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.

Reservoir Park CWT

Just 1.5 km up the hill from my home QTH is a reservoir with a grassy clearing on top.  Ground level there is about 60 meters higher than the TOP of my tower, so it seemed an excellent place for the fishing pole and 40 meter half wave.

QTH

There's nothing up there except grass, a few trees around the edges, and an enormous number of mosquitoes. (It's been a wet summer.) So, I lashed a folding chair and table on the bike and rode up there.

Antenna

Neighboring Communications Tower

Also taking advantage of the altitude is a big communications tower.

Operating Position

This was the first bicycle portable CWT with the new KX2, a huge improvement over the KX1, albeit at the price of quite a bit more weight.  For this short trip, I also lugged a netbook up there for logging, though it won't do rig control or CW with the KX2.  (Probably due to its crippled version of Windows 7.)

Transport

While it would have been a lot easier to just throw everything in the car, I DID ride a bike up there!

RBN Reports

RBN reports looked pretty good, as I had hoped.  Conditions were also quite good, and there was lots of activity.  When the 13Z CWT was over, there were 58 contacts and 47 mults in the log, by a small margin my best QRP portable score so far. That was quite a bit better than a recent attempt with the KX2 from the home QTH.  Maybe I should put up a 20 meter dipole at home!

It was getting pretty toasty in the sun by 14Z, so I won't be doing 19Z from up there until it cools off.  I suppose I could drag a sun shade up there along with the furniture, but that's way too much trouble.

Governor Dodge State Park CWT 2017

It's been a busy spring, so I'm finally getting around to my first bicycle portable CWT of the season. Tuesday afternoon, I rode the 78 km west from Madison to Governor Dodge State Park. It's one of my favorite campsites, and last year proved to be an excellent spot to do the CWT's. There's a picnic area near the top of the ridge, some 120 meters above the Wisconsin River Valley to the north. Because it's such a good location, I decided to do both the 13Z and 19Z CWT's from there, and then hit the road for the short ride to Muscoda.  (MUSK'-o-day)

QTH

As usual, the fishing pole supported the end fed 40 meter half wave.

11 Meter Fishing Pole

Though its days are numbered, I'm still using the KX1.  The homebrew antenna tuner isn't going anywhere.

Still Logging on Paper!

Picnic Shelter

Conditions seemed quite good at 13Z, but some QLF moments resulted in just 50 QSO's and 42 mults. I'm out of practice for this kind of operation, and got a late start by underestimating the set-up time, and unsnarling the tangles left over from last fall. 19Z wasn't any better, with 50 QSO's and just 37 mults. And this from the site of my high QRP score last year!  While I heard F6HKA and F5IN, I couldn't get through to either.

After 20Z (1500 local), I packed everything up for the 50 km ride to Muscoda, on the Wisconsin River. It's downhill on the average, but there are a couple bumps along the way. (Pretty big climbs, actually.) But it's light until after 2100 (local) this time of year, so I arrived with a couple hours to spare. I decided to skip the 03Z CWT, as I knew the bugs would be terrible, and operating that one from the bottom of a river valley without 80 meters would have been frustrating. I was planning to take a couple days to get home, with another stop in Blanchardville, so racing home for the 03Z session wasn't an option.

The ride home was uneventful, and the weather was perfect all week.

While I've had a lot of fun with the KX1, and it was a fun project getting it set up the way I wanted it, I find the poor receiver frustrating. The selectivity is very poor, and the gain on 20 is so low there's very little AGC action, which is hard on my aging ears. So, I decided to put up with a little more weight, and ordered a KX2. I know from my car camping operations that I can make the 40 m half wave work on 80 by adding a couple 20 meter radials, so I may brave the bugs and try the 03Z session next time I'm on the road.

Kickapoo Valley CWT Tour

The Kickapoo River Valley, about 120 km west of Madison, is one of my favorite cycling areas. The river flows southward about 100 straight line km to the Wisconsin River. This unglaciated part of Wisconsin is basically a rolling plateau, with deep valleys cut into it by erosion. Some of the valleys, including the Kickapoo, are up to 150 meters deep, creating some beautiful scenery, and sometimes a lot of work for cyclists. My plan was to operate the three CWT's on Wednesday from different locations, taking advantage of Cashton's location on a high ridge for 19Z.

