Got things working well enough for this test but it was a struggle with 4 trips up the tower over the last three weeks. Why does this stuff all suddenly go to pot when it’s cold! It’s been really cold even by Midwest standards but we have had a FEW "warmer" (but very windy) tower days slightly above freezing unlike Jan 6th when we had -20F and wind chills around -45F!  Still have a single ant on 432 (the other has a feed problem and is impossible to reach without taking the antenna down) and the rotor loops had to be replaced on 432 and 1296 temporarily with LMR-400. The 902/3 preamp is still waiting on parts from SSB. The new 6M array tower with dual gearboxes using heavy oil doesn't like to turn in the cold so I added some heat trace. The old 11el 6M pair needed a reworked connector after the inner insulator broke loose and the pin retracted in the extreme cold breaking contact. Of course it was right up at the power divider - it’s never easy. 

Went to do a "routine" rotor burnish on the DC motor for the main tower since a little oil leaks from the gearbox into the motor and the brushes carbon arc. This usually occurs during the 90-100F degree hot weather but I could hear it arcing on 6M as I was turning the antennas. Carbon buildup will cause it to slow down and it sometimes quits altogether, so a little PM before the contest was indicated. The rotor is at 80 feet and when I unscrewed a brush plug I suddenly discovered the motor had water in it.  First time for everything!  It evidently got in after the cold weather broke and the subsequent thaw was accompanied by a torrential wind driven rain. While I'm certainly thankful it didn't ice up like further north and east, that oily water sure was fun to deal with! 

However I apparently didn't clip one brush spring clip all the way in when I cleaned the motor out because Friday morning before the contest the rotor quit working. We had stuff to do in the afternoon (it’s never politically correct to change N2KMA's schedule when ham radio is involved) so I had to go up in the morning after it warmed up from -2F to 12F but still with 20mph winds and a wind chill of -5F.  I managed to get it back in place but there no way to do it with gloves on much to the detriment of my fingers that were bit by the extremely cold metal. Only had my gloves off for maybe 5 min but a couple of finger tips blistered up by Sunday making my CW even worse than usual! They will hurt for a while I think. All that for sucky conditions and 125K. Tell me again why I still do this?

Wind driven snow here all day Saturday and conditions were equally dismal. The day was very slow and not much exciting happened except working VA3ZV at 400 miles on the bottom four and hearing him on 1296. Unfortunately he could not hear me which seemed to be a recurring theme on 1296 throughout the contest. 432 and above was subdued in most directions.

The local Chicago rovers stayed home in droves and only a few of the stalwart Minnesota Wisconsin and Iowa rovers were on the road. Luckily 3 of them were in range the whole contest but we were less than successful for the most part on bands above 432. Bright spot was KC0SKM/R with N0LNO had 2304 working (but not 903 or 1296) and we worked 7 out of my 8 2304 QSOs over the two days.  AC0RA/R and W9FZ/R worked 4 bands in every grid they visited. WSJT Ms was good at night and in the morning and I worked almost all of my skeds as well as a few randoms.  My sked with K0AWU in EN37 went particularly well and we worked on CW up to 222 then on JT-65B on 432 in record time.

Sunday morning was warmer and conditions improved to about January normal. KC0SKM/R gave me 2304 from my own grid for the first time ever! There are is only one station within 100 miles of me that even has 2304 and he doesn’t get on much anymore. There are two with 3456 and maybe a half dozen with 902/3 or 1296 so I rely heavily on the rovers to work those bands, but with the advent of limited rover fewer have them anymore. KC0SKM/R was only a few miles north of me so they stopped over for a cup of coffee before proceeding to the next grid.

As the day progressed the bands got better but participation took a noticeable drop once the football games came on. Found K5PJR on 2M in EM37 360 miles away and he told me 1296 was his only other band. We tried and I heard his 200W right away. It took several tries for him to hear my 40W, but he finally did! Worked W5MRB in EM35 on 2M CW right after him at 478 miles. Unfortunately the Kansas City boys were napping and I never heard another soul in that direction all contest.

No Es but 6M ionoscatter seemed up in the morning too. I worked several stations, but there must have been 10 stations on CW between 50.098 and 099 so even 250Hz filters could not separate them and KW stations in the Chicago area were all but drowning them out. One trip to 50.150 yielded W4NH in EM84 then W1XX and W1JJ both in FN41 before I even worked the station I had QSY’d there.

The evening added quite a few more multipliers to the log. Wrapped up all 3 rovers in their last grids and just about all of them were multipliers.  As usual the last hour was slow going, but I finally found N4QWZ in EM66 the last few minutes at 410 miles to work two bands and mults before time was up. 

73 de Bob2 K2DRH