[NLRS] 10 GHZ Contest - First weekend - prelim report - W0ZQ/RRV

[w0zq at aol.com]

Hello NLRS land.   

This past weekend a group of NLRS ops activated the Red River Valley (RRV) for the first weekend of the ARRL's 10 GHz & Up contest.   Three good things came together - first off, thanks to the ARRL for sponsoring this contest.  If there was no contest like this there is a good chance that the exciting propagation that we had would not have been exercised to its full potential like it was.  Second, thanks to my fellow RRV rovers: WA2VOI, KC0IYT, WB0LJC, K0HAC, N0UK, and K0AWU who joined us for a while on Sunday.  On Saturday, K0AWU and W0PHD were also roving the RRV just north of us a few hundred km or so.   Third, I would like to say thanks to Mother Nature for providing us with some of the most exciting tropo that I can remember during the 10 gig contest.  Conditions at times rivaled the excellent tropo that we have seen over Lake Superior during previous contest, this time at longer ranges.  So a tip of the hat to Mother Nature.

Our RRV rover pack started the contest on Saturday morning just north of Elbow Lake, MN in EN26ac.  The fog was dense at our 7:30 am start.   Looking at my log we had six aiming directions - the group at Summit (K0KFC, W9FZ, W0LCP, W7XU), the rover pack north of us (K0AWU, W0PHD), K0MHC, Buck Hill (N0KP, WA0SSN, KB0OZN), NT0V, and VE4MA.  VE4MA was 444 km, and enhancement in that direction (yet) so no Q was made, but like with all stations at all stops, we tried (with one exception .... at one stop NT0V was into some trees for us).   

Our next stop was due west, into the RRV, and EN16vc.  From this spot, we added KM0T, but no contacts with VE4MA or NT0V (we tried).  

As we then started to move north and towards Fargo, our third stop was EN16ue.  Again Q's were made with the above groups and for the first time we worked VE4MA on CW at 412 km.  I think this is the spot that we did not try with Dennis as he was into a group of trees for us.  With so many aiming directions, it is challenging to find a stop that is good in all.

Our fourth stop was EN16th.  From here we were able to work the Summit gang (114 km), KM0T (357 km), K0MHC (84 km), K0AWU/W0PHD (126 km), NT0V (271 km), and VE4MA (397 km), and Buck Hill (298 km).  By this time the weather was heating up and I was surprised to see my car thermometer only said 84 degrees because it felt like 95 !   The humidity was very high, little wind, and at times mostly clear skys.  

Moving north our fifth stop was in EN16UL where once again we made Q's in all six directions.  Our final stop of the day, about 25 miles SSE of Fargo, was EN16so.  

Sunday morning was windy (gust ~ 30 mph), a little less humid, warmer, and again sunny.  For our first two stops we used the rural county road overpasses over I-29 north of Fargo.  Access is by MN 81 that runs parallel to the freeway.  These two stops were EN17mc and EN17lg.   This was the morning of the really nice tropo and signals were strong.  Longest Q's for us were probably Buck Hill (405 km), KM0T (468 km), W0GHZ (384 km - also worked on 2m with my halo and 40 watts).  Summit at this time was about 208 km, VE4MA was 287 km, NT0V was 161 km, and K0MHC was 189 km, all with just bone crushing signals.  

>From the second overpass site north of Fargo we jogged west with what was our farthest distance we would travel to the northwest, EN17jg.  Buck Hill was worked at 415 km and KM0T at 470 km.  

>From this stop we headed south to our next two stops, EN17jb, then EN16ju.  After this, it was time to had back home and the rover team broke up to head their own way.  Gary and I made one more stop to work Buck Hill from EN16mu with weak CW both ways - propagation seemed to be faltering (as were the ops).  Our last stop just east of Fargo provided very weak beaconing with Buck Hill, so at that time we bagged it and headed for home for a needed shower & beer.

My log is a mess, but it looks to be about 115 QSO.   Activity in the RRV was certainly stirred up with lots of fun & easy Q's to be made with the tropo.  We should be reading more about this in the days & weeks to come as some stations made some amazing contacts.   Many thanks to the RRV guys - K0MHC, NT0V, VE4MA, W0PHD, and K0AWU (yea, we will throw you in there too Bill) for hosting us !    Thanks to WA0SSN, N0KP, KC0P and KB0OZN for manning EN34 India Romio - sounds like they may have been in a darn good spot on Sunday as Dave worked N4PZ, N0DQS/R (KS?) and us on tropo - way cool.  Thanks to the Summit operation too - K0KFC, W7XU, W0LCP, W9FZ - you guys were solid and we heard that you may have had some fun contacts in the tropo too.  

73, Jon
W0ZQ RRV rover