Mike, WB8BZK, and I got together to do another of what I am calling Limited, Economical, Run 'n Gun Roves, as we did in last September's VHF QSO Party from Northeastern Ohio, through Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana. This year's route was just Missouri and Illinois and less driving than last year but still over 1000 miles total. The "economical" part is that we used a reasonably economical vehicle, a Toyota Corolla that I call the CoROVERolla when outfitted for Roving. Part of the draw to Missouri was from W9FZ's promotion of "Midwest Mania" (now in its third year, see http://www.w9fz.com/midwestmania11/ for more info) where Bruce has been encouraging/supporting activity in the Midwest Division of the ARRL for the September contest. Since Mike's and my operating in the Midwest Division was primarily on Saturday, I am calling OUR part of that just "Midwest Ma".

We headed down to the St. Louis area (actually Collinsville, IL) on Friday evening, then continued from there Saturday morning (after setting up the antennas on the CoROVERolla in the parking area of the hotel), to just E of Joplin, MO. We travelled west/southwest along I-44 to Missouri Route 97 to get to the EM26/27/36/37 Grid Corner and didn't end arriving at the corner until just before 1845Z. Thanks to K0LAF and W5KI for finding us while we were still mobile in EM37 just after the start of the contest. Further thanks to W5KI for looking for us as we got to the grid corner and completed QSOs on two bands from each of the grids around corner. Thanks also to N0MST and W0JRP for multiple QSOs and to W6ZI for a QSO with OK on 144.

From that Grid Corner east of Joplin, we headed back to the east (or ENE/NE) along I-44 with a side trip to what LOOKED like should have been a nice place for VHF Radio toward the eastern end of the south edge of EM38, relatively high in elevation BUT...we found NO ONE to work from there, and Mike definitely was CQing and tuning the bands, shown in one of the pictures. (That's actually a 17th Grid that we visited but, without a contact made from there, it's not an "activation".)

Departing EM38, we came back through the northeast corner of EM37 and found two additional stations to work from there, N5QYC and W0RT, and both with path lengths of > 200 km (so AT LEAST we knew it wasn't total equipment failure that kept us from working anyone from EM38 :-). Could those clouds in the picture have had something to do with the propagation?

Moving on from EM37, we got back on I-44, which passes through the northwest corner of EM47 near Rolla. We briefly exited I-44 to stop at what looked like some high ground to the NE of Rolla. That is where we first encountered AB0RX who was set up near Missouri's highest point, Taum Sauk Mountain (also in EM47). It was fortunate that we found AB0RX from there as QSOs on three bands with him were our ONLY QSOs from that grid (or it would have been another "visit but no credit" grid). That is also where the Sunset picture was taken.

Getting back on I-44, we were next in EM48, pretty much traversing the diagonal of that Grid from the SW corner into the St. Louis area). We completed QSOs with AB0RX on the three bands from our 'new' grid, while mobile, and found some additional activity (QSOs completed with K0DOK, W0FY and WA0CNS) as we approached St. Louis but sure would have liked more. We stopped for the night in Fenton, MO.

When we arose Sunday morning, we continued on I-44 into St. Louis to link up with I-55 & I-70 and crossed the mighty Mississippi to Illinois and made the first of our QSOs with K2DRH actually while mobile and ON the bridge but just on two bands.

In Illinois we headed north to yet another Grid Corner, this time EM48/49/58/59 and were looking for folks to work. We caught a few stations INCLUDING AB0RX AND K2DRH from the EM49, EM58 and EM59 spots so that brought us to FIVE Grids worked with AB0RX (times three bands and these QSOs over path lengths of about 175km) and it was now up to FOUR Grids with K2DRH over paths of approximately 300 km (but more to come, see below). We also made a QSO on 144 with W9RVG from EM59aa that was about a 200 km path.

