[NLRS] More about Sunday 10GHz

[Gary M Danelius]

Hi all.

I had a great time too. Lots of new long paths worked.

Lenny, K0SHF, and I were near the St Anthony site.
Actually we were on the south side of I-35, in the parking lot
of the Broadway Ridge office building. Nice site with views
of downtown Minneapolis, as well as more northerly views than
the park overlook on the other side of the freeway.  

We worked Jon, K0FQA, almost immediately with good signals.
Later we worked Jim, K0KFC. Then waited for Donn, WA2VOI, 
to get on the air. After realizing that we had a problem
with our liaison frequency. I tried all the frequencies we planed
to use but heard nothing from Donn. I was getting nervous that Donn
would be left hanging after the drive to Mt Tom. I gave Lenny the
heading for Mt Tom and we both started listening. It was well after noon,
so we decided to call randomly. We heard a weak SSB signal, not
strong enough to tell who it was. Lenny put his keyer on again
and Donn peaked on us. Great fun to find Donn with out having
to use 2M. Donn had a good signal with some QSB, but always
well out of the noise. I chose an operating location that I thought 
would give have clear shot to Monti and Mt Tom. I was wrong.
Monti was fine, but the shot to Mt Tom  was through a building 
about 3/4 mile away. However by using the three finger rule to 
demonstrate the dish beam width I could see that the building was
only half as wide. Who needs clear paths? We also worked Bruce, 
W9FZ, in Vasa, by bouncing off the buildings. Signals to Bruce were 
weak, as well as up and down. Ed, KB0MNK, came over later, but 
didn't try to work anyone. Next step is to try Monti and Mt Tom
to some of Mel's sites in southern MN.

Lenny and I split up. I went to Mounds Park while Lenny and Ed
went to Burnsville. Lenny and I worked each other off the Mpls
buildings with no problem. Nothing new here. I was able to give Ed
his first real weak signal contact by bouncing off the buildings.
Congratulations Ed. Ed didn't work anyone else, he was to busy on
his cell phone. Bruce was hearing me off the buildings, so we made
contact. Bruce was much stronger on this bounce than from 
St Anthony. Is this the first time we used a bounce to Vasa? 
I worked Jon and Jim in Monti for another new path. Good 
signals from both. 

I have a few operating suggestions that may speed up our
contacts.  First, use your RIT. Second, I think we all have dual
VFOs, use one for SSB and the other for CW. This can help 
compensate for the different CW offsets used by the IF radios.
It also helps me to remember where I last heard the other station.
Last, I've often found the signal and listened for another 
couple of minutes waiting for the other op to turn it over.
Sometimes the 2M rig is 50 yards away. I suggest we transmit
for one minute, then listen for 10-15 seconds. If the other station 
doesn't come back, then transmit again. Repeat this five times
if you haven't made contact. If you still haven't found each other, 
then go to the liaison radio. This is also a good idea since
with the longer paths we don't always have a useable liaison
frequency. Maybe we could set a start time and then 
alternate transmitting every other minute. Your ideas are welcome.

We enough rambling. Time to think about next weekend. What 
should we try? Maybe a sked with K2YAZ (83 degrees and 
332 miles from Vasa)? Who is active in Wisconsin?

73, Gary  WB0LJC



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