[NLRS] First Weekend, 10 GHz & Up Contest ( L O N G ), W0JT

[John P. Toscano]

Well, I survived my first "real" weekend of 10 GHz contesting.  I was on 
the North Shore team, that ran from Duluth to Grand Marais on Saturday, 
and from Grand Portage back to Duluth on Sunday.

A quick look at the pencil-and-paper logs seems to show over 140 QSO's 
totalling well over 30,000 points, which is more than 10 times my 
previous best 10 GHz score (earned last year with W0AUS's loaner rig), 
and we still have another weekend to go.  Some of the other stations 
with lower power (< 2 watts) missed some QSO's, and some folks with 
better equipment and better skills than me made additional QSO's that I 
missed, as you might expect.

It was not a trouble-free weekend; some had more trouble than others. 
One system fell over on Friday night during testing and didn't work 
again; fortunately, N0KP provided a complete loaner system for the 
weekend to that operator.  One system lost its PA, so instead of running 
about a watt, he ran with about 20 mW if I am not mistaken.  (I was 
amazed that he didn't give up, and that he still made quite a few 
successful QSO's over some considerable distances.)  And I had battery 
problems again -- my primary gel cells pooped out at the third stop, in 
fact, right when it was time for me to take my turn to work all the U.P. 
folks, whom I was hearing clearly.  So I switched over to my brand new 
"secondary" gel cell, but by the time I waited to get my turn after 
everyone else, conditions had faded to nil and I missed all the U.P. 
operators.  And my vehicle's charging system wasn't up to the task of 
replenishing enough of the charge on the cell between stops, and though 
it lasted all day Saturday and got a thorough charge Saturday night in 
the hotel room, it *ALMOST* made it through the day on Sunday.  The last 
5 QSO's in Sunday's log were made with borrowed batteries.  (I also 
managed to blow the fuse to the power outlets in my vehicle, and 
discovered that my supply of spare fuses was worthless because my new 
vehicle uses the Mini-ATO size instead of the larger size I had brought 
along.  Doh!)

Band conditions were extremely variable.  On Sunday morning, we managed 
only a few QSO's between Grand Portage and Sunset Bay Campground, which 
was the SHORTEST path we used from the North Shore to the Upper 
Peninsula; some of that was due to U.P. operators still dodging the 
thunderstorm that had passed through, but some of it was very poor 
propagation.  I was scared that it would only get worse throughout the 
day because we were going to be moving further and further apart, but in 
short, it didn't happen that way (thank goodness!) -- some further spots 
had excellent signals.  My longest QSO was 333 Km and only barely was 
made, even though conditions shortly before then had been quite 
acceptable over only a slightly shorter path.  The one consistent 
comment I heard was "conditions are not like last year".  Not having 
been there last year, but having heard some of the stories, I have every 
reason to believe the comment to be valid.  In most cases, low spots 
close to the lake worked better than high spots, and propagation seemed 
better when the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds.

We were luckier in the weather department on the North Shore than on the 
Michigan Upper Peninsula.  Our operating temperatures ranged from about 
45 degrees F to about 75 degrees F.  On our side of the lake, it only 
rained lightly in the very early morning hours on Sunday, and had 
stopped before our 5 AM awakening time.  As mentioned above, the U.P. 
folks had to "batten down the hatches" for awhile due to thunderstorms.

Oh well, enough for now.  I'm exhausted, even though I stayed in Duluth 
Sunday night and had a leisurely return trip -- we slept in later than 
usual, and my wife drove most of the way back!  But I suspect other 
folks are either worn out or too busy to send out their initial 
impressions.  Hopefully, both of those situations will resolve.  (It's 
back to the salt mines for me, so I may be laying low while I get caught 
up at work!  But I do plan a much more extensive writeup later.)

73 de W0JT