This year, I decided to deviate from my normal West Coast roves and try something different. Wednesday evening, with the rover packed, I started driving east hoping to start the contest east of Denver near the Oklahoma and Kansas border.

Saturday morning, four hours before the contest started, I found myself a few miles west of Topeka near the grid corner of EMs 29, 28, 19, and 18. Quickly surveying the area three fairly good operating locations were found. The wind was just starting to pick up and I was able to use most of my telescoping mast height. Six meters was dead when the contest started, but local action on the 144 and 432 MHz provided some contacts. By the afternoon, 50 MHz had opened to both coasts. During the long QSB fades I would pop back up on the higher bands to pick up locals.

Started my rove back towards the west before dark and by Sunday morning, I was 350 miles further west along the Kansas and Colorado border, near Mount Sunflower. (the highest spot in KS, which appears to be only 20' higher than the surrounding countryside). Winds were now gusting between 30 - 40 mph and I had problems just raising my mast. Thankfully 50 MHz wasn't affected by the wind!  I worked stations from every corner of North America. That lasted till early evening when the band dropped out completely. Could hear the Denver area stations on the higher bands, but I was never able to work any of them. With dust everywhere, biting flies, and the non-stop gusty winds, I ended my rove early.

One big mistake to my pre-planning was to only bring along a 220 MHz FM rig. As it turned out, most 220 operators in the Midwest seem to only work SSB or CW. Final tally puts me about 40K short of last year's score, but all in all I had a great time. While I could have done without the gusty winds I had no trouble finding operating locations with unblocked 360° views.