Sand Country CWT

Another of my favorite rides is a loop in central Wisconsin from Montello to Hartman Creek State Park, near Waupaca. I often make a three day trip of it, doing a day trip to Amherst where, if the planets align properly, I have lunch with Todd, N9NE, another avid CW operator. This time, I started on Monday, planning to do the Wednesday 13Z CWT from Hartman Creek, and 19Z from Saxeville, on the way back to Montello. Montello to Hartman Creek is about 100 km each way, and the Amherst loop is about 60 km.

When I got out of the car in Montello, it was clear that the oppressive humidity we had been suffering was gone. Three days of excellent weather were forecast. As usual, the wind was blowing the wrong way, but you can't have everything. And it helps keep the bugs away.

For the first time on a bicycle portable CWT operation, I planned to use a computer for logging. It nearly doubles the weight of the equipment, to about 4.5 kg, but I figured it would be worth it on this relatively flat route. In addition, mobile phone coverage is fairly good in the area, so I thought I might be able to get skimmer spots.

Route

What makes this part of central Wisconsin such great cycling is that all the minor roads are paved, traffic is very light, and it's not terribly hilly. It's a mix of farming and trees, in some areas looking a bit like the north woods. There's a lot of irrigation, not because it rains less than in the rest of the state, but because of the sandy soil. Potatoes, among other crops, grow well here.

Not Completely Flat!

A Quiet Road

After a lunch stop at the bar in Richford, I picked up some groceries in Wild Rose. Too late, I realized I'd forgotten to buy any eggs for breakfast, and there's no convenient shopping near the park. Fortunately, just outside the park I came upon this farm:

Eggs for Breakfast!

Four eggs, and the guy didn't even want to take my dollar. I skipped the goat milk.

Some years ago, after many CW contest contacts with Todd, N9NE, I discovered that it was a very easy ride up to Amherst from Hartman Creek, so we've been meeting for lunch ever since. He happened to be in town this time again. Todd is not yet a member of CWOPS, but I think he will be soon.

Visiting Todd, N9NE (R)

Back at Hartman Creek, the 13Z was a bit of a fiasco. The best spot I could find in the park was the horse trailhead. There were some picnic tables, morning shade, and it wasn’t even in TOO deep a hole. Unfortunately, the clearing was paved with hard-packed gravel, making it impossible to get tent stakes in to hold up the fishing pole. It took some work to drag another table into position and lash the pole to it. Then the wire detached from the pole and tangled. When I finally got the antenna up at 1230, at least the radio and computer worked. RBN reports were poor, though. When the CWT started, conditions seemed good, but it was very tough to get through to anyone. A few answered my CQ’s. Not many. One of them was Todd. Then the horse people showed up and, naturally, wanted to park right next to me. More QRM.

Hartman Creek RBN Reports

Much to my surprise, the results were pretty good. Or maybe the propagation just wasn't favoring Peter, W1UU. 

13Z Results

The new computer worked fine with the KX2, and the phone hotspot provided the internet connection for the skimmer spots. 

After packing up and leaving the horse people behind, it was a short ride to Saxeville. I was in plenty of time for lunch at the Crossroads Cafe.

On the Road to Saxeville

Farm and Forest

The park in Saxeville has a nice shelter next to the fire station. The shelter, however, is always packed with stacked-up picnic tables. As nearly as I can tell, the tables are used once each summer for the fire department chicken barbecue, and the rest of the time they're just stacked up in the shelter. I had to wrestle one down and drag it around into the shade. That was number three or the day, though I didn't have to drag this one as far.

Saxeville Park

The fishing pole went up in the clear, and the far end of the wire conveniently went to the fire department tower.

Saxeville Antenna

Saxeville Operating Position

RBN reports didn't look to bad. Ominously, however, I couldn't get a single report on 40.

19Z RBN Reports

Once the CWT started, the going was tough. Many loud stations just couldn't hear me at all, even when no one else called. I really thought this location would be a lot better than the one at the park at 13Z, but it apparently was not so.  48 QSO's and 43 mults this time, for a fourth place finish in the QRP category. 

On the Road to Montello

I was packed up and back on the road a bit after 2030Z, 1530 local time, with almost 70 km to go to Montello. The wind was blowing the wrong way again, but it wasn't too strong. 

Sand Country Scene

Another Quiet Country Lane

About a dozen deer crossed the road in front of me before I rolled into Montello about 8 PM, with an hour of daylight to spare. Those deer inspired me to drive slowly back to Madison, but I got home just in time to get on for the 03Z CWT. With real antennas and 1.5 kW, it was a much different experience.

While it was interesting to try the CWT's from some new spots, I don't think I'll do these two again. It's a great bike ride, though, and I'll certainly do it again, but I'll take the radio on some different rides.

Reservoir Park Field Day

The last time I operated Field Day was with my college radio club back in the 70's. Since I've lately been doing these bicycle portable operations for the CWT's (CWOPS mini-contests), it was easy enough to do a quick Field Day operation. Just a kilometer up the hill from my home QTH is a big grassy park on top of a large reservoir, one of the highest spots in town. "Ground" level there is higher than the top of my 70 foot tower.

Madison Water Utility Reservoir Site

Except for the concrete structures on each end, you would never know there was 6 mllion gallons of water right under the clearing.

