WWV and WW0WWV 2019

Travelogue: WWV Centennial, 2019

By Roger W. Reini

By day:
September: 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
October: 1 2

This is the story of a trip to Colorado and other places in September and October 2019.

Prologue

The main purpose of this trip was for my uncle Bill, K8WA, and I, KD8CSE, to go to Fort Collins, Colorado to help operate an Amateur Radio special event station,WW0WWV. The special event was the 100th anniversary of radio station WWV, which was founded on October 1, 1919. Though not well known to the public, WWV is well known to amateurs, shortwave listeners, and scientists. It’s a standard time and frequency station. Its format, if you could call it that, is “The time — all of the time.”.

Fort Collins is about the same distance by car from Detroit as Houston, a distance easily drivable over three days. However, on the outbound trip, we would take more time and go out of the way to pass through North Dakota and Montana. I had been in these states before on the train, but my uncle had never been to them by train or car (flyovers don’t count).

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Monday September 23

Today, the trip would begin. I got up at 6 and did my normal web and e-mail checks before getting going around 6:45. I needed to finish packing, which I did, and then bring the bags downstairs, which I also did. For breakfast, I prepared two slices of toast, which was part of my usual breakfast. I ate it while watching a repeat of The Lone Ranger on the FETV network.

My uncle Bill arrived around 8:45, and we loaded the car with my things. They included n amateur radio transceiver and antenna but did not include my DSLR camera. Any pictures that I look on this trip would be with my iPhone Xs Max. Shortly before 9, we pulled out of my driveway. The trip was on!

We headed west on Ford Road through Canton Township to take M-14 around Ann Arbor. There was a slowdown where M-14 met US 23, but that was for traffic turning south onto 23. From there, traffic was good on the rest of M-14 and onto I-94. We listened to various NPR stations along the way; we’d do this for much of the trip (no satellite radio available in the car).

Bill did not want to drive on I-80/94 in the Chicago area, and I didn’t really blame him. That Chicago traffic can be brutal. We took the exit from I-94 for Chesterton and found a place to have lunch: the Round-the-Clock restaurant in Chesterton. It turned out we both had the same meal: a hot turkey sandwich and a cup of chicken noodle soup. It was pretty good. And then we made our way to US 30, which followed the route of the old Lincoln Highway around town. While Bill drove, I used my iPad to navigate. Sometimes I’d use Google Maps while connected to the Internet, but most of the time I used MAPS.ME, which used downloaded maps and thus could be used offline.

Now one of the things we planned to do on this trip was to attempt to contact WW0WWV. To do this, we’d have to power the transceiver from the vehicle. My uncle planned to fabricate a cable that would connect to my cable for powering the radio, but he needed some supplies. He wondered if we would be passing any electronics stores, specifically Fry’s Electronics. I said that there was a Fry’s in Downers Grove, and so we made our way there by surface streets, avoiding the tollways. It wasn’t the usual way I went there, but we made it there. He was looking for some fuses, and he found them, although they weren’t quite what he wanted, but they would do if necessary. Then we made our way to Roosevelt Road, which would turn into the Lincoln Highway west of town. While waiting to turn onto Roosevelt, we noticed an SUV with an amusing graphic: a cat was pointing to its food dish on the fuel filler door. It looked like Simon’s Cat from the cartoons of the same name.

With the unplanned stop at Fry’s, we were not going to drive as far as we would have wanted today. I used my iPad to make a reservation for a Hampton Inn in Madison, Wisconsin. By the time we’d reached Madison, the sun had set. We checked into room 110 and figured out what to do for supper. There wasn’t anything really near the hotel, but we did decide on a Noodles & Company some 2 miles away. This was Bill’s first time to one, though I’d been to them many times. He was impressed with his meal bowl, and I’d liked the bowl I’d gotten as well. Then it was back to the hotel to rest for the evening.

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Tuesday September 24

I woke up around 6 and did my normal web checks, while Bill got up around 7. After we got dressed, we went up to the lobby for breakfast. Yes, I said we went up to the lobby. The way the hotel was built, the lobby and main entrance was on the second floor, while our room was on the first floor. The hotel was also hard to get into and out of from the road it was on. Hampton Inn’s breakfast was its usual very good self.

We set off after 8 o’clock, heading up US 12 to join I-94. We drove onward, listening to Wisconsin Public Radio and its frequent pledge drive break-ins for most of the way. At one point, we stopped for gas at a BP station located near an Indian casino. Eventually, we reached Minnesota and stopped at the welcome center, officially known as the St. Croix Travel Information Center. Now with a name like that, you might think they would carry travel literature on St. Croix and the other Virgin Islands, ha ha. But no, all it had was travel information on Minnesota, or “Minne-snowta” as the DJ Phlash Phelps likes to call it.

