[NLRS] 10 G Cumulative contest results

[Gary]

I did better then I thought I would this year.

Overall subject to further checking:

Distance points 55031    QSO points 2000 (no one new worked the second 
weekend) Total 57031

Total number of Q's 252

Weekend #1  147 Q's  30433 distance points  20 uniques   Total score 
32433 Average distance 207 km.Longest contact of the weekend was 397 km

Weekend #2  105 Q's  24598 distance points  0 uniques  Total score 
24598.  Average distance 234.3 km. Longest contacts for the weekend were 
432 km.

Weekend #1 I roved with Jon, WØZQ. We roved SE MN and NE Iowa.

Weekend #2 I roved solo. I had a number of skeds set up for Saturday 
morning at Kiester, EN33en. A great site. I heard and was heard by 
Herbert, AF4JF, in EM49hq, at a distance of about 480 km. Unfortunately 
we could not complete the contact. I also ran with WA9TT in EN54rl and 
KØAWU in EN37ed. Both are over 400 km away but nothing was heard or seen 
either way. Then I ran the locals with good signals. I had planned to 
use a 75 cm dish in place of my 2' to give me a little extra margin on 
the long paths. This involved a separate setup of the big dish on a 
second tripod. I got it setup but wasn't able to make use of it due the 
time crunch. It was windy when I took everything down so I set the 75 cm 
dish along side of the car, out of the wind, while I put everything else 
away. I forgot to load the dish in the trunk and didn't notice it was 
gone until Sunday. Somewhere in southern Minnesota there is a 75 cm 
aluminum dish flying around. I am sure it really took off of Sunday when 
the wind was gusting over 30 MPH. Flying saucers.

The rest of the day I made nine stops traveling south into Iowa and then 
West toward Worthington where I spent the night.

Sunday it was very windy. I had a hard time keeping the dish from 
blowing over even though I was set up behind the car, using the car and 
truck lid as cover. I also had a 25 lb weight hanging from the tripod. 
The dish and tripod were singing so loud I couldn't copy CW. The truck 
lid kept blowing closed too.

I started NW of Worthington and traveled NW and north to Tyler before 
turning back East. I used a mix of previous sites and some new ones that 
I had to find because of the route I chose. I had planned to travel 
further north but conditions, mostly the wind, made that impractical.

Sunday wasn't very productive from a contact standpoint, only 43. 
However from a distance standpoint it was very productive, with an 
average distance of 268.4 km. I made eleven stops. From two stops I had 
no Q's. Everyone had quit for the day at one stop. I couldn't work the 
only other person on from the second site local Twin Cities site. From 
another local stop I had one Q and from two other western MN stops I 
only had two Q's. I missed some contacts that were over 400 km with 
Bruce and Janice because of the wind. I couldn't keep the dish steady 
enough to work them. Unfortunately none of the ops who live in the 
western part of MN, Iowa and SD were able to be on the air. That limited 
the number of relatively easy contacts.

I did have a fox checking me out. It started about 100 yards away and 
slowly worked it's way toward me on the road until it was about 10 yards 
away, where it stood and looked at me for a minute or two before walking 
into the farm field.

It was a tough weekend with the wind. There must be something about 
September 10 G weekends and wind. It was worse this year then it was 
last year. Even without the wind I would say conditions were just 
average to a little below average. Too much wind spoils the tropo scatter.

Thanks to everyone who was on for the contest, especially those who were 
on all four days.

Keep next August in mind. There should be good sized groups on the MN 
North Shore, the Michigan UP, Keweenaw peninsula and in Canada, probably 
at Marathon. I hope there will be lots of bands on all side of the lake 
too. Maybe even light.

73, Gary WBØLJC