Herbert AF4JF, Ron KO0Z and Harry WA0CNS took a trip to the highest mountain in Missouri, Taum Sauk 1772ft (540m) South of Saint Louis. Herbert's dog Darcey came along to make sure everything was done safely. The main idea behind this trip was looking for suitable microwave locations in the EM47 grid. We didn't do this alone, several guys living South of Missouri were waiting for us on other hilltops, ready for QSO on 1296MHz and 10GHz (KV4PC, K4QF, KD4APP, AB4DX, NV4B, W4RXR, KD4GRD, AG4V and WG8S).
Our first stop was the Taum Sauk mountain top (the national park) itself. We have been there before, so this was easy. As expected, found a nice viewing platform open towards Saint Louis and little East of it:
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| This is approx. azimuth 60 deg. |
We should be able to work Zack W9SZ or Gedas W8BYA from this location on 10GHz too, but some propagation enhancement will be needed for that.
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| Darcey was very patient today |
However, we didn't find any location open towards South to try with our friends from the "4" land. Next stop was the MDC fire tower just outside of the national park:
Unfortunately, the upper platform was locked by a solid lock. It was very windy up there, so we gave up the idea of setting up on the stairway and continued to our next destination, the Taum Sauk water power plant. We have seen several pictures of the upper reservoir others published on the Internet just weeks ago, so we didn't expect any problem there. We were wrong ...
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| Ameren badge is required to get past that gate |
The lower reservoir is easily accessible, but the upper one is not. All the street signs that pointed us to the "Ameren Upper Reservoir" got us just to a visitor center. Looks like visitors can register for a guided tour, but not drive anywhere up the hill and play radio ... The guy working at the visitor center suggested a back road across the nearest hill to try - we were still trying to find a spot open towards South and the guys waiting for us. Unfortunately, we didn't find any open spots. Just hills and trees and bushes and more hills and ... you got the idea.
We tried to explore some of the hills around (they were all called "mountain" for some reason), but no luck. Other local guy whom we stopped told us that there are some open spots on their tops, but these are only accessible through hiking trails, not by a car. After another hour of trying and trying, we gave up, called the waiting guys on a phone and decided to find something to eat.
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| Waiting for lunch at Mexican restaurant in Potosi |
Finally something worked! We have found a Mexican restaurant with good food. Ate that and got started on our way back towards Saint Louis. Big surprise just minutes from the restaurant - we found a good open microwave location, still in EM47! There are two nearby parking lots that offer nearly full 360 degrees open view. Attached pictures show the direction towards Southeast:
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| Direction towards SE |
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| EM47OW, 321m a.s.l. |
This location isn't the highest and is little bit closer to Saint Louis, but the distance is still almost 100km. Besides, it is in EM47 which is different grid (St. Louis area is in EM48). We definitely will come back to this location next time and try again.
So, the trip wasn't a total failure after all, despite the fact that we didn't even set up any station today. Herbert's microwave equipment just made a round trip in the back of the car. We returned back home before 5:00pm, about 10 hours after leaving this morning. Big thanks to all the guys waiting for us in the "4" land!
