[NLRS] Fun evening on the microwaves

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

Boy, what a fun summer of VHFing so far  !   The June contest was an absolute 
hoot, CQWWVHF was awesome, and we  ACTUALLY had a nice tropo opening too.   
Now the CSVHF conference is  upon us, Rovermania III is about to be hatched, 
and the 10 GHz & Up contests  too.   Whew.   

OK, a brief report on my fun with  10gigs last nite.   After reviewing the 
radar, peeking at the K0SM  RainScatter tool, and a few exchanges on N0UK's 
rainscatter reflector, I drove  to the Burnsville hill south of the MN River and 
immediately east of 35W to set  up and look north.   I first heard and worked 
Bruce, W9FZ, who was  doing the same from his apartment balcony in Mendota 
Heights ... fun thing is  that we were both aimed west and worked on rain 
backscatter of some cell to our  west as signals were heavily distorted and aurora 
like.    

After that, looking on a bearing of 310 I found Dennis, NT0V, calling  CQ.   
Dennis is EN08oc, Devils Lake, ND, a distance of 558 km (347  miles).   Dennis 
was 54RS ... a nice CW signal with the characteristic  rain scatter 
distortion (sounds like 2m AU).   

I then swung  north looking for Bill, K0AWU.   Instead I first found Mike, 
KM0T,  beaconing.   Funny thing was that I was aiming north, and Mike in  
EN13vc, is SW.   I swung the dish around looking for other peaks, but  he 
disappeared, so I swung the dish north again and we worked on rain  backscatter with 
55RS CW signals.   After that, I peaked the dish a  bit more and we worked on FM 
(sometimes the AU like distortion is so bad that  you have to go to FM).     
During our QSO I heard Bill,  K0AWU, EN37ed, under us making some noise so I 
signed with Mike and worked  Bill   

So a fun evening on the microwaves from the Burnsville  hill.  Worked W9FZ 
(EN34), NT0V (EN08oc), KM0T (EN13VC), and K0AWU  (EN37ed).     

73, Jon
W0ZQ


Come and  join us here in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the Mall of 
America, July 28  & 29, 2006 for the 40th annual Central States VHF Society 
Conference hosted  once again by the NLRS.