Bill’s older sister Jean lived in Minneapolis; we would be visiting her and ultimately staying the night with her. On the way to her house, Bill wanted to visit a NAPA auto parts store close to her house to look for more appropriate fuses for the power cable project. He entered the address into his old GPS navigation device. Unfortunately, he’d entered a similar but incorrect version of the address several miles away from the true location, near the university area. We searched for it for several minutes but couldn’t find it, and we had a lot of trouble navigating blocked streets. He gave up, and we drove to his sister’s house. Jean welcomed us, as did her poodles Lucy and Jessie, although they did so far more vocally (i.e., they barked a lot).

After resting for a bit, we all went to a nearby Applebee’s for lunch. While Bill and Jean had salads, I was a big hungrier and had a Bourbon Street Chicken and Shrimp Skillet, which I enjoyed. Afterwards, we went to that NAPA Auto Parts store we tried to find earlier. It was indeed close to Jean’s house, like Bill had thought. That’s when he figured he must have used an incorrect but confusingly similar address earlier. By the way, they didn’t have the exact fuses he was looking for, so he got some fuses that would work, though not optimally. Back at the house, I got to know the dogs better. There were a few times when they were both in my lap at the same time. The weather radio alarm went off several times, as there was severe weather in the area. Fortunately, the severe weather stayed south of the Twin Cities; I don’t think it even rained.

When suppertime came around, we went to a place called 50’s Grill. It was a 50’s-themed restaurant, of course, specializing in comfort foot. I had a patty melt sandwich, but it was a bit much for me; I couldn’t finish it. Back at the house, we prepared for bed. Bill would sleep on the couch, while I would sleep on a bed in the basement. I had to set up my MiFi hotspot upstairs, for it didn’t receive anything in the basement. Bill and Jean watched that night’s episode of Country Music (part 7), but I passed because I wanted to see them in sequence. Instead, I started watching part 5 from Sunday night (I wouldn’t finish it until I got home). When I got sleepy, it was time for bed.

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Wednesday September 25

There was a bathroom in the basement; I kept a light on in the utility room in case I needed to use it, which I did. I got up for good that day at 6:07 (so said my iPad) and did my web checks. Around 7, I started packing my things, going upstairs at 7:20. I didn’t really feel like breakfast; all I had was orange juice. Lucy the dog was being photogenic this morning, looking out the window sometimes; I took some pictures of her.

It was after 8:30 when we left; most of the rush hour traffic was gone. Bill wanted to stop at a Walmart, so we drove out through Brooklyn Center where we knew there was one, but we didn’t see it. Since we were bound to see another one later, we continued on to I-94 and out of the area. We had Minnesota Public Radio’s news station on; much of the news dealt with the ramping up of impeachment inquiries in light of the State Department whistleblower allegations against the president. We found a Walmart in Sauk Center and exited the freeway. As we made our way to the store, we weren’t sure where the entrance was. There was a turn-in, and Bill put his blinker on to turn, but it wasn’t the right one, so we kept going. Then an 18-wheeler in that turn-in decided to pull out right then. For a moment, I feared we might be slow-speed T-boned, but Bill swerved and/or sped up. Incident avoided! At the Walmart, he found the quarts of oil he was looking for.

We continued westwards towards North Dakota. At one point, Bill asked me to take over driving for a bit while he rested. I did, though I didn’t feel that comfortable behind the wheel of the minivan. I wasn’t used to the feel of the brake pedal, for one thing. But I took us across the state line into North Dakota and right to a Costco gas station in Fargo. I had a Costco membership, so why not use it to get gas there? I’d never done so before, but it was now a good time to start. I had a Costco cash card, but I had a hard time using it at the pump, as it was old and breaking into strips. But it eventually worked, and soon the tan was full. We then went to the McDonald’s across the street for lunch.

Bill took over behind the wheel again as we headed west across North Dakota. It was flat! Of course, I was used to flat landscapes; I grew up in one on the upper Texas coast. At a rest area, we picked up one of those coupon books for discount hotel offers. There was one for an America’s Best Value Inn in Bismarck, our targeted stop for the evening. The coupons had recently expired, though, but the prices found online weren’t much higher. I couldn’t complete a reservation online for some reason, though; the process either stalled or crashed with errors. We decided to take a chance and ask for a room when we got there.

