[NLRS] W9FZ/R and KA9VVQ/R plans for Jan VHF Contest

[Bruce Richardson]

Hello NLRS'ers and BC'ers:

It's January and Janice and my "RF low-level lights" are blinking.
So we're planning on being out in the rover 2 weekends from now.  We've
had fun looking at the Grid Map and Delorme Map books deciding where to
go that would be fun for us and have access to our friends in
NLRS/BC-land.

We've also decided to give "family rule" a try!!  So if you find us, you
get two Q's on each band.  Sure, it will take a little longer but you'll
already have us peaked up.  We'll get better as the event goes along at
handing the mike (and key) back and forth.  Janice is mighty fine on CW
so we'll both still give you Q's if the path weakens.

We'll be CQ'ing on 144.240.  The "carry to" frequencies on the higher
bands is an interesting discussion. We all know that we "could" get away
going to the calling freq or not too far off of it on other bands.  But
WHAT IF there was QRM?  Now we've slowed things down for everyone.  So
even though it might not be necessary, we plan to carry to .140 on 222
and 432.  903 on up also pose a question. Many years, we go to the
calling freq on those bands and don't have problems.  So we'll plan on
.100 on 903, 1296, 2304 and 10G but we'll be VERY ready to go to .140 if
there is a glimmer of QRM.  For 6m, we plan to "carry to" 50.190.  Some
might think that is a bit high and a hassle, but .140 is so easily busy
with any kind of an opening. We want you to hear our weak signal and
usually .190 is guaranteed to be quiet.  We'll be checking 146.55 and
146.58 at the top and bottom of most hours.

Remember, we don't "own" .240.  We like to find it busy when we get to a
new grid because we're guaranteed a Q (or more) when we get the ops
attention.  We've told everybody to look for us there. If you need that
freq, have at it!  We'll stand-by until you are done (or we'll go look
around elsewhere).

Barring Murphy, we plan to have ABCD9EF and I.  We will be chirping
W9FZ-15 (puppy dog symbol). Look for us on
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FW9FZ-15

So the plan is basically Rochester, MN on Saturday and Cedar Rapids, IA
on Sunday. We will start in EN34 for just one hour to give out some
extra QSO volume to local (loud) stations.  The other grids will have
adequate time to work all ops within range of our sigs.

Saturday Jan 24:

EN34vb	1300L - 1400L (1900Z - 2000Z)
EN44ab	1400L - 1600L (2000Z - 2200Z)
EN43aw	1700L - 1900L (2300Z - 0100Z)
EN33xw	2000L - 2200L (0200Z - 0400Z)

Sunday Jan 25:

EN31xx	0900L - 1100L (1500Z - 1700Z)
EN41ax	1230L - 1430L (1830Z - 2030Z)
EN42aa	1530L - 1730L (2130Z - 2330Z)
EN32xa 	1900L - 2200L (0100Z - 0400Z)

It will be great to connect with all of our friends in the region on
that weekend. We'll be looking at Omaha, KC, St Louis hopeful for new
calls/Q's.  But we know we'll be looking at Chicago, Milwaukee, Eau
Claire, Twin Cities, and NW. We look forward to working other
Rovers--particularly at non-trivial distances. So we'll troll by your
frequencies as well. We are glad to work other rovers but we won't
coordinate/orchestrate our moves with you--we'll stick to our schedule.

Any chance N0MA will be on that weekend???  We're about to fill in the
activity spreadsheet at:
http://tinyurl.com/vhfss2015

Questions? Let us know. Need a particular grid on a band for VUCC? It's
ok to let us know in advance and we'll try extra hard with you.  If
weather requires us to change our plans,
we'll try to let everyone know.
73
Bruce W9FZ and Janice KA9VVQ