[NLRS] 10 GHz & Up Weekend # 1 - W0ZQ/R

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

Hello NLRS land.

This past weekend was  the first weekend of the ARRL's 10 GHz and Up 
Cumulative Contest.  For  those who are not familiar with this fun event, scoring is 
based on distance  where every km that you work is one point, and every unique 
station that you  work for the first time is 100 points.  After making a 
contact, if at least  one of the two stations moves at least 10 miles, they can 
make contact again for  additional contest points.   So for example, if W0ZQ 
works K0SHF for  the first time at 124 km, that would be 124 points plus 100 
unique points for a  total of 224 points.   I then move at least 10 miles and we 
make  contact again, this time at say 140 km, that's 140 points more points so 
my new  total is 224 + 140 or 364 points, and so on.   So you can see that the  
more people who are active (for the 100 unique points), and the more times 
that  we work after having moved at least 10 miles, the greater our scores.

For  this first weekend I traveled with KC0P, W9FZ, WA2VOI, and WB0LJC 
through  southeast Minnesota into northeast Iowa.   On Saturday, Mel & Gary  led us 
to a number of OUTSTANDING locations ... what I like to call a superior  VHF 
location !   Wow, I had not thought that this area of Minnesota  & Iowa had 
such vistas.   We made twelve stops from EN33ws to  EN42aw with my first logged 
QSO at 8:05 am and my last logged QSO at 7:14  pm.   Our primary focus was the 
troops that had massed on Buck Hill,  EN34ir.   In addition to the Buck Hill 
guys we did work a few single  op locations a number of times including N0AKC 
on Elk Mound, KM0T, and K2YAZ  (once).   Saturday highlights include working 
the masses at Buck Hill,  all SSB, at distances from 141 to 233 km, working 
K2YAZ at 478 km, working KM0T  from several stops at distances in th 350 to 370km 
range, working N0AKC at nine  of eleven stops, and working N0HJZ at Buck Hill 
with my 2 watt 17 dB horn system  from EN42aw at 226 km (CW).

We were up and at it again on Sunday morning  with twelve stops from EN42cq 
to EN33st.  First Q's were with W9SZ in  EN50rl at 367 km at 7:50 am followed 
by the Buck Hill boys (and girls) at 8:05  am.   Highlights on Sunday included 
once again some fine vista and  working K0MHC and K0AWU at 262 and 303 km from 
Cannon Falls during the 7:30 pm  activity hour.

Results:  24 sites  visited
220  Q's
23 unique calls worth 2,300  points
44,423 distance  points
46,723 total score for the first weekend.

I also did an Excel histogram  that shows the distribution of QSO over 
distance.   The distance  buckets in the first column are in 25 km steps.

Range (km)    QSOs
1 -  25           4
26 -  50          1
51 -  75          1
76 -  100        0
101 -  125        6
126 -  150      19
151 - 175       37
176 - 200      35
201 -  225      36
226 - 250       52
251 - 275      15
276 -  300       0
301 -  325       7
326 -  350       3
351 -  375       3
376 -  400       0
401 -  425       0
426 -  450       0
451 -  475       0
476 -  500       1

73, Jon
W0ZQ  




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