Farther to the west, there was a rest area built to resemble an old-time gas station, complete with replica pumps for Red Crown gasoline. This was paying respect to North Dakota’s oil industry. Then we drove on to Bismarck. We were able to get a room at that America’s Best Value Inn, though not tor as good a price as the one in the coupon book. The room was comfortable enough, although there was a shortage of available plugs in the room for plugging in the chargers for all the devices we had with us. To guard against that, I’d packed a power trip in my suitcase, and I pulled it out and set it up.

When suppertime came around, we went to the nearby Perkins restaurant. I ordered from the senior menu and had some chicken fried steak. Then we went to Walmart to restock our supplies of snacks in the car (cookies and Wheat Thins for us). Then it was back to the hotel for us; time to rest.

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Thursday September 26

We were tired last night and needed our rest. I got up around 6:40 in the morning and did my usual e-mail and web checks, while Bill got up around 7:20 and took a shower. I intended to shave, but I couldn’t. The blade element on my OneBlade razor had broken and no longer shaved. Something had happened to it in the toiletry kit. I’d need a new blade.

We had the complimentary breakfast in the lobby. It was OK, though it wasn’t to the level of that available at Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express. Still, it sufficed. We packed, checked out, and got underway after 8:30. It was noticeably chilly this morning; I wore a jacket. We stopped in the town of Dickinson, North Dakota for some drinks. Bill got something at McDonald’s, but I didn’t want anything there, so we went tn a nearby Holiday gas station and convenience store, where I got a bottle of pop; I think it was Diet A&W root beer. My phone said it was 53 outside; I took a screenshot of that and posted it to Facebook, saying I didn’t believe the temperature. Well, it was accurate for North Dakota, but it wasn’t for Dickinson, Texas (it was 84 there).

As we drove westward, the terrain changed. It began to get rougher, more like badlands. In fact, we were driving in the badlands of North Dakota. A scenic overlook at a freeway rest area allowed us to get a pretty good look at the badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We considered stopping at the national park, but parts of the scenic drive inside the park were closed. It would have been too difficult to get to certain parts of the park, so we passed on a formal visit. But we got a taste of the park from that overlook. It reminded me of the South Dakota badlands, although these were greener. They were also chillier: with the cool temperatures and breezy conditions, I was shivering! The sights were wonderful, but I was glad to get back in the car and warm up.

The drive through the park on the freeway was very scenic and had a number of photo opportunities. Eventually, we reached the Montana state line. Now we weren’t sure how we wanted to go through Montana, not until I looked at the atlas and realized that one route possibility would take us near Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. That was worth seeing, so we would. The map showed a natural shortcut to get from I-94 to I-90 without going all the way to Billings, but the man at the Montana welcome center advised us to avoid it due to road construction; he suggested a different shortcut.

It started to rain west of the welcome center and in the Miles City area. It would rain off and on through Montana. We stopped at a rest area near Rosebud Creek and the Yellowstone River; according to the sign posted there, it had some connection with the Lewis and Clark expeditions. We made our way to Little Bighorn via the not-quite-so-shortcut, and then there we were Bill had a national park pass that enabled us to enter the monument without charge.

It was windy and chilly at Little Bighorn, and it rained occasionally. From the parking lot at the Visitor Center, I took some pictures of the national cemetery without going there, and then we went inside to check the exhibits there. We also saw a short video about the battle; it treated both sides with respect. In the gift shop, I saw a hoodie emblazoned with “Advice From a Buffalo.” I liked the design, and I thought my niece Heather would like it too (she really likes bison), so I got a hoodie for each of us. Then we drove a short distance to Last Stand Hill. Yes, this was the site of Custer’s Last Stand. There was a fenced-off field showing headstones where each of the soldiers had fallen; Custer’s had a black shield. Nobody was buried in that field; Custer was taken to West Point and buried there, while the others were buried in a common grave on the hill. There is a monument at that grave. We could have driven farther into the battlefield, but the park would be closing soon, and we still had some distance to go.

When we left Little Bighorn, we got onto I-90 and headed out of Montana and into Wyoming. Our destination was Sheridan and the Hampton Inn, but we wouldn’t go directly there. First, we would go to dinner at Qdoba Mexican Grill on the south side of town. I’m a semi-regular at my neighborhood Qdoba, so I knew what I wanted (three Drunken Yardbird tacos — no alcohol in them, despite the name) and ordered that. This was Bill’s first time at a Qdoba, so he asked for and received advice on what to get. I liked my meal, and so did he. Then we went to the nearby Walmart, where we each looked for something. I was looking for replacement blades for my OneBlade razor, and I found them. Bill was looking for Silly Putty — not to play with, but to hold a camera in place for timed self-portraits. He could not find any, though he did find something he thought would work and got that. Then we went to the hotel and checked into room 121. I got some snacks, and later I demonstrated the basic use of the N1MM logger program we’d be using at the special event station. I also downloaded today’s pictures onto my MacBook Pro and called it a night around 10.

