Just back from our trek to the ChillyLands but wanted to get a score
reported. I'll have lots more details about the trip, including pictures,
on a web site that I'll put together in the next week or two (more likely
next week than this). Details to be posted on the reflector when I get it done.
But in the meantime, here's the nitty gritty:
Callsign: NW0L
Class: Mult-Single HP
Operators: NW0L, AE9B, W0ZAP, K0LW
QTH: ND
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Band QSOs
------------
80: 190
40: 180
20: 372
15: 368
10: 237
------------
Total: 1347
State/Prov = 57 Countries = 57
Total Score = 153,558 (subject to revision of course)
Missed DE, NWT and YUK. Best hours were 1900Z and 0000Z at 80 Qs; worst was
1300Z at 13 Qs.
Short version of some soapbox comments (which makes me wonder what the long
version is going to look like...):
This was an absolute blast!
We left Kansas City early Thursday morning, loaded to the gills with
radios, amps, antennas, about a thousand feet of coax, gloves, hats, boots,
cover-alls, long underwear, food, more food and still more food. Stopped
en-route at Burghardt Amateur Center in Watertown, SD, and seemed to catch
them off guard -- I guess they don't get many warm bodies visiting the
showroom. We also had to stop at a farm supply for some Bag Balm (query
AE9B for details if you need them). And I wanted to stop by Mount Marty
College but the other boys wouldn't have it, so I'll be forever left
wondering about what might have been...
Arrived in Hankinson, ND at about 6:30pm and immediately went to work
setting up radios and a wire antenna so we could get on the air. We stayed
at a small (but relatively well-equipped) cottage next to a beautiful
bed-and-breakfast, located next to a fairly large lake. (side note: I've
never seen people drive trucks out onto the lake to do ice fishing before.
They're strange folks, those northerners...)
I really had no idea what the weather would be like, but I knew we wouldn't
need our Bermuda shorts. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad -- highs around 30F
every day, only a few inches of snow on the ground, sunny for part of the
time, light winds for the most part and the nights weren't too cold until
early Monday morning when we were packing up. It should have been a *lot*
colder according to the weather almanac, and it *could* have been snow up
to our armpits. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe that global warming thing
isn't just a myth.
Anyway, we were finally on the air by about 8:30pm using a Hy-Gain "tape"
dipole at 25 ft, set for 40m and found awesome propagation all over the
place so played on CW for a while. Went to bed relatively early and got up
the next morning to assemble two triband beams, a 40m 1/4 wave vertical, an
80/160 vertical and re-set the Hy-Gain tape dipole for 80m. The run station
beam was at about 40 feet on a military crank-up mast (the kind you see at
Dayton) and went up *really* easily; the other was on a slightly different
military crank-up mast at 25 ft. The verticals were made from simple Rohn
push-up masts with a top coil for the 80/160 antenna. All played extremely
well with just a few radials.
Station consisted of two FT-1000MPs (with a third on standby), two
TL-922As, a rats nest of coax, switches and miscellaneous interface wires,
and Writelog / MMTTY on a pair of networked laptops. We managed to get
internet connectivity (though the manager of the bed and breakfast was a
little perplexed at how were going to pay for it -- seems they get internet
service from the local telephone company and were worried about who would
pay the next bill. I tried to explain we were using MSN but got the "deer
in the headlights" look.
Contest time rolled around the next day and we were off, but without much
of a pre-planned strategy other than to get on the air and make Qs as fast
as we could. In hindsight, we should have made better use of the second
radio, loading up the band map for the run radio to go through on a band
change. The contest seemed to go really well for the first day; we shut
down with 800 Qs at about 0630Z for the first break but probably should
have stayed on longer, as 80m was absolutely packed with stations. Sunday
was rough all over - never could get a run going to speak of and the high
bands didn't really open to Europe like we expected -- I don't know if
being that far north had anything to do with it or not, but it was
frustrating. Nearly all stations had deep QSB on 10, 15 and 20 all day
Sunday. But we slogged through and did the best we could. The last 30
minutes were an absolute bedlam of stations calling on 40m, and several
seemed to miss the fact that the contest ended at 00Z (including one who
use some obscenities when we explained that the contest was over and thus
will need to search for a North Dakota RTTY QSO from someone else...)
Our score result isn't spectacular but it's also not bad for 4 guys who
bag-dragged two entire HF stations 600 miles and set them up in just a few
hours. In our own defense, I never expected that we'd go to North Dakota
and take a World first place or anything; I just thought it'd be fun to go
operate from a "rare" place that's still close to home. And on that count,
I was right -- this was more fun than anything radio-related that I can
remember ever doing and has really re-energized my enthusiasm for contesting.
I'd like to thank Tom AE9B, Lee K0LW and Rick W0ZAP for going along with my
hare-brained, last-minute idea for this trip and for providing nearly all
of the "stuff" we needed to make it happen. Especially K0LW who provided
the military crank-up masts and a lot of muscle to put it all up so
quickly. Also thanks to everyone who called us in the contest -- if we gave
out a new state to any of you, than it was worth the trip.
Please QSL either direct to my callbook address or via the buro. Direct
QSLs received without SASE or IRC will not be answered -- sorry guys, it's
just too expensive to make the trip, print QSLs *and* pay for return postage.
Thanks again and 73,
de NW0L, AE9B, K0LW and W0ZAP
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