[NLRS] A Weekend Radio report

[Bill K0AWU]

  Oh my ... is it September or January?? 

  Sat morning I had a fire in the woodstove and I was splitting more wood 
before "contest time". We had a low of 33.8deg Saturday morning. Then 
judging from the activity/conditions during the contest, I would have swore 
that it was NOT a September contest, but January.

  The activity and conditions were better on Saturday than Sunday it 
appeared, but poor both days from here. Odd 6m conditions, at times 
GREAT and other paths almost NOT there at all.

   Band       Qs        Grids
      50         41          21
    144         68          27
    222         22         12
    432         29         14
   1296          3           3
  10Ghz        6           3

  Total        169        80      19,520 Pts

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  YEP!!! More Qs on 10Ghz than 1296!! Go figure!

   Jon and Gary (FQA & GHZ) took their 10Ghz portables with them to the 
Rush City hamfest and on the way back we had Qs with both of them 
from EN36 and EN35. The location they used in EN35 resulted in S9 SSB 
10Ghz signals... MUCH better signals than the 2m mobile signal I can tell 
you. Thanks Gary and Jon ... that was very "cool". Jon W0ZQ was worked 
on 10Ghz (with nice signals on this end) on a EN34 12:45pm sked 
Sunday. Jon was over 10db above the noise on the SDRec display. I saw 
his first transmission and the Q was made without a missed sequence, in 
less than  5min THANKS Jon!

  Never heard anyone SW of the cities all weekend, that direction and NW 
had BAD linenoise all weekend (quiet this morning). I called often and 
heard briefly a mobile in EN25 late last night (on 2m) but not a Q in that 
direction. At times the only way to hear anything with a west component 
on 2m was to turn the audio on the 746Pro down and just listen with the
SDReceiver... PowerSD software noise blankers allowed some signals to 
be heard. It seems many were troubled with QRN of one type or another.

Bruce W9FZ/R was worked only from EN46 and 56. His MI EN46 location 
was great .. Easy sweep 50-1296. We tried 10Ghz from that location, but 
I'm guessing that my trees and rising elevation across the lake is too 
much for tropo in that direction.... rats! His EN56 location provided 
newgrids for me on 222 and 432. Thanks Bruce!!

The rovers worked included W6GMT,W9FZ,KF0Q, W0ZQ,KC0IYT, 
WA0VPJ,N0IM. Thanks guys, you were 26% of my Qs! Sorry if I missed 
anyone in my list. Brock W6GMT/R was great to have out Saturday roving 
in the "north woods", but a "Check Engine Light" kept him from the rover 
on Sunday.

Never heard Scott in the UP, looked MANY times, heard Justin K9MU 
many times on 2m, but he could not hear my 800watts. NEVER heard 
Dan N0URW ... odd ... no Q with DRH on 432... can't ever recall having 
not worked him on 432. Repeated attempts with N9TTX on 432 were 
without signals on either end. Other than FZ on EN46, my only other 1296 
contacts were with KB0CIM and W0GHZ. Sure missed K0CJ, KI0LE, 
W0LER, N0JCY, K0JO and others that are easy Qs on 1296.

SO .... not a September contest the be excited about! But beats just white 
noise.

Please look north before the January contest. I'll bet we can enjoy a visit 
almost as much as exchanging contest grid squares!

Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed