[NLRS] Weekend One, 10 GHz Contest, W0JT (L o n g)

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

After the scare that led me to believe that I had completely trashed my 
system, and the relief of tracking down the problems with the assistance of 
Gary (W0GHZ), I brought my system home and fixed a few remaining issues 
that we turned up over at Gary's house and felt good to go. I spent Friday 
accumulating the stuff I would need for the weekend trip and packing up my 
car. After a pleasant supper with my wife, I set out for Montevideo under 
the guidance of my in-vehicle Tom-Tom navigation system. The drive to 
Montevideo was (thankfully) uneventful, but when I arrived there, the 
navigation system insisted that the hotel was in an empty field on the left 
side of the road. I drove back and forth a few times and never saw it. I 
was also getting down to about 30 miles of gasoline left in the tank, so I 
pulled into a gas station and filled up. I asked the clerk for directions 
to the hotel but he just confused me with his directions. I tried to follow 
them and ended up no closer to my destination. I finally pulled in to a 
different gas station where the attendant gave me very explicit, precise, 
and correct instructions. A few minutes later, I was pulling in to the 
hotel parking lot, on the opposite side of the street from where my car's 
GPS was trying to send me, and about a mile away. Technology's great when 
it works, but when it doesn't work, watch out!

Saturday morning I got up early, loaded up the car with the few things I 
had brought into the hotel overnight, and turned on the 10 GHz system to 
get everything warmed up. Went back inside to grab breakfast from the 
morning buffet. Even though the buffet was scheduled to open at 0600 and it 
was only 0530, I asked the hotel clerk if at least the coffee was ready to 
go, and he told me that thee whole buffet was ready to go. So I had a 
pleasant, un-rushed breakfast. In short order, Chris (N0UK), Holly (K0HAC), 
and Gary (WB0LJC) arrived for breakfast, and a little while later we set 
out for our first stop in EN25DA. We arrived there about 0645 and I was a 
bit surprised at how far above the horizon the sun had already risen. Jerry 
(K0CQ) met us along the way.

We found our spot and got set up. By 0706 CDT I had W0ZQ and N0KP in the 
log, but folks were still arriving and setting up on Buck Hill. Worked 
WA2VOI and to fill up the time while waiting for the other Buck Hill Gang 
to get on the air, we worked one another in the rover pack for the uniques. 
By 0804, we had added KC0P, KC0IYT, KB0OZN, and WB0EBG to the log. From 
this stop, we also worked K0KFC and W0LCP who were in EN35rj.

Our next stop was in EN25cc, and was able to rapidly fill my log with 
contacts with W0ZQ, N0KP, KC0IYT, KB0OZN, WB0EBG, KC0P, W9FZ, and KA9VVQ. 
There was a brief delay before I could connect with NB0M and WA2VOI. These 
early morning signals were encouragingly strong. We also made two more 
contacts with K0KFC and W0LCP.

Our next stop was in EN15XB. I needed only 4 minutes to log 9 of the 10 
Buck Hill operators. One was temporarily indisposed. We again re-pointed 
about 10 degrees and worked the two folks in EN35rj before moving on.

Next stop was in EN15va. This stop was not nearly as good as the earlier 
ones, and I was only able to work four of the ten Buck Hill stations. We 
also worked K0MHC for the first time, who was located in EN15lj at the 
time. Due to the inferiority of the spot, we did not attempt to work EN35 
from here.

On to EN15sa. Or at least that was where most of us were. A couple of the 
rovers said that their GPS read out on the other side of the dividing line, 
in EN14sx. If it had been an AMSAT contest instead of an ARRL contest we 
could have moved slightly and given out BOTH locations at the same time! 
Fun! Conditions here were better, and I logged in 8 of the 10 Buck Hill 
operators in 3 minutes' time, but could not hear the other two.

The day progressed, with stops in EN14qx, EN14pu, EN14qr, EN14sq, and 
EN14un. Each of these stops yielded between 8 and 10 QSO's, depending on 
who
was not having equipment problems on the other end, and who wasn't too weak 
for me to hear. Last QSO of the day for me was at 1748 CDT.

