A detour this year to EM28. Had originally planned to operate portable in EM18 at
the 'Pens, but our son's wife (high risk pregnancy with twins at bed rest)
needed us so my wife and I went to KC Saturday. Stayed in Lawrence that night
and I went out on a chilly Sunday morning to a high hilltop west of Lawrence a mile
south of I-70 near Lecompton, KS. It was snowing and 9 deg F when I set up the
2 el. 6M yagi on a mast tied to a post. Radio FT-817 and operated outside the car to be able to move the yagi around. Logged my friend Larry
N0LL in em09 on 6M, then K0HA en10 and KC0CF en32 Iowa. Their signals sounded
auroral at times, perhaps due to snow scatter. Oddly they peaked east of direct bearing.  The geomagnetic field was quiet.
Heard K5QE, W4CKD, W4NH and K9OIM with good signals on 6M meteor scatter. K5QE
peaked over S-9 for a minute, I called and got a reply, but signals dropped
before we finished. With 10 watts it takes a "blue whizzer" meteor burn to
complete a scatter contact. On 2M I used a 5/8 wave mag. mount whip. Worked
Greg, WQ0P in em19 with it at 1519 utc. Greg suggested trying 432 MHz, went up
there and we worked! Also picked up K0YEQ in EM29 on 70 cm. Four more QSO
points and two grid mults in 5 minutes!  By 1600 utc I started getting really cold, activity on the bands had quieted down, so tore down and packed it up.