TO
EN32TR
EN32TV
EN32RT and some from EN32RS and we worked RS from RT
Hill from
EN32OT
EN32LU
EN32JV
EN32KR
EN32HQ
EN32EM
EN32GN.

We worked the IYT group in Nebraska at EN11SM from EN32OT.
We worked W9ZIH EN51NV from EN32HQ.
We worked KFC EN35RJ from EN32LU, EN32JV, EN32KR, EN32HQ, and EN32GN.
We worked GHZ EN34LX from EN32LU, EN32KR, EN32HQ, AND EN32FN.

September I worked the hill from:
EN32CK
EN32DQ
EN32BS
EN22XS
EN22UU
EN22SV
EN22PW
EN22PT
EN22NT
EN22RQ
EN23NC
EN23QC
EN22KR
EN32FG
EN32BH
EN22TK
EN22TO
EN23SC
I worked KFC EN35RJ from
EN23SC
EN33AD
EN33CD
I worked Gary, Bruce, and Jannice from
EN23FG to EN14TP
EN23VF to EN14TO
EN33AD to EN14WN
EN33CD to EN24BM

All but a couple eastern spots in August I had driven to before the 
contest to confirm their usefulness. Wish I had a beacon about Albert 
Lea to test propagation on those preliminary tours.

Only a couple September locations I had checked out this year, most were 
found on the spot, though some of the most extreme northern Iowa spots 
we used a year ago and some of those had to move because of tall corn. 
But one I had spotted on a topo map and found useless for several years 
because of corn had beans and signals there were strong. I'm working on 
keeping track of battery charging and making the rig more tolerant of 
low voltages. I had checked out a full set of spots for September but 
they were just too far from the hill for the propagation we had.

I have since identified some more potential spots to fill in a couple 
larger gaps in the eastern route, but all will need to be checked for 
crops next summer.

73, Jerry, K0CQ