>From there we drove to Pipestone and checked into the hotel. Most of the 
rovers went out to dinner together, but I was so beat I just grabbed a 
quick sandwich, a nice long hot shower, and jumped into bed early. Sorry, I 
wasn't trying to be anti-social. Just tired out from a long day of fun.

Sunday morning started out similar to Saturday, with the breakfast buffet 
in the hotel, and then a short drive to the first stop of the day.

We set up in EN14va and got the first 5 QSO's in the log, anticipating the 
crowd on Buck Hill to continue to swell.

We moved on to EN14xb and Murphy came back to haunt me. I was using the 
auxiliary power jack in the rear of my SUV to keep my rover battery (100 
amp-hour deep cycle AGM battery) topped off during the drives between 
stops. (The outlet shuts off when the engine is turned off, but there was 
plenty of running time on Saturday to keep the battery well-charged.) 
Unfortunately, sometime on late Saturday or early Sunday the fuse to this 
circuit had blown, unknown to me, and the battery had now drained so low 
that even the battery booster could not hold up enough voltage to keep the 
system powered up. By letting Buck Hill call me instead of the reverse, and 
by keeping my transmission as absolutely as brief as I could, I managed to 
work W0ZQ and N0KP, but that was all. Since I had two other accessory 
jacks which were on separate (un-blown) fuse circuits, I quickly 
re-arranged my wires (thank goodness for the universality of Anderson Power 
Poles) and was able to get some charging power to the battery, but had no 
idea how much charge I could put back into the battery during the drives 
between spots. I packed up and hoped for the best, moving on with the rover 
pack to the next spot.

By EN14wd, the drive had put very little charge back into my battery, and 
by giving rapid-fire responses to calls from the hill, I managed to make 
Q's with 7 of 9 operators. Many of those required me to transmit what I 
could, let the radio shut off from low voltage and reset itself, and send 
the rest of the needed info. Probably not the best treatment for the 
equipment, but at least I got a few QSO's into the log that way.

Chris loaned me a spare battery that he had charged up before the weekend. 
Unfortunately, when I plugged it into my setup, the voltage was too low to 
register on the inexpensive digital voltmeter I have built into my rig. So 
unfortunately, his battery had not held a charge. Then Gary loaned me a 
spare battery, and even though it had over 12 volts of charge on it, my 
system would shut down every time I keyed the transmitter. For whatever 
reason, his battery would not meet the peak current draw of my system 
during transmit. So I was stuck in the stix with everything needed for 10 
GHz communication except sufficient electrons to make the equipment work.

With much disappointment, I left the rovers and drove back to Burnsville. I 
ascended Buck Hill and joined the crowd up there where I was greeted 
enthusiastically, and they generously shared 12 volt power with me so I 
could get back on the air. It was really great to hook up with the crowd 
and not only operate some more, but also to get an opportunity to shoot the 
breeze with eyeball QSO's.

I worked the 5 remaining rovers when they were in EN14vt. Chris and Holly 
had to leave for home due to other commitments, so the rover pack was down 
to 3 operators whom I worked in EN14xu.

When the rovers arrived in EN24bv, I worked WB0LJC without much difficulty, 
but while listening for my turn to work the rest of the rovers, my system 
suddenly became acutely deaf. It seems odd that while simply sitting in 
receive mode it was hearing OK one moment and deaf the next, but there 
it was. I could still hear the other operators on the hill, so I knew I was 
still on frequency and not completely deaf, but the other two rovers were 
completely inaudible to me. W9FZ estimated my receive was 15dB down from 
normal. Murphy strikes again.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. I had planned to be one of the last to 
quit, but that was not to be this weekend. Instead, I got home in time for 
an early dinner, much to my wife's surprise.

Thanks go out to all the folks who helped me get on the air this weekend, 
and for the frequent unsolicited good signal reports. It was gratifying to 
not be told how much weaker I was than the rest of my companions. The 
upgraded power amplifier seemed to be accomplishing what I had hoped for. 
And as always, I cherish the friendship, companionship, camaraderie, and 
good company of the folks in this group. You all helped make the weekend a 
pleasurable one. At least, all of you EXCEPT FOR MURPHY. I really wish he 
would go away and stay away!

John, W0JT