[NLRS] W0ZQ report: 10gig 1st weekend (long)

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

5:00 AM comes early on a Saturday morning.   I was wheel's up by  about 5:30 
AM with a mug of coffee and listening on 146.46.   Sure  enough, in a few 
minutes, there was WA2VOI/W0JT and W0AUS/N0NAS on .46, all of  us admiring the 
beautiful full moon as it set over the ground fog that was  slowly lifting.   
Gosh, its fun to be a ham radio operator.
 
Our 10gig rover group; W9FZ, WB0LJC, WA2VOI, W0JT, W0AUS, N0NAS, and W0ZQ  
converged on Hutchinson, MN at 7:30 AM.    At the same time N0KP,  N0UK, K0SHF, 
KC0IYT, KD0JI, WB0VHF, and KC0IJB were converging on top of the  ridge in 
Sisseton (SD) while W0GHZ, K0FQA, WA0SSN, KC0P and N0HZO  were arriving on the 
hill just east of Lonsdale, MN.   The goal  of our rover group was to work the 
fixed groups at Sisseton and Lonsdale, then  move ten miles (or more) and repeat 
the process.    Our  strategy was to move south out of Hutchinson and then 
move as need in order to  keep signals strong enough to maintain SSB QSOs.   CW 
provides greater  range (for weaker signals) but at a significantly reduced 
rate.   The  good news was that it was a good plan .... the bad news was that we 
have never  tried this before.   Was it going to be endless fun or a bust ?
 
The short answer is that it was endless fun.   Below you can see  our 
results.   The distances are in km computed using  BD-2004.   
 
On Saturday, after stop # 3, we decided that signals with Sisseton were  
starting to get marginal for SSB.   Per plan we decided to stop  moving south 
(which was increasing the distance) and instead started to  first move west then 
back north to close the range.   While this  did increase the range to Lonsdale 
we were still closer to them and their  signals were strong. 
 
Saturday night found us in Redwood Falls at dusk, pretty tired, but  enjoying 
the buffet at Jackpot Junction.   
 
Sunday AM came way too early.   By 7:00 AM we were at it  again (did I say 
its fun to be a ham, what a great  hobby).    The plan was for the Lonsdale 
group (EN34hl) to move  to Vasa (EN34pm).   Vasa is east of Lonsdale by about 40 
to 50  km, thus the distances were greater on Sunday.  The Sisseton group moved 
 from EN15kp to EN15ll.

A quick beacon for Sisseton resulted in no response so we ran with  K0AWU for 
about 20 minutes with nothing heard either  way.   I think this path was over 
500 km so its no surprise, but  if it was going to happen without RS it was 
going to be in the early  morning.   At around 7:20 AM we hooked up with Vasa 
for the first  time and work them with good signals.   With the dish  on Vasa, 
bearing of about 87 degrees, I heard N0UK in Sisseton calling me  (their 
bearing was 307 degrees) off the back of my dish ... QRM on 10.368.100  !   
 
With the Sisseton group so strong we decided to head south out of Redwood  
Falls in order to open up the distance (more points).   You can see  the 
distance going up from Sunday #1 to # 5 where once again we decided to move  north to 
bring the distance back down.
 
During the weekend we were able to pretty successfully run on two 10gig  
frequencies simultaneously.   This really helped with the overall QSO  rate as we 
did not have to wait for everyone in the rover group to work everyone  in one 
fixed group before we started to work the second fixed group.    There were a 
few times when we had desensing problems, but when they did occur  we worked 
around it.   Also, by working two frequencies, we could free  up a couple of 
operators more quickly, and this released them to start to search  for the next 
stop.   
 
Speaking of stops that was one of the more challenging aspects .... finding  
a spot that had a shot to both Sisseton and Lonsdale/Vasa and that was  
reasonably safe.   We learned to appreciate soybeans and dislike  corn.   Having a 
couple of rovers who could spread out after passing  through 10 miles was a 
considerable help.    We (ok, me) did  messed up at the very last stop on Sunday 
where I tried to run east to open up  the distance with Sisseton only to run 
into a well foliaged lake at around 8  miles (that was the delay late on Sunday 
between stops # 11 and # 12 ... getting  around the !!&%$#  lake ).   
 
In closing, I think that the weekend was a success.    We  were able to show 
that 150 to 240 km paths are consistently doable using only  SSB and that 
split frequencies can speed up throughput.      I have over 270 QSOs.   I know 
that I heard EN15 "lucky Larry" and  EN34 "pet monkey" in my sleep !    The rover 
team concept worked  great ..... there was once or twice where the rovers got 
to far apart from each  other, but we recognized this and made sure it didn't 
happen again ..... we  learned as we roved.   We also tried to keep the last 
guy on the  appropriate dish heading until the next guy arrived & got set-up 
so that we  could hand off the link to them .... this didn't happen all the 
time, but  most the time.   
 
The highlight of the contest for me ?   Watching W0AUS fix  his 10gig 
transverter by delivering a sharp blow to its under side .... kind of  like the Fonz 
elbowing the jukebox.   
 
73, Jon
W0ZQ
 
 
Saturday       EN15kp  EN34hl
# 1   EN24tu      233        90
# 2   EN24tr       239        84
# 3   EN24tn      248        80
# 4   EN24ro      234        94
# 5   EN24ql      236        99
# 6   EN24po     223       107
# 7   EN24pr      216       109
# 8   EN24pv      207       115
# 9   EN24nw     193       129
# 10 EN24lx       179       142
# 11  EN24lt       188        137
# 12 EN24mr     198        129
# 13 EN24mo    206        127
# 14 EN24kl       204       139
 
Sunday          EN15ll   EN34pm
# 1   EN24kl       188        192
# 2   EN24kh      199        194
# 3   EN24ke      209        196
# 4    EN24jb       214        206
# 5    EN24lb       223        193
# 6    EN24ne     224         177
# 7   EN24nh      215        174
# 8    EN24pi       223        160
# 9    EN24pl      215         159
# 10 EN24pp      206        159
# 11  EN24ps     200         161
# 12  EN24rt      210         149

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