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Friday September 27

I didn’t get the greatest sleep that night; I didn’t know why. I did get up around 6:40 and took a shower and then did my web checks. The replacement blade for my razor worked well, and I was clean-shaven again. After getting dressed, we went to breakfast in the lobby. The TV was tuned to Fox News, which had a different perspective on the news than we’d been hearing on NPR the last few days, meaning the whistleblower complaint about the president’s conduct with respect to Ukraine.

We got underway before 8:30. It rained much of the time; in fact, it rained enough that we stopped so I could retrieve an umbrella and my Yaesu jacket (I won it as a door prize at Hamvention in 2018) from my suitcase. I’d need them later, I was sure. We stopped for gas and a bathroom break at a gas station in Casper. I bought something to drink; the clerk complimented me on my Tommy Bahama jacket. Then it was back onto the freeway.

It was clear that if we wanted to, we could make it to Fort Collins today. The hotel reservation I made didn’t start until tomorrow, though. Would I be able to change it to include today? It turned out I couldn’t; the reservation I’d made was for a room with 2 queen beds, but the only option I was given when attempting to add today to it was a room with 1 king bed. That wouldn’t work, so I left the reservation unchanged and looked for a room at a different hotel. I found an America’s Best Value Inn on Mulberry Street in Fort Collins; thoughts of “And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” ran through my mind.

If the weather permitted, there was a stop Bill wanted to make: the Oregon Trail Ruts south of Guernsey, Wyoming. In school, he remembered seeing pictures of deep ruts worn into sandstone by the covered wagons making their way west. Fortunately, the weather did permit us to make that side trip off of I-25. It was still sprinkling when we got there, so I put on my Yaesu jacket and carried my umbrella. The ruts were above the level of the parking lot, so we had to walk up some steps to get there. And then there they were. The most obvious one was surprisingly wide and deep; it was easy to walk in it. I took many pictures, and so did Bill. At times, I thought I could hear the sound of helicopters, although I didn’t see any. There was a Wyoming National Guard base nearby, said Bill. We then drove a few miles east to see Register Cliff. We were going to see 150-year-old graffiti. It was carved by pioneers on their way west. There was a fence keeping visitors from getting too close and adding new carvings. As we left, we saw a historical marker for a Pony Express station that had been nearby nearly 160 years ago.

When we left Guernsey and returned to the freeway, the rain also returned. It lessened as we headed southward. We listened to All Things Considered as we headed out of Wyoming and into Colorado. Eventually, we found our way to Fort Collins and our hotel for the night. Unfortunately, I was feeling cranky when we got to the hotel. Our room was on the second floor, but there was no elevator, and I wasn’t happy bringing my heavy suitcase up those stairs. Nor was I happy when I failed to see any directions to our room, 211. In retrospect, I must have been “hangry” like the people in those Snickers commercials. We hadn’t had a proper lunch; we’d nibbled on whatever we had in the car. After we had supper at a nearby Denny’s, I was feeling better.

When we returned to the room, Bill worked on the cable for connecting my transceiver to the car battery. I played the ARRL Audio News podcast for both of us to listen to; later, I would listen to the Ross Tucker Football podcast and finish this week’s Jefferson Hour podcast using headphones, though; Bill had little interest in the football podcast. Later, I wanted to walk over to the nearby gas station convenience store and pick up some snacks, but I discovered it was raining, and my umbrella was in the car. So no snacks for me that night. Around 10, I went to bed.

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Saturday September 28

Today, there was no time pressure on us. We were at our destination area, if not our destination hotel. We did have to find a way to kill time between checking out of our current hotel and checking into our next one. As it happened, we had a very good way: visit the site of WW0WWV so we knew where it was and how to get there without any deadlines. More on that later.

We started to pack and then went down to the lobby for breakfast. A local newscast was playing on the TV in the dining room — more like semi-local, as it was coming out of Denver. I got some Cheerios to eat, noting that they were being dispensed from dispensers that had a big red Kellogg’s K on the main knobs. For Cheerios, it should have been a big G. On the news, the weather forecast warned of high winds, fire hazards, and even some snow in the higher elevations. We were not in the mountains, so we were safe from the snow.

