[VHFcontesting] September report -- K9ILT & K0PG long

[ADUHAWK at aol.com]

We got the station assembled and into the car Thursday evening, so all that 
was left for Friday was to mount the antennas.  That took about three hours, 
with the threat of rain always there.  The only potential problem was that in my 
haste, I wasn't sure which Superflex feedline went to the 903 xvrtr and which 
one went to the 432 rig.  Wonder of wonders I guessed right.  With the rain 
closing in I jumped into the car, and whistled up a signal on 432.  The right 
number of black dots lit up on the display and we were off!

We had hoped to make Waterloo, IA Friday night, but by the time we got out of 
town through the traffic we were happy to make Iowa period.  We stopped in 
Dyersville, mainly because of the Country Junction Restaurant.  Iowa smoked pork 
chops....mmmm, pork chops.

We rose early Saturday and lollygagged out to the four corners of 
EN23/33/22/32. There must be some rule about making it to where you need to be just at 
the starting time, because we just made it.  On the way out west we heard Gene, 
N0DQS heading east from his western EN22 QTH.  We were in EN42 and not exactly 
on each other as we drove, but we could have qualified for membership in the 
RCC with that QSO.  We were probably about 200 miles apart.  We thought that 
we might be in for some good conditions.

At the beginning we were able to hook up with Gene and Mike, KM0T on a 
bunch-o-bands right away.  We were unfamiliar with this grid corner, but it was 
really easy to set up.  It's really flat and there's that whole network of roads, 
paved and otherwise that makes it real easy to pop into and out of a grid.  We 
found a turkey farm in EN23 with a parking lot.  That makes it really easy to 
turn around and get pointed in any direction without being a menace to 
traffic, straddling roads.

Let me tell you about the turkey farm. O-DAIR!  Pat jumped out to take a 
picture, and then jumped right back into the car.  She got the shot, but we picked 
up a bunch of flies in the process.  I wonder if we smell that bad to the 
turkeys.  Let me put it this way.  They don't smell like that on Thanksgiving!

We intended to stay one hour, make a bunch of Qs and head north.  We wound up 
staying almost two hours because it was such a productive spot.  That killed 
any chance of maintaining the schedule for Saturday, but we were having fun.  
We also noticed a noise that we took to be just the tripod rocking and rolling 
a little bit.

We headed north to Big Thunder, MN, working stations in EN23 and 33 as we 
went.  We hooked up with W0GHZ beaucoup times along with others from all 
directions.  As we drove, every once in a while we would encourage one of the turkey 
farm flies out of an open window.  There didn't seem like many, but there 
always seemed to be one up front with us.

As we got into MN, we could hear from lots of the NLRS and BCers.  W0GHZ, 
K0CJ and the bunch from EN44 were all in there.

At the EN34,24line we were very happy to work K0MHC and K0AWU.  
Unfortunately, that was as far north as we got, but we were pleased to catch up with them.  
We moved on toward St. Charles and the next scheduled stop when a really cool 
string of contacts were made.  We heard Matt, running QRP/P near Winona.  We 
were able to run the bands with him while going 65 mph on Route 14.  I'm not 
exactly sure how far apart we were, but it was a good poke.  We had no trouble, 
it was as if we were 10 miles apart!

We got into Rochester and worked Ed W0OHU from his new QTH on cross mode 
contacts.  We always seemed to be able to make contacts from wherever we were.  
>From time to time we would go to 144.200 and announce where we were and that we 
were on 144.170.  This always worked.  Even though our schedule didn't.

Going east out of Rochester in the rain we (I) missed a road sign.  I left 
Route 14 and the planned stop in the St. Charles area by taking Route 52 south.  
We were chatting with Matt, KF0Q about where we were.  Instead of being 
almost in Winona, we were almost in Iowa!  We pulled off and decided to get to 
Decorah, and stop for the night.  What the heck, it was the same grid we had 
planned to be in.  We got the last hotel room in Decorah.  It was the "VIP Suite" 
-- at the Super 8.  They must have been expecting us.

Sunday morning we were up and at it early (for us).  We ate at McDonald's. At 
the McD's in Decorah the "welcome" and "thank you" signs are in Norwegian.  I 
wondered if we were going to get some fisk on our Egg McMuffins, but there 
were no surprises. 

