[NLRS] ARRL 10 GHz & Up Contest - Rev A

[w0zq at aol.com]

Hello NLRS land.

The first weekend of the 10gig & Up contest is two weeks after 
Rovermania. Rovermania (aka, the UHF contest) is August 4 & 5 and is 
just a 24 hr contest. The first weekend of the 10 GHz & Up contest is 
August 18 & 19 while the second weekend is September 15 & 16 (yes, one 
week after the September VHF contest, Sept 8 & 9).

Regarding the 10 GHz & Up contest, its generally recognized that if we 
want to achieve a big score, to attempt to "win", we pretty much have 
to put in a hard effort for both weekends .... it does not make a lot 
of sense to go hard one weekend and then not do so the other weekend. 
In addition, for a number of years, we have gone hard and we have 
continued to find ways to make improvements .... our improved national 
placement and scores show that. However, for some of us, perhaps many, 
we need a break from the "going hard" approach and are looking to try 
some new things. It is recognized that by doing so, we will not "win".

If we step back from the idea of going hard for four days (both 
weekends) with the goal of "winning", the next question to ask is what 
do we want to do ? Good question. We will most likely NOT have 
consensus on the answer. However, the purpose of this email is to 
enable the discussion so that we can get as many view points in as 
possible. I hope that the group that is meeting this Saturday at Mounds 
park can continue to discuss this as well.

One of the goals for this years activity that we have talked about is 
getting more people over more area involved. We have also talked about 
working some longer paths as well as perhaps doing (a bit) more 24 GHz 
work. With that in mind, here is a very general plan for both weekends 
.... call it Rev A.

August 18/19. Activate the Red River Valley (RRV) area. The vision is 
that there would be some rovers and some fixed stations. Its understood 
that not everyone would want to travel, so its anticipated that there 
may be some local Twin Cities activity as well.   Who in or near the 
RRV would like to play this weekend ?   Who would be interesting in 
roving the RRV area ?    Who can do neither, but would be interested in 
getting something organized within the greater TC's area ?

September 15/16. For one of the days, and with some advanced 
publications (FM nets, newletters, etc) have a uW PR day. Set up in 
several spots that are easy to access by others to demo (and work) 10 
Gigs & up, perhaps off of Downtown. If we had three of four sites 
around town, it would be easy access for those who may be interested to 
see 10 Gigs in action. For the second day, no PR, but instead try some 
longer shots that we have not tried before .... perhaps with some 
coordination with the Wisc boy's, etc.

Comments and feedback welcomed.

73, Jon
W0ZQ





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