Score: 940 Qs 56 States 29 Dx =3D202,895
The WD9INF team did this one dxpedition style from a former AM broadcast
station (WTTO)in the suburbs of Toledo. Well, it sits right smack in the
middle of a big corn field, but Toledo's like that (the big pixture, that=
is).=20
Six 165-ft. towers to play with, but could not phase them the way we wanted.
Tried doing two, but mainly wound up feeding one and an inverted vee at 100
ft. off another.=20
We punched holes in the frozen tundra for three 800-ft. Beverages on Friday,
but much of that advantage was lost to a miserable wind storm Friday night
and Saturday morning. Ken, WD9INF, rebuilt the NE Beverage Saturday, and we
were back in business.
The equipment was an FT1000MP (can't say enough good things about it), Amp
Supply 3 X 3-500Zs amplifier, two generators (220 for the amp and 110 for
K8AQM's chili pot--and you guys think kimchi makes methane....), and lots of
other stuff--Kerosuns and such--borrowed from the Toledo and Adrian, MI
contesting community.
When Murphy wasn't with us, the wind was. Friday night and Saturday morning
kind of looked like scenes borrowed from the 1950's version of the film "The
Thing." The brass monkey we took with us ain't never going to be the same.
Major lessons learned: all ops need to be familiar with the rig(s) well in
advance of the contest. The wind and storm noise made a mess out of the EU
opening on Friday--we would have drooled over K1KI's packet postings but
frozen drool is damn near as dangerous to your health as K8AQM's chili. The
110 generator shut down Saturday due to low oil pressure, a nice, automatic
saftey feature. But, when we lost power, we lost our antenna configuration
in the 1000MP and, unknowingly, merrily chased EU stations while listening
on our tower(s) or inverted vee. Thank goodness K8AQM figured out the
problem--must have been the chili--in time to put the Beverages back on line
and catch us some EU late Saturday evening and early Sunday morning.
Actually worked several JAs on the fine Sunday morning opening.
OPS (a partial list): WD9INF, K8AQM, N8AAT, N8ABL, NU8Z, W8IQ, WA8SAE, and
one other who's call eludes me (effect of the wind blowing and breaking?).
Tnx to KF8K, and to the guys from the Toledo Mobile Radio Association for
the loan of coax and equipment equipment.
See you in the SSB, but we've not decided from where yet. Wherever it is,
we'll blame it on =CDNF.
For the team,
Joe Feustle, N8AAT
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