When we checked out between 8:30 and 9, we made our way to the WWV transmitter site, which was also the site for the WW0WWV operation. Routing algorithms suggested the freeway as the optimum route, but they also gave back roads alternatives, which we took. While Bill drove, I used my iPad with the offline maps of MAPS.ME to direct him. Sometimes, the our position on the map lagged behind our true position, causing me to miss a turn on occasion. Once we reached the transmitter site north of Fort Collins, we missed the turn onto the gravel road (not that well-marked) and had to do a U-turn.

We drove up a gravel road which made a bend to the left. There it was, or I should say “there they were.” To the left were antenna towers for WWVB, the very-low-frequency time signal station used by countless devices, clocks, watches, etc., to set their time. And to the right was the site for WW0WWV. It reminded me of the setups that the Ford and Livonia amateur radio clubs put together for Field Day, although this site had more trailers (larger ones, too) and more elaborate antennas. We walked around for a while, spending some time in the command tent and spending more time in the trailer for station 1. That was where the 20m, 160m and satellite stations were; that was where we would be operating some 48 hours later. Todd, K0TDC, was operating on 20m in FT8 mode; he said propagation was a bit spotty, but according to PSK Reporter, the station had been well heard around the world. There was even a report from Indonesia.

We stayed on site till at least 10, perhaps a bit later. Then we had to decide what to do for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Part of that time would be spent trying to contact WW0WWV. We drove to Lee Martinez Park near downtown Fort Collins, some 6 to 8 miles away from WWV. We parked in a corner of the parking lot, and then we set up the station. Bill connected the power cable to the car battery, while I set up the Buddipole on the grass behind the car. Then we connected the radio to it, fired it up, tuned to the published frequency for 40 meters, and — nothing. We could not hear the station at all. We heard several other stations coming in loud and clear, but not a peep from WW0WWV. We tuned up and down from the published frequency but could not hear it. Was it even transmitting at the time? If it was, I was sure we would have heard them by ground wave.

It was time to try a different band, so I started setting the Buddipole up for 20 meters. That involved shortening the whip antenna elements and adding taps to the loading coils. I had a hard time putting those tap terminals onto the coils, but then I remembered that I had to unscrew the terminal knobs to expose enough terminal to fit it onto the coils. With the taps installed and the transceiver retuned, we listened. And then we heard them, loud and clear. We also heard a pileup of stations wanting a contact. We tried and tried, but we couldn’t break through. The transceiver was set to put out 40 watts at the time. During a break in the action, I turned up the power to 75 watts, and then we tried again. At first, I was making the calls, and now Bill was making them. I decided to take a movie of the action with my iPhone, and wouldn’t you know it? The station heard us and came back to Bill. He gave a signal report and told them where we were. Now he was in the log, and now it was my turn to try. Some 2 to 3 minutes later, I successfully made contact. No camera was rolling for my QSO (contact), though.

Now that we’d successfully contact, we broke our portable station down and put away our equipment. We walked over to the nearest park restroom to take care of necessary business, and then we hit the road. It was after 1 o’clock, and we wanted some lunch. There were a number of restaurants on College Avenue, but there weren’t any parking spots. So we continued driving until we found a Wendy’s, where we both had salads. Afterwards, we set off in search of our hotel for the next two nights, the Fairfield Inn Fort Collins South. It was 2:30 when we got there, officially too early to check in, , yet we were able to check in.

Our room was 404, but we didn’t experience a 404 error when trying to find it. It was a nice enough room with a microwave and refrigerator as well as a northern view. I downloaded the pictures I’d taken to the Photos program on my MacBook Pro. They came out pretty well, for the most part. When supper rolled around, we went to a Carrabba’s restaurant we’d noticed on the drive to the hotel. I was a regular patron of Carrabba’s (back in Detroit, not here), while Bill had never been. We had difficulty following GPS directions there, but we finally made it. We did have to wait some 15 minutes for a table. Once we were seated, we had similar meals. We both got the grilled asparagus wrapped with prosciutto as an appetizer; we both ordered soup (minestrone for Bill, lentil & sausage for me), and chicken dishes (chicken marsala for Bill, Tuscan grilled chicken for me). It was pricier than the other meals we’d had on the trip, but it was good. Then it was back to the hotel.

During this trip, I don’t believe we turned on the TV’s in our rooms at all. That’s been the case for most of our trips we’ve made. That meant I hadn’t seen any college football games at all today. But thanks to my devices, the ESPN app and notifications from the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, I learned that both Michigan State and Michigan had won their respective games. I could go to bed content.

