As we sit in Fargo with one day under our belt, I thought I'd give a glimpse of what we were in today. As we all knew in the day or two prior to the weekend, weather would SEVERLY hamper our original plans. That meant that either new plans were needed or, at least, changed (diminished) expectations.
I guess our biggest surprise is that even though radar showed no rain falling within 75 miles of Fargo, it was still raining when we got to Fargo. We had been in rain all day and called it a day at 6pm and did not operate one last time although we had intending to all day. The rain took its toll.
Two images of NØUK and KØHAC are near Lake Wilson when the rain was quite unpleasant. The other two images of them plus the FZ image are from near Summit, SD where we were operating in dense fog and annoying drizzle. Based on the angle UK and HAC are pointing, they are either working KCØIYT at the Eagan Watertower or WØZQ or NØKP at a parking garage in Eden Prairie. We also worked KMØT, KØAWU, and WØPHD from this location.
What adventures does tomorrow hold?
The map graphic shows Day 1 activity. It's a pretty big file if you click on it :-) .
All images may be clicked on for a larger jpeg.
Images courtesy of Donn WA2VOI:
For Day 2, we met for breakfast in the lobby of our hotel. We intended to be out the door at 7:45am but we actually sat there until 9am just chatting and monitoring the weather. So we loaded up and headed out north of Fargo to the Argusville exit.
We just headed east of town about a mile and found a clear spot with views towards Winnipeg, Devils Lake, and the Twin Cities. We worked Dennis NTØV, and Barry VE4MA. We called the Twin Cities on the cellphone to see where and how they were. There were gaps in the rain in the Twin Cities and some operators were at a clear spot in Burnsville. We proceeded to run with them and there they were! Signals improved to the point where SSB exchanges were possible.
For our second location, we moved about 12 miles west. Since the Twin Cities guys were starting to get rained on, we promised them we'd work them first. Fortunately, the paths were good enough to hook up again. Here, we again worked NT0V, VE4MA, and KMØT. Now Wally WØPHD was on the air from Warren, MN.
For our third location, we moved about 18 miles south to just outside Casselton, ND. We picked up Wally WØ0PHD, Barry VE4MA, and Mike KMØT. It started to rain again. We realized that this was the end of operating if it was going to rain.
So we got underway on the interstate back to the Twin Cities and we drove through rain nearly the entire way. We whipped off the interstate near Rogers, MN to operate from Fletcher, MN where there is a view of downtown. We worked the locals again for some more q's.
In over 17 years of roving, W9FZ has NEVER had nann and Indian Curry as his snack food in the field! That's what's great about traveling with such nice people like WA2VOI, NØUK, and KØHAC. We had great conversations over dinner. And in Fargo on Saturday night, we found the only East Indian restaurant in town and it was good!
This year we went for a slower pace but more challenging distances. Thank you SO much to fixed stations who were patient through the long gaps between our operations. Thanks for being there!
BRUCE RICHARDSON
w9fz (at) w9fz.com