[NLRS] 10 GHz contest, Northern Rovers
Dr. Gerald N. Johnson
geraldj at netins.net
Fri Aug 25 17:29:06 EDT 2017
I just got out my log sheets, I count 101 QSOs. Jon's selection of
EN12HH was superb. A local hilltop with about 8 miles NW to the next
ridge, about 20 miles east and NE to the next ridge, about 10 miles
south to the next ridge in that direction and just a slight rise in the
next couple miles to the southeast. I made 13 contacts from there, we
didn't work our own rovers until much later. It was on the same county
line road as Gary's suggested location at the corner of 832nd road and
558th avenue that wasn't useable NW to Radar Hill because the corn roots
were 6 feet above the road in that direction. Gary's spot wasn't bad
south or north east, but north west the corn made it useless. His
topographic data didn't include the bluff on the west side of the road.
After lunch in Valentine on Sunday, Jon and Charley headed south on 97
but didn't find a place to work north when we called them. Arliss,
Holly, and I went north to a spot Arliss had picked out for working
Radar Hill and it worked well. Then to get on NE 12 without going 25
miles through Valentine we headed east on gravel roads identified on the
county map I had printed out. We spotted a great view south and worked
the southern rover group from there. DN92RW to DN90UQ. We headed on east
on 12 and found a spot to work Radar Hill again. And again but they were
packing up and leaving. As far as I could tell by then the southern
rovers along with Jon and Charley had decided getting to Ogallala was
more important than contacts. At Springview NE, Arliss and Holly turned
north and I turned south. After crossing a couple streams with big
valleys I found a spot that wasn't bad and called them on the cell phone
and we made a set of Qs. EN02CO to EN03PD .Then as they went east in SD,
I went on south to US20 and west to Ainsworth (the closest gas stations)
for fuel when the truck was demanding fuel or threatening to stop
running. Then I went east to the same location at Bassart where we
worked several contacts with rain scatter to the south on Saturday and
worked Arliss and Holly just after they crossed the Missouri River.
EN02FN to EN03JI.
Truck odometer says 1093 miles which might be exaggerated a bit from
rear axle and speed sensor gears not changed in exactly the same ratio.
Speedometer speeds are a bit exaggerated too.
N0KP's Le Sueur location seemed fine, I wonder if it could be the
location for the usual Buck Hill crowd next month for working rovers in
Iowa. I've been in that area a dozen times but I didn't notice a hilltop
for microwaving, usually there for the Pioneer Power Show or Pioneer
Power Show swap meet that site is about 8 miles east of the town and the
town is in the Minnesota River bottom. If we can rove in Iowa next month
we can work two contests at once, the Iowa QSO party is the same weekend
so all we have to do is add counties to the exchange and the log. The
Iowa QSO party is being run by the Story County ARC (I was president for
21 years until I decided to retire) http://www.w0yl.com.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
On 8/25/2017 11:55 AM, Jon Platt via NLRS wrote:
>
>
>
> OK, I tried to use a fixed font. Here is a resend, lets see if the table is readable.
>
> 73, Jon
> W0ZQ
>
>
> N0AKC, K0CQ, N0QJM, W7XU and myself roved from Norfolk, NE to Ainsworth, NE on Saturday. As reported by others, regional conditions were above average with our longest QSO of the day made with K0AWU at 491km. Notable mention goes to N0KP who we worked on EME quality CW at 459km. I also made six 24 GHz Q's with Radar Hill, the longest at 122km. We made a total of eight stop. See the table below.
>
> On Sunday our group travelled together in the morning until we reached Valentine, NE when Charlie and I headed south while Arliss/Holly and Jerry doubled back headed towards home. No 24 GHz Q's on Sunday, and the best distance on 10 GHz was 241km. We anticipated that Sunday would be slower, so no surprises. The Nebraska sand hills are very poor for roving as roads are few, safe places to operate from few, and the crest of most hills are false crests with more hill above you.
>
> Lessons learned (i.e., opportunities for next time!).
> 1. Being the northern group and in-between everybody, my concern about being overloaded in coordination came true. I had many phone calls and texts while also setting up and tearing down two dish systems. My apologies to those that I missed or appeared to ignore. Next time I think I will put Barb in charge of cell phone traffic and have her run a known-active-calls check sheet from each stop so that we can split the duties of multiple coordinate as well as running Q's. When you are working one or two directions, this isn't as big of a problem, but this time it was due to the multiple requests (I guess that's a good thing on 10 GHz !).
> 2. Anyone who has roved in corn country knows that finding a shot in one direct is probably, two directions possible, and three or more directions impossible. One has to make decisions on horseback about what the land gives you.
> 3. Regarding coordination, I wonder if we could make use of W0UC's regional contest spotting page. That may be more effective than so many incoming cell phone calls/texts, plus it gives others vision as to who's working what.
>
> 73, Jon
> W0ZQ
>
>
> ------ Saturday -------
>
> Sent........Rcved...10GHz.....24GHz
> EN12hh EN24xk 359km
> ..............EN10pj 220km
> ..............EM39hc 491km
> ..............EN03sb 122km....... 122km
> ..............EN11xu 122km
> ..............EN21ci 169km
> EN12di EN03sb 100km....... 100km
> ..............EN10pj 233km
> EN12bi EN03sb 92km............ 92km
> ..............EN21ao 179km
> EN02vi EN03sb 81km
> .............EN21ci 229km
> EN02si EN21ci 248km
> .............EN03sb 81km............ 81km
> .............EN24xk 426km
> .............EN10kh 253km
> .............EN21fa 284km
> EN02pl EN24xk 436km
> .............EN03sb 68km........... 68km
> EN02ko EN24xk 459km
> ..............EN03sb 75km......... 75km
> EN02fn EN03sb 105km
> .............EN00wk 277km
>
> ------- Sunday --------
> Sent....... Rcved... 10GHz
> EN02cn EN03sb 122km
> ..............EN00fl 232km
> DN92xn EN03sb 141km
> DN92tq EN03sb 162km
> DN92tr EN00co 241km
> DN92rt EN03sb 172km
> DN91tv DN90uq 134km
>
>
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