Inside the Reservoir

I've done a couple CWT's from there with my simple 40 meter half wave, and the RBN reports have always looked pretty good.  

Bicycle Mobile Station, with Furniture

Because there's no shelter or tables up there, I had to take it all along. That included a folding table and chair, and the sun shade and poles we use for Wisconsin River canoe trips. It all made the bike a bit wobbly, but it was a short ride. Somewhere amidst all that stuff is the 11 meter carbon fiber fishing pole for the antenna.

One of the good things about the lack of amenities up there is that the park isn't heavily used, even on weekends. I wasn't disturbed for the 6 hours I was there. Who knows, though, what will happen when they get around to looking at the surveillance camera video.

Sun Shade 

I was up there shortly after sunrise, 5:30 AM, and quickly got the shelter and antenna up. Total setup and tear down time was probably about an hour, something to be said for simplicity. I chose to just operate for a few hours Sunday morning, in hopes that there would still be plenty of activity, but the competition wouldn't be quite so fierce. It turned out, things were rather slow, so perhaps Saturday afternoon would have been better. In any case, I had decided to operate until either one of the batteries went dead, or things got boring.

Antenna Support

Besides the elevation, another nice thing about this spot is that the trees keep their distance, perhaps allowing a bit more RF to escape. (You just can't have tree roots growing down into the reservoir.)

The antenna, as usual, is my 40 meter half wave, end fed, and supported about 1/4 way from the far end, like a lopsided inverted V. I use a little homebrew tuner designed for the high impedance, which works on 40, 20, and 15 meters. The radio is an Elecraft KX2, with its excellent receiver. This time, because it was such a short ride, I brought my ancient netbook for logging, though it can't do rig control or CW. This leads to somewhat more that my usual number of QLF moments, but it's better than paper dupe sheets.

Conditions were fairly good, with even some sporadic E skip on 15, but after a bit less than 5 hours the rate was just too slow to be interesting. I did get a few answers to CQ's, nothing one could call a run, but what can you expect with 5 Watts and a little chunk of wire? By the time I quit, the netbook had about an hour's worth of battery left, but the KX2 was going strong.  (And I had some spare batteries for it.)  When I packed everything up, there were 207 contacts in the log.

If I do it again next year, I'll take my chances with the competition on Saturday afternoon.
  

Grant County CWT

For my first bicycle portable CWT operation of the season, I chose a ride in Grant County, in the far southwestern corner of Wisconsin. To the west, the county is bounded by the Mississippi River valley. Just across the river is Iowa. The tops of the bluffs can be 150 meters above the river. On one of them is Nelson Dewey State Park, just west of Cassville, which should have been a good place for an antenna.

I arrived Monday afternoon, and Tuesday I set up the antenna just to check things out. Normally, I use the 40 meter end fed half wave only on 40 and 20, though I've used it on 80 with some longer radials and the internal KX2 tuner. But when I heard that N9MM was going to 30 meters, I found that it worked quite well on that band. That in spite of the fact that the external tuner is really only designed to match the high impedance of a half wave multiple, and I didn't bother with the longer radials.

Mississippi River Overlook

Nelson Dewey State Park Site

The only spot in the park suitable for a CWT is a picnic area with a great view of the river. Unfortunately, there are lots of trees, which not only make it tricky to get the 40 meter half wave up, but seem to soak up a lot of RF.

Nelson Dewey State Park

Even with the 11 meter fishing pole, it was tough to thread the wire between the branches. While the wire wasn't touching anything, the results were disappointing. 

Nelson Dewey State Park Antenna

Nelson Dewey RBN Reports

In spite of that report from the VK4CT beacon on 20, a mere 37 QSO's was all I managed to make. I got more mosquito bites than that. Sure, it was a low speed CWT, but still....

Nelson Dewey Operating Position

Nelson Dewey

After posting that meager score and packing everything up, I rode the hilly 50 km to the town of Lancaster. The town sits on top of a ridge but, like many ridge-top towns in the area, it's quite hilly, with several gullies running through it. On my way to Nelson Dewey, I had checked out several possible operating locations. What looked like a great spot by the fairgrounds, unfortunately, was too close to a power line. The city park spot was part way down in a gully, but fairly open. When I arrived Wednesday, I checked out a small park by the library, but the wire would have had to go over a driveway, which would have guaranteed that a garbage truck would have come by in the middle of the CWT. So, I had to settle for the park in the gully. At least there weren't as many trees around as at Nelson Dewey.

Lancaster Park Shelter

Lancaster Antenna

Lancaster Antenna

The antenna went up easily enough, and the RBN reports on 20 didn't look bad, but the only report I got on 40 was from AC0C, who must have a really low noise level.

Lancaster RBN Reports

This time, only 33 QSO's ended up in the log.  A lot of loud stations couldn't hear me at all. Conditions weren't that bad, but antennas in gullies just don't work very well.

Lancaster Operation Position

All in all, still a fun time, thanks to some very good ears out there. In spite of a few QLF moments on my part, the KX2 was a pleasure to use. The receiver sounds almost as good as the K3 I have at home. I'm still logging on paper, as there still doesn't seem to be an iPhone app that can do it, and a real computer is way too heavy for bicycle touring.

I'll be doing some more of these operations, hopefully from better locations.

Having learned my lesson about battling the bugs at 03Z, I did that one from back at home.