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Sunday September 29

Today, we were not traveling to another city or another hotel. This reduced the time pressure on us, although we did have a tour of WWV scheduled for 9 this morning. So it wasn’t necessary to get up early this morning. But I did; I was up before 6 and did my web and e-mail checks. The breakfast nook did not open until 7 this morning, so there was plenty of time to prepare. The breakfast was OK, although I didn’t care for the cereal I had; I got it thinking that it was something else.

We left for the station site before 7:40, earlier than we needed to. We took a slightly different route to get there this morning, one involving the freeway, but most of the route was the same as yesterday’s. It was very foggy outside, making it hard to recognize landmarks. But we found the site again. As we drove up the gravel road, the fog started lifting and the sun started to appear. Was it all of the RF being produced in that location that was driving the fog away? Probably not. It was chilly, so I was wearing my new buffalo hoodie and a jacket over top of that.

One of the hams on site was showing some drone video he’d taken that morning. Much of it was fog-obscured, but then it broke through the fog layer, and the towers for WWVB were visible — a striking sight. That led to an aviation discussion in the command tent for several minutes. My uncle, a private pilot who owned his own plane, was actively participating, while I just listened. Later we met Ann, K0ARD, one of the special event station volunteers and operators. She was originally from the Plymouth-Ann Arbor area, and when she heard that operators from Michigan were coming, she wanted to meet them (us).

When the time came for the tour of WWV, those who were going lined up their vehicles at the gate to the station property, ready to be led in by our tour guide, who was a WWV employee and also a special event station volunteer. After parking at the transmitter building, the first things we saw at the entrance were the block letters for WWV. These had been in use at WWV’s previous home in Beltsville, Maryland and were brought out to Fort Collins in 1966, when this location started operating. Inside, we signed in. On a bulletin board were QSL cards confirming reception on the first day of operations in Fort Collins. A cross the hall was a map showing sister station WWVH in Hawaii. Station tours aren’t possible there, as the transmitter site is on a Navy base.

The building was shaped like a horseshoe. On the outside were the transmitters for the frequencies on which the station operates. We saw the 5 MHz and 10 MHz transmitters up close; those were 10 kW class C transmitters, acquired to save on electricity. The other transmitters we did not see were for 15 MHz (also 10 kW) and 2.5, 20 and 25 MHz (all 2.5 kW). In the center of the horseshoe was the lab and shop, as well as two shielded rooms (Faraday cages) that were the heart of WWV. One, which was not opened, contained a cesium clock used in the calculation of Coordinated Universal Time. The other, which we were able to enter, contained the computer equipment and other equipment that generated all of the frequencies, tones, and voice announcements heard on the air. We could see and hear the clocks in operation. You could say that we were where time began, ha ha. Then we went behind the building to see the WWV antenna farm. Thick cables came out of the buildings, feeding that RF energy to the appropriate antennas.

When the tour was over, we drove back to the special event station site and sat in on the 40 and 30 meter station. The 40 meter station was unmanned and off the air, while the 30 meter station was having technical difficulties: it was unable to decode any received signals. It turned out that the computer clock for the station was too far out of sync with the received signal clocks. In order to properly decode digital FT8 signals, both transmitting and receiving clocks had to be in sync. One of the helpers came in and got the clocks back in sync, and everything started working again. We then went over to the 20 meter station (where we would be working tomorrow) and observed its operation more closely. The operator was working voice and was managing a pileup.

We left around 11 and drove over to the Museum of Discovery. Here, a 6 meter station had been set up to allow the public to talk to the WW0WWV operation. We were present when some members of the public (children) spoke to operators at the special event site. The station used an FT-857D and an ATAS-120 mobile antenna to reach WW0WWV. Inside the museum lobby were exhibits on Amateur Radio and WWV, including a code practice oscillator for people to practice their code-sending skills.

When we left the museum, it was lunchtime. I was hungry, but I didn’t know for what. No restaurant really appealed to me. We ended up stopping at Lucky’s Market and getting a few items. The only things I got were two bottles of lime-flavored mineral water. I think I was actually more thirsty than hungry, for I drank half of a bottle of mineral water on the way back to the hotel. I ended up having a light lunch consisting of a small package of hummus and pretzels, a bag of Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos, and more mineral water. It satisfied me. To be honest, I was in need of a rest. I spent the afternoon resting in the room while Bill went out looking for a folding camp chair to use at the station tomorrow (the operating position only had one seat, for the operator). He wasn’t successful; the only chairs he could find opened up too wide to work in that room.

