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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).
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
THE END
Back to Travels page
© 2019.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Written by Roger
Reini December 6, 2019
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