N9UM/R in summary... 3 days, 985 miles, 14 grids, 8 bands, 0 degree temperatures, 898 QSO's and 270,720 pts.

This was an event which we had planned for just under a year. John and I were thrilled with our 91,200 point effort with 5 bands in the Jan. 2002 contest and we vowed to improve our station and the overall effort. We learned many things in our first ever effort in the rover category in 2002 and implemented those changes in 2003 for our second effort. Rover is a challenging category with the ever changing variables such as weather, conditions, participation and don't forget the rover vehicle itself. We were very lucky to have good weather for all three days and a vehicle that did not have any mechanical issues....$100 in fuel in three days is another story! I never imagined the amount of wind load 5 yagis, a 6m loop, 2m loop and 2 mag mounts would produce.

A few weeks before the contest started, N9REP and KF9US decided that they would be joining us for some dueling rover action. At the time, we did not know that they were also planning 8 bands and possibly 10GHz. We knew that we had a challenge on our hands. The good news is that it was a challenge and that both rovers rose to the occasion.

Both rovers drove to Springfield, IL and spent the night on Friday to reduce the amount of driving on Saturday. On Saturday, we left the hotel about 1130 for a 1230 arrival at the corner of EM59/58/49/48. When the contest started it was chaos. The St. Louis hams turned out in full force for the event. The amount of active stations was amazing. We missed our schedule badly and did not leave the St. Louis area until a little after 4pm. We left the St. Louis area with 150 Q's in 3 hours and we were not able to work the other rover in all the grids as it was so busy. A rate of almost 1 QSO/min for 3 hours in a VHF contest is amazing. THANKS TO THE ST. LOUIS AND S. ILLINOIS HAMS!!

We left and traveled to Champaign and stopped in EN 50 and EN60 on overpasses and worked what we could hear. Of course, KX9X, N2BJ, and WB9Z were loud and we worked what else we could hear. We were so far behind schedule that we only stopped for a few minutes at a time on overpasses as activity was heard. We worked a lot of people while we were running 70MPH on the interstate so thanks to those who struggled with us as we were rolling.

We kept pushing on and rolled into Elk Grove a little after 9pm on Sat night at the corner of EN52/62/51/61. The amount of activity in Elk Grove was fantastic. K9TMS/R, AB9DO/R, N9OH/R, WB8BZK/R, N9UM/R, KB9LNE/R and KF9US/R all there shortly after we arrived. This was a great time. The police stopped by a few times to see what was happening and they were cool with us. One officer and I had a nice chat about amateur radio and he was truly interested. We retired on Sat night with 440 Q's in the log with the last QSO at 0645Z.

On Sunday Morning, K9IJ rolled into my driveway at 1345Z and we took off for Sheboygan (actually Keil, WI). On our way up there we stopped on some overpasses and worked stations. We stopped in Gurnee, IL in the Menards parking lot and worked WB9SNR up through 1296. The 903 QSO was interrupted by a telephone call. This call was not on our cell phone, but right on 903.100. We managed through the QRM to finish the QSO as WB9SNR was plenty loud.

We arrived at the corner of EN64/54/63/53 a little before 11am. We pulled into a field in EN64 which went upward and drove up to the top of this hill. We had a great view to the south and west and pretty good to the east and north. We fired up the 2304 gear and killer antenna(actually a coffee can) and worked ND9Z through 2304 and worked K2YAZ up to 1296 but no luck on 2304.

We moved to EN54 and found a location at the peak of one of the hills and pulled into a driveway only to find a truck with a small 2m beam and a few mag mounts. His name was Todd and he and his wife are aspiring hams. They had the gear and the antennas, just not the license. I didn't ask anything else nor do I want to know anything else about their operating or non operating up there. Anyway, Todd let us sit in his driveway and work stations.

We did a full rover "dance" with KF9US on 7 bands in the four corners up north. We finished up there and there it was, BANG. Six meters was booming to W1,W2 and VE1. We took off for Milwaukee when the band was open. There is nothing better than for a rover to be able to work Q's, mults and be moving to the next spot. We picked up 12 mults on that little opening and heard 4 land, but didn't work any south Q's. As the band was dying, we arrived just north on Milwaukee and found a park which was on the edge of the lake and had some good elevation. We parked there only to find out we were in a fee area and the "ranger" ran us out of the park. We had been CQ'ing on 2m looking for MI and OH for awhile and did not raise anyone so all for the best.

We ran through Milwaukee and went west on 94 and then south on 894 around the city. This gave us EN63/53/52 and then back into 62 when we were south of Milwaukee. W9GA and others worked us on the fly all the way up to 1296. The swing through the Milwaukee grids only took about 30 additional minutes and yielded several additional Q's. I am still calculating the QSO's with the WI stations, but they were out in full force just like the St. Louis gang. THANKS TO THE WI HAMS and BC'ERS FOR ALL THE QSO'S.

We came back down I-94 and stopped at Nichol's Knoll in Arlington Heights. The police came by to say hi and ask if we were with those guys from yesterday. I'm assuming it was K0PG and K9ILT so we agreed. We hung out at Nichol's for a while and the activity was amazing. 223.500 was so busy that we had to turn the volume down to concentrate on the other bands. We stayed there until we had taken all the fish out of the sea and then went to Palatine in EN52 for the finish. We ran everything we could hear and K9JK/R out on a few bands helping out the contesters. (We need more part time rovers for everyone!) We ran across our rover partners about 9pm and we went over to Cary, IL to join them. This is where the best QSO out of all 898 was made. A modulated CW QSO on 650nM. LIGHT is a band and we worked our laser pointer QSO. This was very cool. After the laser QSO, WW8M, popped up and we added 3 more mults quickly right at the end of the test.

The contest was now over and we were exhausted. The computer log was showing an unbelievable score of over 300,000 points which we knew had to be edited and corrected. There were 4 logging mistakes. 4 mistakes out of 898 QSO and most logged with my right hand as I drove with my left leg and operated 2/440 FM with my left hand is not too bad!!! The 14 mults for activating was user error and has been corrected. As I mentioned at the top of this article, rover has its' own challenges.

This was a remarkable activity year. I have been participating in this contest since Sept 1995 and this is by far the most activity I have ever heard. Everyone's scores seem to reflect great participation and many personal bests. Now, let's get some new rovers and new blood to start playing on VHF/UHF as the solar cycle changes and HF starts to degrade. I would like to count the number of 6m or 2m all-modes in the SMC group. I bet the numbers are amazing!!!! Several SMC'ers contacted me either via email or during the contest and told me this was their first effort on VHF/UHF... Let's not make it your last!!!! N9GUN got to work us on a cross mode QSO, which was his first ever. He was excited!

A special thanks to Wendell N9REP and Phil KF9US for their efforts. They are the main reason that I am able to write such great things about our rover effort. Their scores will be published shortly and they did a fantastic job. My hat is off to KF9US/R. Both rovers shattered the existing Central Division Rover Record under the rover scoring rules which was established in 1993 or 1994. The January record was 174,873 set by KE9QT (now W9FZ) however it was in 1993 and the ARRL cannot confirm when the rules changed. The June rover record was 369,188 set in 1991 by KE9QT as well. This is clearly before the rover rules changed. It appears that both rovers set new Central Division rover records for Jan VHF/UHF and may have set a record for any of the VHF/UHF contests as a Central Division Rover. We will leave that up to the ARRL.

Thank you to all of you who either got on, offered support, and/or offered equipment (w9ga for 2304!) This truly was a remarkable contest!