From there, we worked our way home toward Chicago via the EM59/69/EN50/60 Grid Corner just SE of Champaign/Urbana which also got us to within range of W9SZ's QRP portable set-up and we appreciated the QSOs with Zack as well. Oh, and we made additional QSOs with K2DRH.

We visited the EN50/51/60/61 Grid Corner next and linked up with WZ8T in EN72 for three bands from EN50 and one band from EN51 before a quick stop at N9LAH's QTH (just ESE of that corner) for some frozen treats and we made some QSOs with Phil, too (Thanks Phil! - you were our only QSOs with EN60 and the treats were good, too). Did I forget to mention that we worked K2DRH from the two new ones here? Lloyd, N9LB, found us here, too.

The end of the trip brought Mike and me to our "home stomping grounds", near the EN51/52/61/62 Grid Corner where we made a stop to be able to revisit EN51 (where we first linked up with W9SNR/R but also N9UM) AND activate EN52 (QSOs completed with W9EWZ, W9GA and others) before continuing to another local favorite spot in EN62. We remained there for our final hour of operating which actually was fairly busy with 25 QSOs (including the first ones with N9BT, N9TF, W6Q and WB9MXX). That was the highest from any of the Grids we visited but we decided to wrap it up at 0215Z since it seemed unlikely that we'd find any additional stations to work.

QSOs with K2DRH were definitely a high point of the Sunday part of this rove trip...we ended up making THIRTY-THREE total contacts with Bob2 from the ELEVEN grids that we visited on Sunday, Nine Grids times three bands (50, 144 and 222), 1 Grid (EM48) by only 2 bands (50 & 144) and, thanks to Bob2 being able to hear our puny weak signal possibly helped by the location being a relatively high spot and him having enough power and antenna gain for us to hear his signal on 432, from EN62 on all 4 bands.

Actual Grids from which contacts were made: EM26, EM37, EM36, EM37, EM47, EM48, EM49, EM58, EM59, EM69, EN50, EN51, EN52, EN60, EN61, EN62.

The Grids that we contacted ended up being one less than we visited: EM26, EM27, EM36, EM37, EM47, EM48, EM57, EN41, EN50, EN52, EN53, EN60, EN61, EN62 and EN72.

25 different stations were worked: AB0RX, K0DOK, K0LAF, K2DRH, N0MST, N5QYC, N9BT, N9LAH, N9LB, N9TF, N9UM, W0FY, W0JRP, W0RT, W5KI, W6Q, W6ZI, W9EWZ, W9GA, W9RVG, W9SNR/R, W9SZ, WA0CNS, WB9MXX and WZ8T.

All antennas were omnidirectional (KB6KQ Loops for 50 and 144 MHz, KU4AB Loops for 222 and 432 MHz) as the primary modus operandi was "run 'n gun" which is what it took to be able to cover that many Grids. We found our 432 set-up to not be working well which, post contest, appears to have been a broken antenna.

And it was ME (John, K9JK) who forgot to bring the telegraph key so we were not even able to TRY sending CW.

As most everyone seems to be reporting (3830 and reflectors), it was also our experience that activity seemed light and conditions sub-optimal. We did not encounter any significant propagation that we were able to exploit to our advantage though we heard reports that there was Au on Saturday (though we were south of 39 degrees during all of Saturday and with omni antennas, it was not likely that we could have made Qs via Au even if it DID come that far south). We briefly heard K5QE on 50 MHz (and loud!) just before 1600Z on Sunday while we were in EM49 and called them; we did hear a QRZ which could have been for us (or could have been for another station) and tried again but the signal faded away before any QSO could be completed.

#1 GOAL was to have fun and that WAS accomplished!

Thanks to the ARRL for sponsoring and to ALL who participated in the September VHF QSO Party, especially to those 25 stations who did the "heavy lifting" with their antennas to hear our "weak one" signals (PARTICULARLY on 432 MHz!) and complete QSOs with us.

NOW for the SVHFS Fall VHF & Up Sprints!

73, JK