There were a few restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. We decided to try one of them, Tokyo Joe’s. As the name suggests, it specialized in Asian food. I got a bowl of dark chicken with bean sprouts, edamame and zucchini served with white rice and teriyaki sauce, along with a bowl of miso soup. Bill also got a bowl of some sort, but he didn’t get any soup. The meal was good; I’d go to Tokyo Joe’s again if I ever returned to Fort Collins. When we went back to the room, we started considering our routes home, as we would start our return journey after our operating stint. I also started working on the presentation I would be giving to the Ford Amateur Radio League in November.

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Monday September 30

I got to sleep at a reasonable time last night, but I only slept for a few hours. I lay there in the night and rested, but I could not get back to sleep. Was I a bit anxious or apprehensive about my operating stint in a few hours? Perhaps. I’d done it before, but not with this transceiver or logging software. When the alarm went off at 5:30, we got up and started packing. We brought some of our luggage to the car early, before sunrise. When the breakfast nook opened at 6:30, we were ready and got our meal. We checked out and left the hotel before 7; we did not want to be late for our operating stints.

It took us 20 minutes to get there, about the same time that it had taken yesterday, Special T-shirts for operators and volunteers were available for a suggested $20 donation, which we both paid. I made sure to use the restroom before heading to station 1; we were there some 10 minutes before. Just before 8, I sat down at the operating position, made sure to enter my call sign into the log as operator, put on the headset, and then I was ready. For the next hour on 20 meters, I was WW0WWV. I made a CQ, got a response, entered him into the log, and then I did it again. Most of the time, I didn’t need to make a CQ; so many people were calling that all I needed to do was to ask “QRZ?”, or “who is calling me?”. When things slowed down, I did make CQ’s (requesting contacts). The antenna was pointed to the southeast, so most of the contacts I made same from the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, etc. I did make two foreign contacts: Costa Rica and Panama. When my hour was up, I thought I’d only made 30 contacts, but according to the log extract I received later, I’d made 52.

Then it was my uncle Bill’s turn. He had a pretty good run for the next hour. He had to make only one CQ, which made me think he was making more contacts than me (we were not in competition, though). He’d taken some video of me operating, and now I took some video of him. The received audio was not audible in the room; only the operator could hear it on the headset. That meant any videos of the contacts would be one-sided. One of the contacts Bill made was with a station operating bicycle mobile; another one he made was with a friend back in Detroit. Both of us had to contend with the occasional heterodyne or audio bleed-through from WWV; its kilowatts of power from a mile or so away were making their presence known. By the time the hour was up, Bill had made 49 contacts.

We hung around the station for a while before leaving at 10:45. We made our way to I-25 via a different route, then backtracked to Highway 14. We would take that over to I-76 and then take that across Colorado and into Nebraska. The first 35 miles went well. All of a sudden, Bill felt for his iPhone, and it wasn’t there! Where could it be? He remembered using it at the station site this morning, so he was sure it was there. We found a place to turn around, then started heading back to the site. I thought about using Find my iPhone to locate it, but that wasn’t feasible for multiple reasons. Internet coverage on my phone was spotty, for one thing, plus Bill had turned WiFi off on his phone to save power. When we returned to the site, we looked in the command tent, where he thought he’d left it. I looked on the ground near where we had parked. He eventually found it at the station where we’d operated; he’d pulled it out to check how long he had left in the session but forgot to put it back. But now it was safe in his hands (and pocket).

We started our homeward journey once again, but now we’d lost an hour and a half. We thought we’d make it to Lincoln, Nebraska this evening, but that seemed unlikely now. We drove through the Pawnee National Grassland in northeast Colorado and onto I-76. The pavement was rough. It may have been better in Nebraska. When we’d started, it was sunny
without a cloud in the sky. Then we saw what looked like developing storm clouds to our southeast. We were catching up to them, and eventually we found ourselves in a bad storm. The rain was coming down heavily; I thought we should consider stopping in Kearney for the night.

We did stop for supper in Kearney, visiting a Perkins restaurant. I had a French dip sandwich, which I enjoyed. It was now after dark and still raining, so we decided to get a room at the Baymont Inn that was right next door. The desk clerk had worked a double shift that day (that’s what he told us), but he was helpful and got us a room. Before we brought our things inside, we had a short journey to make to the Walmart on the other side of town to get some snacks and a new phone card for Bill’s phone, The rain started coming down heavily again by the time we got there, making the entrance treacherous. Bill found his phone card, and we found our snacks. Then it was back to the hotel to rest for the evening.