Kickapoo Valley near Readstown

I started in Readstown, on the river, followed the West Fork of the Kickapoo up to Avalanche, climbed over the ridge, and ended up at Esofea County Park. It's a beautiful, isolated place in a valley, but fairly high up in the drainage.

Esofea QTH, 13Z CWT

Wednesday morning, I set up for the 13Z CWT in a big clearing. There was another spot a bit higher, but surrounded by trees, which looked to me like good attenuators.

13Z Antenna

13Z Operating Position

It was cool enough at 8 AM that sitting out in the sun was comfortable, and the mosquitoes weren't too bad. RBN's looked pretty good.

Esofea RBN's

The results, however, were a rather disappointing 49 QSO's and 40 mults. Good enough to top out the QRP scores, though.

The day's ride was a modest 65 km, with a stop in Cashton for the 19Z CWT. With all the time taken to set up, operate, and tear down twice, one has to keep moving this time of year to get the antenna up for the 03Z CWT before dark.

From Esofea, the route climbs up over another ridge, then plunges back down into another valley.

Heading Back Down

Back in the Valley 

That didn't take long!

En Route to Cashton

Oboe Ave climbs up out of the valley again to the ridge on which sits Cashton. I expected this to be a great QTH for the 19Z CWT.

Cashton, 19Z CWT QTH

The park in Cashton had a big shelter next to a big open space for the antenna, a common setup.

Cashton Operating Position

Cashton Antenna

RBN's looked very good:

Cashton RBN's

The lawn mowers kept a respectful distance this time, but there was some QRM from the guy who showed up with a truck to pick up an enormous number of aluminum cans collected in the shelter from some event. Still, I can't really blame him for the mediocre result of 44 QSO's and 33 mults. I probably should have gone to 40 earlier.

Ridgetop Road to Wilton

Most of the route to Wilton stays on the ridge, then drops down to the Elroy-Sparta rail trail at Norwalk, which I followed to Wilton. Along the way, I passed a bunch of Amish kids walking home from school, on the road, barefoot. It looked like they walked a ways, too.

Wilton is on the Kickapoo, not far from its headwaters.

Wilton QTH

There's a great campground in the park in Wilton, and a nice shelter right next to the volleyball courts. I simply lashed the fishing pole to the fence, and got the antenna up just before dark.

Wilton Antenna

I didn't really have the radio set up for the pictures, as I had to take them before dark, but you can get the idea.

Wilton Shelter

Wilton Operating Position

The RBN's around 0Z looked pretty good, but I checked 20 again just before 03Z to see if the band was open.  It was, in spite of the fact that I heard very few signals before the CWT started.

Wilton 20 M RBN's

 After 9 QSO's on 20, I went to 40.  The total of 38 QSO's and 31 mults was better than I expected at 03Z without 80 meters.

After the CWT, I took down a very dewy fishing pole in the dark. I'm glad I was sitting under a roof.

(End of ham radio content. Skip the rest if you're not interested in bicycle touring or Wisconsin scenery.)

Thursday's route back to Readstown followed the Kickapoo Valley all the way. On the average, it's downhill, but there are some challenging hills where the road cuts off the river's meanders.

Kickapoo River Crossing

The old highway through the Kickapoo Valley Reserved is closed to motor vehicles, and a very nice ride. This part of the valley was to be flooded by a dam in the 70's, but the project was cancelled after the federal government acquired the land, so it became  reserve. (That's a very complicated story.)

Kickapoo River along abandoned Highway 131

(Just a week after the ride, heavy rains flooded the Kickapoo Valley, the river in the photo above rising some 5 meters/16 feet. The road there would have been way under water.)

Kickapoo Valley Reserve

Last Bridge in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve
(Note shadow of fishing pole by bike.)

Kickapoo River Valley near Readstown