Just south of town we found a parking lot at a roller rink and worked back 
north into the cities and hooked up with K2DRH for the first time in the 
contest.  W0GHZ, KT8O and a few others made it into the log.  By the way, we made no 
contacts with EN35.  Maybe everybody there moved over to EN44.

>From then on, the game was on.  We left that spot with 130 Qs.  In the next 
12 hours we made 330 more.  Sunday was a blur.  We kept pushing flies out the 
window whenever one showed up. We found a great spot in EN42.  Our usual spot 
in IL must be a bad spot to the NW, cuz we never work anybody in NLRS land.  
This spot was great we worked IL stations, lots of WI (especially W9GA and the 
ever-present N9DG) and N0DQS all the way across Iowa in western EN23.  It is 
comforting for us to have lots of stations looking for us, in case anything goes 
wrong, and of course to add points to the log.  We stayed at this hilltop for 
over an hour and only had to move once for a local to get around us.

Then back into EN43 over to Dodgeville.  We ate a quick lunch at Culver's 
with everybody looking at the car.  We pretended to be wondering what it was too. 
 Then off to a spot north of town for EN43, and east of town for EN53.

Lots of Qs from both locations.  By the way, the earlier rocking sound had 
been getting progressively worse.  The front cross bar for the roof rack was 
getting really wobbly.  It had been rock-solid in the past, and we were 
concerned.  With our old rack system, on the old rovermobile the adjustment spot was 
very easy to find.  We could not locate this one after a quick check, so we 
stopped in Madison and secured to whole thing by guying it with a hunk of rope to 
the front frame towpoints.  So, in addition to the tripod and 6 antennas, we 
now had a couple of guy ropes going over the hood of the car.  This secured the 
whole thing, but we stayed off the interstate just to make sure we were OK.  
That slowed us down but we were able to pull off the road from time to time to 
point the car in a desired direction.  We worked EM58 (thanks W9GKA) and EM49 
that way, so I guess that there's good in everything if you look for it.  
When we stopped, we also were able to let out another fly. But we picked up a 
ladybug.

As we got closer to Chicago, and it got later in the contest, it became clear 
that we weren't going to make our planned southern shot into EN50 and EN60.  
We would have to settle for the closer and less lofty Nickoll Knoll in EN62.  
It worked out OK.

We got there just as the last golfers were leaving, so the parking lot was 
emptying out giving us room to maneuver.  We were able to continue our 
continuous string with K2DRH, WB9Z, N2BJ and others.  We were almost constantly working 
someone.

After dark, we received a visitor.  A car pulled up alongside of us and Mark, 
N8KWX jumped out.  Mark lives about a mile away, so he packed up his laser 
gear and came up to the hill.  We set up his gear and we all made an EN62 QSO.  
Doing this sort of "mad scientist" stuff got some of those up there for other 
(ahem) leisure activities interested and they came over for a look.  Mark 
explained the whole thing to them and they walked away scratching their heads.  
Anyway, Pat got some photos. We'll post them on our Soapbox comments on the ARRL 
contest report.  

Anyway, we stayed on the hilltop until 9:30 and then took off for home 
through EN52 and EN51.  We wound up making 8 Qs in the last 2 minutes.  It was a 
wild ride.

Anyway, it was 971 miles 460 Qs for me, 458 for Pat.  We log on paper during 
the contest and type it all in to Roverlog afterwards, but it looks like about 
100 multipliers including the credit we get for the 11 grids activated.  
Maybe 700 points?

We found the way to tighten this set of roof rack supports, so that wound up 
being OK and we got rid of the last fly.  The ladybug was walking around on 
the inside of the windshield when I was driving home today, so she's relocated 
to EN61.

All equipment worked great, although we are going to check the output of the 
902 xvrtr.  We had to work much too hard on the band.  Maybe we can add 2304 
for January.  This route was very productive for us.  We enjoyed working 
everybody we've been missing with our "lap of northern Illinois" route.

Thanks for everybody who worked us, and thanks for the nice emails we've 
received since getting home.  
The photos should be up on the ARRL site next week.

We've had a great 2003, but we're not done yet.  Time for a little HF 
contesting from the car. Maybe SS from ND? If we don't catch up with you before then, 
see you in January. 73, Tim and Pat K0PG, K9ILT