BARS March Madness

Saturday, 16 March, 5:30 am CDT, Debbie KC9ULA and I KO0Z awoke took a shower. loaded up the van with our 10 GHz equipment and hit the road to meet Herbert AF4JF and Rich N0PQU at the SSM Health Facility parking lot at  Hwy 94 and Kisker Road by 9:00 am.  The day started off with a low of 27 degrees in Girard, but by afternoon the sunny skies produced a high in the low 50s.  The blue, sunny skies did a lot to rid us of cabin fever.

Armed with coffee and enthusiasm, we proceeded westward on MO Hwy 94 towards Herman, MO and Stone Hill Winery for our April BARS brunch, but not before stopping along the way to check out potential uW contest sites.  Our basic plan is to have one team on the north side of the Missouri River (Hwy 94) and the other team on the south side of the river (Hwy 100).

 We determined that we could easily make a two-way QSO from Defiance across the bottoms to start off the contest.  Our next site was Klondike Park EM48no and somewhere near the Labadie power plant side (EM48nm).  Continuing west, the next potential uW site is Dutzow or Washington Regional Airport (EM48mo) and the Washington, MO riverfront (EM48ln).

From there, New Haven has a water tower and cemetery location that looks promising (EM48jo).  On the north side of the MO River is Treloar (EM48jp).  It's not too far to Herman from there.

Besides Stone Hill Winery's parking lot, we discovered an open lot on top of a hill with a splendid view of the MO River looking northeast.  The team on the northside of the MO River would need to find a spot southeast of Herman.

The return leg of the trip home was taken along Hwy 100 to check out the south side of the river.

At Stone Hill Winery's Vintage Restaurant we had a delightful, delicious lunch and German chocolate cake for dessert.  We also made the 12 mile trek south of Herman along Hwy 19 to Swiss, MO and Swiss Meats for their brats!

We both brought our 10 GHz rigs, but we didn't try to make any contacts.  On the return leg home to Illinois, I stopped behind St. Robert's Catholic Church along the Hwy 94 and I-70 intersection to listen for the WB9PNU/b.  This is the first time in 2019 that I fired up my rig and the new GPS disciplined 10 MHz OCXO is working!  I heard the beacon, full scale and at 10, 369,900.5 MHz around 5:30 pm.  The telemetry indicated that the beacon has an output of 1.35 watts, 12.94 VDC, and enclosure temp of 62.7 F and a PA temp varying between 80.4 and 86.3 F.

All in all, a very delightful day.  It will be fun to actually check out these uW sites for QSOs.

                       Rich N0PQU taking in the northeast vista from Stone Hill Winery's parking lot.

                                                   Looking northeast from Stone Hill Winery.

       Debbie KC9ULA, Herbert AF4JF and Rich N0PQU waiting for lunch at Stone Hill's Vintage German restaurant.

                                                                  Debbie KC9ULA

                                          Delicious, very yummy German chocolate cake!

 
                                                    Herbert AF4JF enjoying the cake!

                                    Another view of the Herman valley looking northeast

                                 A great potential uW site in New Haven, MO looking northeast

               The New Haven, MO water tower looking northeast.  The MO River valley is visible beween the right flag pole and the power line pole.

                                Ron KO0Z listening to the WB9PNU/b.  It is still alive and well after 9 plus years of 27/7 continuous duty!