2021 Road Trip - Update 57: EN67 Activation Complete - September 5, 2021 2350UTC

Today's operating location was amazing.  See the photos below.  I spent most of the 6 hours of activation time walking around outside, watching the stars before sunrise, watching the Ore Carriers on the lake and enjoying the cold wind on the Lake.  Every minute I had to return to look in the truck door and do something.   Another benefit of no Internet chat.

The location was on the "wild coast" of Lake Superior.  I will post photos on http://ka6u.blogspot.com

The EN67 log is uploaded and confirmed in LoTW.  Thank-you for the 62 QSOs completed.   I noticed today that signals were spread out well and there were only 2 cases where I had to wait for Doppler's help.

EN66 tomorrow morning is confirmed

EN66QK12IW - Moonrise 1030UTC September 6, 2021.  2M EME 144.132 2nd JT65B.  I plan to be QRV until at least 1600UTC if required.  (New Moon)

As you noticed I did not have an Internet connection at this location.  It was nice to not be on chat but still able to connect with almost everyone.  

I am planning the EN66 activation in the morning.  I don't know how quiet the location will be.  Hopefully we will be ok.

I verified that I have Internet access at the site.

Today the drive to and from the activation site took about 90 minutes at 2:00 AM local time because I needed to drive slow to avoid hitting Moose and deer.  I did see two good size deer who were thinking about jumping in front of me.  My loud truck horn chased them back to the woods.  The drive back in daylight took 60 minutes.  Tomorrows drive is only 15 minutes.

EN67 Log uploaded to LoTW

During the operations today a few stations kept calling me after their QSOs were complete.  I received their RO and sent RRR.  If they receive RRR the QSO is complete.  I always wait for a 73 from the caller to verify that the RRR was received.  If I don't receive the 73 I send RRR again.  This almost never happens.

I suspect the callers were waiting for me to send 73 to confirm receiving their 73?  I don't do this.

I think maybe we depend too much on chat to "confirm" completion of QSOs that have already been confirmed as completed by the exchanged messages.

Eventually I was able to send messages using special messages off the moon so they would stop calling, but I waited to send those messages until there were no other callers.

Background on Operation Location

I visited this area for the first time 50 years ago while camping in Northern Michigan.  It was nice to return this week.  I will be re-visiting locations all across the Upper Pennisula in the next week, and also doing some radio.

This is view from the "beach" just below the station location.  The location is about 15km South of the tip of the Keweenaw Peninnsula.  Wind speed was about 20 knots with stronger gusts.  Air temperature about 8C.   The fresh water in Lake Superior is very clean.  The red color in the rocks is iron-oxide (rust).  The iron-oxide is bound into minerals in the rocks so it doesn't have the texture of rust, just the color.

The photo below is one of the many iron ore freighters that run on the Great Lakes.  These shallow draft ships take iron ore to Duluth Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit and Windsor Ontario.  The iron ore in Michigan is some of the highest quality in the world, as much as 60% iron.  The iron content is so high it can be put directly into the smelting process without any pre-processing.  

During the winter ice breakers keep lanes open in the lakes.  This ship was loaded about 5km North of the operation location.  I watched it come out of the port at sunrise and the ship chose to turn left to go to Duluth, MN where I did an activation last week.  

When I was 10 years old living in Detroit, Michigan we would go down to river connecting Lake Huron to the Detroit River to watch a continuous line of ships delivering iron ore and other components of the iron smelting process.  In those days the Detroit Automakers had giant steel mills used to make steel for most of the cars built in the US during the 1960's and early 1970's.

I arrived at the location at 3:00 AM local time to setup the station.  It was extremely dark.  This photo was taken about 4 hours after starting.

This is a time exposure taken at Moonrise.  The small crescent Moon needed some help to provide enough light for the scene.  The trees and antennas were moving significantly in the wind.  I was wearing a down jacket and wool hat when outside.  It was cold!