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Tuesday October 1

I woke up a little after 6 to use the bathroom and to do my normal morning web checks. The clock radio in the room said it was 5, but my phone and iPad said it was 6. Since they get their time from the cell phone networks, I believe them more than a clock radio set manually. There was a light outside the room that made it look like the sun was coming up. But no, it wasn’t; it was just a parking lot light.

When we were fully up, we packed, went to breakfast in the lobby, checked out and then got under way just before 8:30. We hadn’t escaped the rain yet; we encountered some more of it east of town on I-80. It didn’t hinder us too much, though. As we drove, we had on NET Radio and its Morning Edition and some classical music (we got to hear the entire Fifth Symphony of Beethoven — Schroeder would have approved).

When we reached Lincoln, we got off of I-80 and took a southern bypass around town in order to search for cheap gas. It was in Iowa. I wasn’t sure where, but Bill had a better idea; he’d looked it up on GasBuddy. It was in the town of Creston, and we made our way there to fill up the gas tank and to empty our bladders. We then continued east on US 34 towards Ottumwa, home to MASH’s Radar O’Reilly. We were heading towards the Airpower Museum and Antique Airfield, a place Bill had wanted to visit for some time. We passed by the airfield, but it seemed like it was closed, and at the location where MAPS.ME said the museum was, there was nothing that looked like a museum, so we gave up and left.

We decided to stop for the night in Burlington at a Holiday Inn Express. The drive there from Ottumwa was uneventful, and we arrived there around 6. After checking in, we set off for Walmart, where Bill returned the putty he had bought a few days earlier. Then we went to the Perkins restaurant up the street for supper. This time, we both had French Dip sandwiches. Mine was good, but I wouldn’t have wanted to have one for three days in a row. Then we went back to the hotel. I went up to unpack, while Bill stayed with the car to look for something. Soon after reaching the room, I realized I hadn’t told Bill the room number. I went back downstairs; he was at the front desk asking the clerk. No need for that now, I said; we were in room 310. After going up to the room, we had to go back to the car to look for my black Yaesu jacket. It wasn’t in my suitcase like I thought it should be; the last time I’d seen it had been Sunday at the WWV site, when I put it and other items in the back of the van from the 3rd seat. And yes, the coat was in there. I’d won that coat at Hamvention in 2018, so I didn’t want to lose it.

Back in the room, we settled in for the night. I downloaded updates for my iPhone using the phone’s data plan, as the hotel’s WiFi network appeared to be blocking updates.

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Wednesday October 2

I woke up at 6 tis morning. A quick glance outside showed wet ground; clearly, it had rained last night, and there was a good chance we would catch up to it some time today. We packed most of our stuff and went down to breakfast before 7. Then we went back upstairs to finish packing, and then we came back down, checked out, and hit the road before 7:30. It wasn’t long before we crossed the Mississippi and found ourselves in Illinois. About an hour later, we stopped for a restroom break at a visitor center in Galesburg, and then we continued through Peoria. Here, we picked up US 24. It was our intention to stay on US 24 until we reached Toledo, after which we’d head up towards Michigan and home. When we left this morning, we were less than 500 miles away from my house; we were going to try to make it home today.

We arrived in Chenoa in the late morning. We stopped at a McDonald’s so that Bill could use GasBuddy to look for the least expensive gas ahead; he found it at a station in Remington, Indiana. As we left town, we noticed a roadside park (also a trailside park) along old Route 66; we stopped there for a short time. The drive across Illinois and Indiana was good until we reached Remington (it was good beyond that, too). Here, at the Pilot travel center (aka Truck Stop), we filled up the gas tank, used the restroom, and had lunch at the Subway inside the stop. My sandwich was pretty good. Then it was back onto 24 for the rest of the way across Indiana.

When we drove through Fort Wayne, we passed by a GM plant. We saw picketers from the UAW at the entrance gates; they seemed pretty fired up, more than two weeks into the strike. We stopped at a truck stop on the Lincoln Highway near the bypass around Fort Wayne for another pit stop. By this time, it was likely that we’d make it home tonight. But then it started to rain near Toledo. As Bill drove up US 23, the rain got harder. We stopped at a gas station near Ypsilanti so that he could make a phone call; I insisted that he not do it while driving in the bad weather in the dark. I took advantage of the stop to visit the facilities in the gas station.

We weren’t far from my house by that point, maybe 15 to 20 miles. By 8:30, we’d arrived, and we unloaded my stuff from the minivan. Bill left to return to his home, while I had a little bit of supper, did some unpacking, and downloaded pictures to my MacBook Pro. The trip was over.

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THE END

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Written by Roger Reini December 6, 2019