For June VHF this year, I decided to put EN20 on the air (after my previous failure) due to its relatively rare status for being a midwest grid as reported by FFMA chasers. My plan for this contest was to use my general setup from previous roves including my 25 foot drive-on mast, 6m Moxon, and 2m five element yagi from the Indian Cave State Park campsite. The campsite had partial hookups (electricity) which meant I could operate 100W and not have to worry about batteries or a generator. Additionally, the campsite I chose, site 26, was on a hillside looking to the west which made me hopeful that I could still have an elevation advantage in at least one direction.

After discussing my plans with my friend Joe, KD0JWD, he mentioned he was interested in coming along to test out his go box on HF. He operated under his callsign strictly on HF while I focused on the contest. Since it was a state park, we were also able to count as a POTA for US-2619 (Joe’s first POTA too!).

In terms of the site, we had a nice pop-up canopy with a park-provided picnic table plus another table Joe brought. This put us back-to-back to minimize sound interference between us; however, we quickly found the RFI to be an issue. Originally I had my drive-on mast under his back tire and he put his large homemade magmount on the hood of his car with a 20m hamstick-style antenna. With the antennas so close, when either of us transmitted, it severely desensitized the other’s receiver. We then decided to move the magmount antenna onto the iron campfire ring/grill which gave a bit more distance although we did still have desense issues particularly for Joe on 20m.

In terms of operation, Joe made around 50 QSOs, mostly on 20m plus the few he made with me on 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 915 MHz for my contest log. He also attempted some satellite contacts, but we didn’t have a great horizon in the direction we needed to.

On my end, Saturday was a struggle. 6m never really opened anywhere on Saturday, so I ended the day with something like 10 QSOs (including those with Joe). Sunday, however, was much better! Fairly early in the morning 6m opened out east to the FN and FM grids, and I was able to make plenty of contacts on FT8 and SSB.  I also made a few FT8 2m contacts to some hams just south of me. I had advertised my operation ahead of time to the FFMA groups.io list, and I was able to get at least one sked to workout which is always nice! We had to be out of the campsite in the early afternoon Sunday, so I got less than 24 hours of operating (minus sleep and the storm that rolled too).

My final claimed score breakdown was 5,800, with 50 multipliers, 116 QSO points, and 112 contacts. My goal was never to be competitive in the contest and just focus on giving out the grid, so I was good with that, but my score was certainly modest!

In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with this one as it was a chance to help get a grid on the air, hangout with a friend while we camped, and fill-in for the fact that I wasn’t going to participate in Field Day this year in a portable operation. Indian Cave State Park was quite nice too; the shower house was nice and clean, the grounds were well kept, and site 26 which we used was great for ham radio ops. The Nebraska State Parks are a bit expensive with car pass + camping fees, but I at least feel like they use it well.