[NLRS] 10 GHz Cumulative Weekend #1 fun

Fri Aug 22 22:07:06 EDT 2008

Hi Gary,

Just a comment on the 8W oscillator. I had coupling between the DEMI 2 W and
8 W Pas and ended up putting some rf absorber around the 2 W PA to kill the
feedback path. That is a huge amount of gain in close proximity and it seems
to find a way

Barry VE4MA

-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of wb0ljc
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 1:33 PM
To: NLRS
Subject: [NLRS] 10 GHz Cumulative Weekend #1 fun

Hi Everyone,

The 10 Gigers were out last weekend having fun during the first
round of the 10 GHz and Up Cumulative Contest.The turn out
was good, with only a few of the regulars missing due to family
commitments and one due to illness. The fixed group, at Buck Hill,
varied between six and twelve operators. The Buck Hill group included
Dave, NØKP, Tony, KDØJI, Jim, KØKFC, Gary, WØGHZ, Don, WAØSSN,
Ed. WBØVHF, Linda, KCØIJB, Glen, KCØIYT, John, WØJT, Chris, NØUK,
Holly, KØHAC, Mike, KBØOZN, and Rich, NØHJZ.The rover group, which
consisted of Jon, WØZQ, Bruce, W9FZ, Mel, KCØP, Donn, WA2VOI
and Gary, WBØLJC, traveled through SE MN and NE Iowa. The rover
pack made eleven stops on Saturday and thirteen stops on Sunday.
Our last stop was at Highview Road, just south of Cannon Falls, for
the activity hour. Bruce and I made one extra stop Sunday evening.

Highlights of the trip where:

1)  Working Charlie, NØAKC, nine times while he was at Elk Mound
     in Wisconsin.
2) Working Mike, KMØT, eleven times during the weekend. Every contact
    was over 310 kM, about 200 miles. Our longest contacts where 373 kM,
    over 230 miles, which we did from two different sites. We didn't always
    try to work Mike because some of the sites we picked didn't have
    a clear takeoff in his direction and at other times he was busy with his
    young family.
3) Working Mike, KBØOZN, on SSB a number of times from the hill.
    All contacts were over 210 kM. Mike is only running 200 mW.
4) Working Bill, KØAWU, in EN37 and Jim, KØMHC, in EN26 from south of
    Cannon Falls during the activity hour.
5) Working Steve, N4PZ, in EN50gb at 380 kM and Ron, W9ZIH, in EN51nv
    at 427 kM from Vasa (EN34pm) Sunday evening. Bruce and I moved to
    Vasa after the other rovers called it a day. We also worked Gary, WØGHZ,
    and Jim, KØKFC, at short chip shot distances from Vasa. Bill, KØAWU,
    put another 300 kM Q in the log first on CW and then on SSB  We ran
    another sked with K2YAZ, EN74av, at a distance of 536 kM, 335 miles.
    My beacon was heard but we didn't connect for the Q.Even without YAZ
    we managed to work VUCC while we were there.
6) I had a good time running with the rest of the rovers. We also got to see
     some great sites, with some killer views.
7)  Every contact with the Buck Hill was on SSB.
     Our longest contact with the Hill was 260 kM.
8) Running the whole weekend off of one battery. I forgot to bring it inside
    to charge it Saturday evening. Even so, it was still at 12.65 V when I
    got home.
9) The nice weather, sunny, no rain, lite wind and not to warm or cold.

Lowlights:

1) At our first site Saturday morning my rig was oscillating and putting out
    8 W with no drive. I figured that I was going to be the map reader for 
the
    rest of the weekend. Donn suggested trying the second battery. The main
    battery which I call the "body builder battery" is the 92 AH beast. 
After
    changing batteries it stopped oscillating.I changed back to the big 
battery
    and everything was ok. The same oscillation showed up again during the
    weekend but I was able to keep making contacts.
2) The low turnout for the activity hour. Only Dave, NØKP, and Glenn, 
KCØIYT,
    were on and they had both spent the weekend at Buck Hill.
3) Hearing but not being able to make some contacts.
    I heard K2YAZ weakly but couldn't make the Q Jon, WØZQ, was the only
    one to work YAZ from the Hanover site in Iowa. Jon also had contacts
    with W9SZ in EN50rl Sunday morning. Again I heard him weakly and was
    being heard but the Buck Hill group was ready to go and I didn't want to
    hold everyone else up while Zack and I tried worked. Missing the contact
    with Rich, NØHJZ, when he was at Buck Hill running 2 W to a 17 dBi horn.
    Jon, ZQ, with his superior CW skills, pulled this one out too.
    I guess I need to work on my CW skills and improve the receive a little.
    Maybe I need to upgrade from the 18" dish to the 30" dish. If there was
    just some way to get it in and out of the vehicle quickly.

Results:   25 sites visited
              221 Q's
              22 unique calls worth 220 points
              43321 distance points
              45521 total score for the first weekend.

Thanks to everyone who was on the air last weekend.

The second weekend will be Saturday September 20th and Sunday the 21st.
We need some ideas on what we should do. Please let me know.

For those of you who haven't joined the fun, give it some thought.
Visit the fixed site and make a few Q's. We can find some loaner
equipment for you to use.

73, Gary  WBØLJC 

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