[NLRS] 10G activity this afternoon (Sunday)

[Bruce Richardson]

As you know, today was a BEAUTIFUL day.  Well I spent 4 hours of it outdoors
on my favorite hilltop.  Sure, I only made three contacts but that was fine.
I looked at maps, straightened the car, ate my lunch, and just enjoyed my
time on the hill.

Sounds like the two groups in the Twin Cities had a good time.  I did too!

I worked W0ZQ and N0UK when they were at EN34ij.  I haven't chased it
through BD lately, but it's about a 150 mile shot.  We beaconed for about 5
sequences each before ZQ heard me first.  THen we got peaked up and netted
on freq.  Jon was 539 and Chris was just down from that a bit.  Apparently
no one else could hear me well enough to work.

I ran with W0GHZ/WA2VOI/W0AUS (and others?) by beaconing for about 6 or 7 1
minute exchanges each.  Nothing heard on either end so we called it off.

Then I got a call from Jerry WA9O saying he was going out to a high spot in
Waukesha to give it a try.  Jerry's running 2w to a DSS dish.  While he was
enroute to his spot, I got out my aviation maps to determine our headings.
Jerry and I decided to use directed beaconing.  By that I mean, one would
beacon till the listening station just couldn't take it anymore and then
switch roles.  We did about 5 minutes each, and then on the next exchange,
Jerry heard me and we started getting peaked up on each other.  Jerry heard
me ok-about a 539.  I heard Jerry just above the noise.  I had to keep
playing with the RIT to confirm the signal.  I find I need to swish back and
forth a bit for my ear to distinguish signal from the background noise.
This was about a 120 mile shot.  It's a new grid for me.

Jerry has a phase-locked LO so he's always on frequency.  I'll have to ask
him how far he had to go to find me--I think 3 or 4 kc's.

I'm thrilled that we could go out and make something happen.  Oh sure, it's
not a distance record, but I'm glad that our equipment and skills are to the
point that we can point and tune and find weak-signals.

Cellphones worked out well today as liaison rigs.

Bruce Richardson
W9FZ