Ice Station Ely.

So over night the storm we raced ahead of, caught us in Ely. About midnight heavy sleet pelted our hotel. By 6 am wet snow was falling. Snow continued until about 9 am. My truck was covered in snow.

We hit the road about 8:30 back 50 to Eureka and then up 278 to Carlin. Not sure why I thought i would be able to operate on the 278 Eureka/Elko border. That was a canyon with limited North/South opening and several hundred foot up on the east just a couple of hundred feet away and no shoulder. Takeoff was probably 60°… not good.

Eureka/Elko line on 80 is just viable. The Lander/Humboldt line is good right at the sign. Over in Pershing the rest stop at the 158 exit is the best bet.

So general plan for May 7 is confirmed. Longest drive is the one to Carlin at about 4 hours. The rest are about 1 hour each. Now for the great news. I got a volunteer driver: KI6HFS (Vivian my YL). So even during the drives I’ll be able to get a few more Q’s in the log. Might even get her to operate for the 3db bonus.

So yesterday Vivian and I left home and stayed in Carson City. Why? To get ahead of the storm that was supposed to hit Tahoe.

Today, we drive across Nevada with winds blowing in excess of 20 mph. What a trip. I pulled down my Tarheel 100-HP at the start as the winds were making it move too much while I was only driving 35 mph.

Five miles out from Fallon we hear a thud and a metal on metal sound. Thought we were side swiped by one of the many tumble weeds we had been seeing. Wrong… well maybe not but we did not see the culprit.

A couple minutes later we get a tire pressure warning. So we quickly check Google and find out there is a Les Schwab in Fallon. Great possible free repair if we make it that far. Lucky us, get there and the tire is squealing and a whistling and we can actually see the puncture between the treads. 30 minutes later we are back on the road.

Just past Eureka (65 miles from Ely) I notice that my Larsen 144/440 antenna is bent over and not looking good. I pull over to discover that this version has a saftey feature to bend over. I pop it back and pull it off the truck. Only my 220 antenna is now active and I have no repeaters programmed on 220. Oh well.

We did get to scout the Lincoln/White Pine site. It is very accessible on 93. Only issue is that there will probably be no propagation to the west . Those mountains are too close and tall. It is 53 miles south of Ely on 93. About an hour drive.

Off to bed to scout more tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow the winds will die down and I can put all the antennae back up.