[NLRS] W9FZ 2nd weekend 10G report

[Bruce Richardson]

Hello there:

As some of you know, I had a mandatory Air Force Reserve meeting that took
most of Saturday and limited how much I was able to operate on this 2nd
weekend.  From the sound of it, however, I did not miss much.  After my
meeting concluded at 4pm in Oshkosh, WI, I hopped in the car and zipped over
to the shore of Lake Michigan and set-up in Point Beach St Pk right down on
the beach.  Enroute, I was in cell-phone contact with N8KWX who was
frustrated from a long day of bad conditions yielding little success.  He
was set up near Winthrop Harbor, Illinois and about to take down.  I begged
for him to stay set-up till I got to the lakeshore to at least give it a
try.  Apparently during the day, 65 mile shots had worked but anything
longer either didn't work or came only with difficulty.

I got to the State Park and had to pay 5$ to get in.  I got to a nice beach
with a parking lot which was EN64ff.  I had to go right down to the water in
order to see to N8KWX's direction.  That meant about a 50 yard run.  I set
up a 7-ele beam and used a brick for 2m liaison.  I quickly looked at my
aviation maps and determined the heading to N8KWX.  I relayed the heading to
him and started beaconing.  In less than a minute, he heard me and we got
peaked up and had S8 SSB signals each way.  He was in EN62cl for a 196km
qso.  I turned to K2YAZ and had an easy hook-up with Bob.  This for a 146km
shot.  Soon, WB8TGY and WA8VPD, who were mobiliing northbound after a
frustrating day in southern Michigan, set-up in EN64ra near Manistee,
Michigan.  They were generally a pretty easy hook-up as well.  Bob and Mark,
over the next 3 hours, operated from two more locations--EN64tf and EN64vm.
So, Saturday evening I made 8 QSO's.

After I took down about 10pm, I motored to Sturgeon Bay, which is on the
Door County Peninsula.  Sturgeon Bay has motels and restaraunts that were
still open at that hour of night.  The drawback to Door County is that
everything is expensive.  I had to drop $120 for a motel room.  I was up
early and heading northward to be at the tip of the Door County peninsula
about the time the Eastern shore guys were ready to go.  I began the day at
the Washington Island carferry dock EN65mg.  I worked K2YAZ, WA8VPD, WB8TGY
all at EN74av and NE8I, who was near Manistique at EN65ux.  Then I began the
first of 8 moves.  They started out slowly and took alot of time to relocate
but I got faster and faster throughout the day.  During the day, I was
blessed with good weather and very pretty terrain.  I visited Cana Island
Lighthouse and Cave Point State Park.  Both were beautiful locations.  I
operated from a few County Parks and along some "Lakeshore Drive" type
roads.  Sure, there were nice houses and cabins most of the time, but
occasionally there were openings.  I really enjoyed being out driving
around.

I worked K2YAZ, WA8VPD, and WB8TGY at all of the spots and occasionally I
was able to work NE8I and WW8M.  The big thing about Sundays operation was
the assistance provided by K2YAZ.  Bob is a fine operator who spends hours
at the radio helping all microwavers in the region get hooked-up.  Bob went
the extra mile to assist K3SIW and me trying to connect down the length of
Lake Michigan.  After how hard we all tried, it's sad that we did not
achieve success.  But I'm glad we tried!  Some on Lake Michigan found the
10G conditions to be difficult, but I thought they were pretty good.
Everybody that I worked peaked up nicely in the S6-S9 range.  I will admit
that conditions down the entire length of lake MUST have been disturbed by
some mechanism.  But at the north end, I thought conditions were fair to
good.  The spots I worked mostly yielded 85-115km shots.  The occasional
long QSO to NE8I or WW8M were nice bonuses.  By 6pm, I had worked my way
southward to Manitowoc.  I made one last QSO with K2YAZ and WW8M.  After we
were done, Bob asked if I'd be willing to stop a couple of times on my drive
back to the Twin Cities to try some overland shots.  I said sure.

I had a long drive ahead of me with the pressure knowing that I started
DC-10 school the next morning at Northwest in the Twin Cities.  It took me
about an hour and a half to work my way through Manitowoc (and dinner) and
really heading westward.  Looking in my DeLorme map book, someone at some
hamfest over the years had circled a hill on the map that they knew to be
good for rovers.  It was right along the road I was using, so I whipped in
there and it was a nice site.  I called up K2YAZ and we had a pretty easy
connection.  I was about 20 miles inland at EN64bd.  Back on the
road--nightfall came.  Then drizzle.  I drove about an hour in the direction
I needed to go.  I scanned the map looking for what appeared to be favorable
terrain without much wooded indications.  About four miles off of my path I
poked around in the dark and came upon a suitable spot.  I called Bob on the
cellphone and told him the headings to try.  GPS told me my subgrid and his
computer program confirmed my headings pulled from the map.  We used 1
minute beaconing sequences.  In his 2nd minute, there he was.  After another
quick sequence of peaking, we completed a CW QSO that peaked up to about S5.
There was smearing from the drizzle.  I would get doppler shifting off to
the sides and the peak was broader than normal.  But there he was and we
were complete from EN54oq.

Back on the road about another hour westward.  About 20 miles east of Wausau
I felt the terrain looked adequate right along Hwy 29.  So I pulled over.
Now the rain was heavier.  I operated from under the raised hatch on my
Toyota 4-runner.  I called him again on the cellphone.  Again we started
sequences and again in minute number 2, there he was.  Again about S-5 CW
signals.  Also, the smearing and broadening was about the same.  So there we
were complete from EN54iv and that was my longest QSO of the 2nd weekend at
263km.  It was now about 1030pm at night for me and 1130pm for Bob.  I had
to stop for a two-hour nap and got home at 3:30am.

So on the 2nd weekend I made 37 QSO's yielding 500 callsign points and 4453
distance points (4953 total).  Highlight was K2YAZ's friendly assistance to
all.  Lake Michigan activity needs more operators!  I was spoiled by our
Lake Superior work on the first weekend.  Thanks to all the guys I worked
and didn't work K2YAZ, WA8VPD, WB8TGY, NE8I, WW8M,  N8KWX, and K3SIW.  My
only other comment is that when conditions are less than good, that is the
time more robust 2m liaison radios are required.  I feel that a brick and a
beam are required.

First weekend I made 218 QSO's yielding 47404 points.  So my grand total is
255 QSO's yielding 2300 callsign points and 50057 distance points for a
grand total of  52357 points.  I'll be entering 8-land 10G only category.
Longest distace QSO for me on either weekend was 333km from Brockway to
Thompson Rest area.

This 10G stuff is fun!

Bruce Richardson - W9FZ

Breaking the Back of Love--Echo&TheBunnymen