CN93 Grid Expedition
Glass Butte, Oregon
Feb 11-14, 2022
The Plan
This trip was designed around helping Jim AA0MZ "Mike Zulu" finish his last
grid for FFMA. This is in the off-season time when skip is not expected, but
we could be lucky. Plus, he seems to be within range of meteor scatter.
A week before my trip, Matt KC7OOY went to CN93 for scouting and operating.
He found some new nifty operating locations, encountered 20F weather, got
kicked out of one park as an unmarked "closed for the winter" place, climbed
up hilltops, but was ultimately unsuccessful reaching Jim on 6 meters.
Matt did all the hard work of scouting the area. I hoped to increase my
chances by improving on his expedition. I intended to get as much altitude
as possible, park as close as possible to the SE grid corner, bring as much
transmit power as possible, and stay as long as possible.
My plan was to drive up Glass Butte to CN93xn14ph, probably a difficult
wintertime 4x4 scramble, bring a kilowatt and 6m5, and stay on the air
until the generators or my time runs out.
Preparation
This is my first full-on remote mountainous grid expedition in my new rover
vehicle in May 2021. All my other trips leading up to this have been shake-down
missions of various sorts. The preparation for this trip was extensive.
Prepare for Snow
I knew in advance the terrain and weather will be challenging. I bought tire chains (4 ea.)
and a big box of kitty litter for traction (and eventually for our kitties).
Prepare Tires
I practiced changing a tire. I was imagining the butte, made of obsidian outcropping,
was going to be a mountain made of shattered glass. Thankfully it isn't so, but I
wanted to be prepared.
This van is so heavy that its factory jack
is a hydraulic two-stage lift. It's so tall that it can't reach the built-in
lift points without another stand. I brought this cinder block to Oregon and
back, just in case I needed it. It turns out these oversize BFG KO2 tires are
really heavy. Actually, heavier than I can easily manage. It came off
okay and then it's a bitch to hang back on again. It takes four strong arms
to pick it up, hold it in place and start threading the lug nuts.
Worse, the spare tire hangs under the back end. It takes about six arms to
hang it back up again. To return it into position, it must be simultaneously
pushed up a slope and lifted into place. I couldn't do it. A neighbor passing
by helped me.
Prepare Starter Battery
I was concerned about running down the starter battery using my Espar heater
and interior lights and slider door motor, so I installed a cheap battery
monitor on the wall next to the thermostat and fan control. In theory, it will
sound an alarm at low voltage.
Prepare Amplifier
It's been about two years since I've used my Icom PW-1 solid state amplifier,
so I hooked it up in the indoor shack for checkout. At first it only produced
35w from 100w drive. And it had failed to produce any power on my last
rove around the Olympic Peninsula. Hm, not good. The PW-1 documentation is
riddled with errors and vague procedures, followed by lots of addendums and
corrections, followed by vocal internet users who suggest entirely different
adjustment procedures. And all of these continually warn to not screw it up
or you blow the output transistors.
When I connected my LP-100, it puzzling to only measure 1w output to the
dummy load. You know how the most essential piece of shack equipment is a
highly reliable SWR / power meter? In my shack, I have an expensive
LP-100 Digital Vector RF Wattmeter and it plays that role. Except when I
screw it up and reverse the input/output coax. Sigh. Anyway.
Adjustment was slow going. Finally on Tuesday 2/8 the amp was putting
out 500w on FT8 and I made some 10-meter test contacts to New York and Mexico.
Load Car
Once everything is loaded, it's like living in a shoebox. There is just
enough room to sit at the desk and operate the radio or eat, or sleep on
the bed. Only after unloading the generators will there be a path all the
way to the back to turn the antenna.
Actual Route
My route to Oregon went from Seattle, over Snoqualmie Pass, south from
Ellensburg through Yakima and Goldendale. I really like this scenic route
much better than the slightly faster trip through Portland. Then south on
Hwy 97 through Shaniko and Madras to Prineville.
The return route went more directly through Portland and then north on I-5.
It was snowing heavily on the pass along Mt Hood and that portion was very slow.
This map is the recorded track by Griduino, as shown by Google Earth.
Bad Diesel
I was very low on fuel when I reached Madras and I stopped at the first
Chevron station. Chevron has high-quality products, right? The attendant
helpfully told me the pump was "B20" which is 20% something, much higher
than B5 (5% something). My modern MB diesel engine requires B5 or lower,
also known as ULSD (ultra low sulphur diesel).
This began my desperate search for good fuel.
I visited four more stations in Madras, each of which had pumps labeled
simply "Diesel #2". Since 2010, all diesel at pumps is required to be
"Low Sulphur" but not "Ultra Low Sulphur".
My van requires "Ultra Low Sulphur" and carries nasty stickers alongside
its fuel port which warns about severe damage to its emissions control system
if you don't get it right. I passed up these stations - I'm not taking chances.
Federal regulations require ULSD diesel pumps to be clearly labeled as such.
These pumps were not. Google Maps was useless for searching for variations
on ULSD. If you include "diesel" in the search words, then you get gobs of
paid placements for all gas stations that have diesel. I never did find a
way to narrow the search.
I took a chance and drove 30 miles to Prineville - it could've been disaster
if I ran out of fuel. After checking four gas stations in Prineville while
running on fumes, I finally found Sinclair had clearly labeled their pump
and the attendant was the first guy who knew about ULSD and exactly what
they sold and why. This Sinclair station eventually got over $125 in fuel
sales from me this weekend because they offered the correct grade from a
correctly labeled pump. Whew.
