[NLRS] Buck Hill to Radar Hill

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

I haven't heard of any population of Buck Hill, other than JT and his 
last e-mail said he might leave the rig in Texas. I haven't heard from 
Jon that there is even a chance of access to Buck Hill. One set of 
contacts to Radar Hill isn't much incentive to be on Buck Hill. Unless 
they go JT modes I think the Nebraska rovers will be out of range of 
Buck Hill.

And I haven't received answer to my question two weeks ago: "Is the 
casino called "Fort Randall Casino and Hotel"?" Looks like their room 
rates are better for their
gambling members with a special card. I haven't checked lately to see if 
they still have rooms. At least that checks out on google as the right 
coordinates for Radar Hill, and I see on google's map that there is a 
water tower on the SE corner of the property that might make an 
interesting scatterer.

With two rover groups of 3 each in Nebraska and maybe 4 or 5 at Radar 
Hill, the stations at Radar hill turn the best score in the area. I'd 
wish the rover groups were able to find more than a dozen stops per day, 
not the 6 I've seen mentioned. I haven't traveled all of Nebraska, but I 
have gone west on I-80, and US-20 and east from Valentine on NE-12. All 
three roads follow river bottoms. I-80 is in the Platte River bottom 
which is FLAT FLAT across and parallel to the river, some call that the 
most boring road in the world. NE-12 runs along the Niobrara and 
Missouri Rivers, probably has more accessible high spots. The times I've 
been in Nebraska I wasn't thinking about roving for 10 GHz so didn't 
really look for spots. I did recall in the Sand Hills seeing hills near 
the highways with no access at all. US-20 from east of O'Neill to west 
of Stuart follows the Elkhorn River with a much narrower river bottom 
than the Platte and much more road curving.

If there was at least 6 on Buck Hill, I'd consider roving in Iowa 
starting at EN32FG, though I'd rather do that in September. The 
September 10G+ contest weekend is also the weekend of the Iowa QSO Part 
sponsored by the Story County ARC that I am a member and was president 
for some 21 years. We could rove in Iowa and add county names to the 
exchange and have two contests to send in logs. My plan would be to 
start at EN32FG, just a couple miles from home, then work east on the 
south side of US-20 to Dike or Fredsville, then work west along IA-3 and 
be home for the night. Start a little west on US-20 and work north west 
to about Storm Lake on Sunday, then east towards Clear Lake, depending 
on propagation of course. I have many spots visited and used in past 
years and would make a dry run with the car to check on crops before 
that September weekend.

I have seen a solar eclipse before so would probably spend my Monday in 
August driving home. Radar Hill appears to be about 260 miles from 
Ellsworth, IA.

Last time at Lake Superior we didn't hear Buck Hill from Mt. Brockway on 
the south shore. I think a few worked that path from the Duluth area. I 
only scored 8th in the world, but highest in the 8th call area according 
to the ARRL certificate I received. I spent about 10 days on the road 
that year doing lots of visiting and traveling before and after. Right 
now my Airstream isn't able to move, no axle under it. I visited antique 
farm power shows at Amalund, Rose City, and near Great Falls, and 
museums up to Ely, MN, then from Duluth went to Grand Marias and back to 
Superior and along the UP of Michigan. Some 2200 miles total.

73, Jerry, K0CQ


On 7/28/2017 8:17 AM, James Froemke wrote:
>
>
> As with the last trip to Superior, if there is anyone "on the hill" with the capability of working us in SD we're willing to try for a Minnesota contact.
> I don't remember who other then big dish Dave were actually operating from Buck Hill last time.
>
> 73, Jim
> K0MHC
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