[NLRS] 10GHz comments from Southern Ontario

[Donn Baker]

Hi all,
Steve, VE3SMA, sent the following today, and I've included some additional
comments from our e-mail chat.  (Steve gave permission for my posting his
comments.)  We had a long conversation re: evaporation ducting at CSVHF.

73 Donn
WA2VOI/0

(from Steve, VE3SMA)
Lake Erie was performing its propagation magic again
on Saturday.  

VE3OIK (EN82sb, 1 watt, 2 ft dish) worked VE3NPB
(EN92sn, 150 mW, 20 dB horn, no preamp) and VE3SMA
(EN92sn, 250 mW, 2 ft dish) over a 173 km path between
beach locations with S9+ signals on 10 GHz SSB, while
the 2m SSB talkback link was very marginal with 25 W
and 5 and 7 element beams at 10-20 ft.  Later QSOs
over shorter paths with one station elevated perhaps
50 ft gave weaker (though still strong) signals, and
in one attempt nothing at all (though for that one
there was a very small amount of land near the
midpoint of the path).

VE3CRU and VE3OIK also completed a 113 km
beach-to-beach QSO around the same time on 10 GHz
wideband FM (OIK was running about 200mW to a 2 ft
dish and CRU had 40 mW to a 23 dB horn).

It's tempting to suspect evaporation duct propagation.
 I haven't tried to gather any meteorological data -
too tired after the weekend contest effort !  The wx
was warm (perhaps 24 deg C) and sunny, some breeze. 
Hepburn forecast was for moderate to good tropo -
didn't seem to be helping much on 2m as we initially
had to make contact on CW.

In any case, it would seem that the really good 10 GHz
propagation corresponds best to times when the weather
is favourable for tropo, but operation from within a
few feet of the water level results in a huge
enhancement for 10 GHz which is not there at VHF.  So
whether the refracting layer is truly an evaporation
duct or a traditional tropo effect it seems it isn't
(in this case anyway) thick enough to have much effect
at 144 MHz and is surface-based.

73,
Steve VE3SMA


Donn: 

> I did about 7k pts for the weekend, and will end up
> with about 34,000 for the whole contest.  Lake
> Superior is GREAT for points !!

Sure is ! That's an excellent score.  I think the
lower lakes could be too, though average distance
would be less, but we have a number of challenges,
including:
(1) Very few of the Ontario and WNY microwave
operators are really contest-oriented, so while keen
on dx and technical challenges, they are not oriented
at optimizing equipment, skills and plans for score. 
Fair enough, though frustrating for those of us with a
contest background.  The property across the street
from one of our traditional favourite operating sites
is now occupied by an emerging major HF contest
multi-op station.  We were visited by a couple of
their operators on Sunday - maybe we'll make some
converts !
(2) In southern Ontario, as there having been
operations in this contest every year since it
started, we have a significant legacy of WBFM
operators around.  QSOs on WBFM take much longer,
usually.  Some are reluctant to move to narrowband due
to the large expense compared to the $50 or so a WBFM
rig costs.
(3) This year in particular the Rochester,NY group has
been focussed on 47 GHz.  They are doing great stuff
there, but it doesn't generate many contest points !
(4) No activity in Northern Ohio at present.

I think I am under 5 k for the whole contest (again
!), but certainly had fun.  I don't think I have
missed this event since it first started !

73,
Steve VE3SMA