This van gets as much attention as an alien lander in eastern Oregon.
It's a hit. Gas station attendants were agog at looking inside the van
that I consider a 'minimalist camper' van.
Bad RV Park
I can camp in RV parks with this van, right? So, I did.
Big mistake. I checked in to Crook County RV Park in Prineville at 9:30pm.
It was expensive: $50. The bathroom was locked, the camp host was dark,
I didn't get the pass code, it was 18* and I didn't have an electric heater.
So basically, it was a very expensive parking spot and I received zero
benefits. Seems like RV parks aren't nearly as customer-service oriented
as motels.
Drive to Glass Butte
At 5 am in the morning I left the RV park and bought an electric heater
at Walmart in Redmond. Good move.
It was an extra out-n-back to Redmond, OR. I should have refueled again
in Prineville to have the maximum possible full tank before the wilderness.
This would come back to bite me later.
Mask report: Eastern Oregon is very lackadaisical about face mask
filters. Few people wear them. Few of those wear them properly, and none
of them have good N95 masks.
From a distance on the valley floor along Hwy 20, here's a look at
Glass Butte. There are some radio towers on the peak.
The best turn-off to Glass Butte is "C Line Road" at 43.5866, -120.0210.
From here, it was an easy 10-mile drive up in 45 minutes. AWD is recommended.
High-clearance vehicle not needed unless you go rock crawling (like I did).
I was lucky to have good weather, light winds, 40-50 degree temperature, and
that most of the snow melted off. A week earlier, Matt KC7OOY was turned back
by snow drifts in low spots. Fortunately, that had cleared itself by the time
of my trip.
The valley had more leftover snow than higher up. The road was generally clear.
At the top, the only remaining snow was on north-facing slopes.
Final 30 Feet
My last 30' was difficult. It required 4x4 traction and high clearance to reach the
off-road arm just below the top radio towers. This little area is blocked by
rocks that had been bulldozed off the gravel road. I wanted to be out on the
shoulder to the left of this picture which gives me a good drop-off in all
directions and a bit more distance from the radio towers.
My method was to place orange cones to mark my exact path, which are easily
seen in the van's "birds eye camera" view.
To execute the plan, working alone, I drive forward six inches, get out, examine all
wheels and the undercarriage and the path, move some rocks to reduce lumps and fill
in voids, get back in, repeat. It took an hour to move 30'. Finally, I turned the van
around among the rocks to put the trailer-hitch-plus-antenna nearest the
drop-off.
Having the antenna in the best spot also offered this great view out the
back doors.
After getting the van ideally situated, I set up the antenna and generators.
I had excellent LTE cellphone data service.
The desert sunsets are phenomenal, especially at altitudes like this.
Things I Learned on Glass Butte
The Honda EU2000i generator ran on 20# propane tank ran for 36 hours
continuously. I had two Honda EU2000i generators, one gas and one that I
converted for dual-fuel gas-propane using a Hutch Mountain kit. A step-up
transformer converts 120 to 240 vac for the amplifier. Two power cords run
to the van, one for 120 and one for 240 vac.
My porch light (top of mast) generates noise on 6m.
Francis KV5W performed an HFTA (high freq terrain analysis) on my location.
The dark blue line is for my 6m5 on a 19-foot mast at this exact spot.
The light blue line is what to expect from my same setup on flat land.
The analysis shows a great deal of gain at low take-off angles, 1-5 degrees,
due to the steep terrain. This will improve my signal on MSK144 at
greater distances.
Exactly what we want.
Results
I worked from CN93xn to:
Greg WQ0P, Ed N5JEH, Raymond KJ7OG, Jim KC1BB,
Paul NO0T, Jack W0XR, Jack W7JLC, Richard K7TNT,
Vlad W6BVB, Harry W0BL, Ron W6RN, Robert N5KO,
Dave VE7HR, Mike K7PI
I heard but did not work:
VE7AFZ, W3XS, N0TB via EME, XE2OR,
KE7NR, K7KQA, W7MEM
My horizon toward Seattle was mostly blocked by hillside but I did work
K7PI on Mercer Island (one of the prestigious Griduino owners).
I like to drive. Which is a good thing. It's 8 hours from Seattle to Glass Butte.
Total trip time 3-1/2 days
Total on-the-air time: 22 hours
All contacts MSK144, 1 attempted EME
Total 14 contacts
In the 6m off-season (no skip), we can work half the country via
meteor scatter. Contacts are slow but entirely do-able.
Burned 50 gallons of diesel and averaged 3.6 gal/QSO
Farthest QSO was 1,270 miles from CN93xn to WQ0P in EM19wf, Kansas
For my first time ever, I tried EME and my signal was heard off the moon.
Problems
No major problems, other than
failing to work Jim AA0MZ, which was the main purpose of the trip.
A few minor glitches: Forgetting my electric room heater and sleeping cold one night in 18F in
the chilly valley floor of Prineville. While rock crawling in the ungainly Sprinter van I
scratched up my new side steps.
I need to learn how to recognize obsidian in its natural state.
On the way home from Glass Butte, I wanted to go off-road again and scout
Green Mountain; however I didn't have enough fuel.
Thanks to everyone that found me on the air or kept me company on the
Slack VHF-Chat channel. It sure helps to know people are out there.