[NLRS] Roving, roving, roving - 10 Gigs!

[Chris Cox]

So, one weekend down, one to go.

The ARRL 10GHz Cumulative contest is still one of my most favourite radio contests, and this weekend’s rove mostly lived up to expectations and was certainly enjoyed by this rover!

The group I ran with comprised a good mix of operators who are all well-seasoned contesters and with varying levels of experience playing on 3cm.  I was very happy to hear that Bill and Elizabeth Caldwell had chosen to rejoin us this year, having experienced the fun last year up on the North Shore of Lake Superior, as well as my Uptown neighbor, Bill Mitchell, AE0EE, for whom this was his first 10 GHz contest.  

Unfortunately, the rig we assembled of him to use was plagued with a very deaf receiver with signals being ~20dB below what should be reasonably expected.  That significantly limited the number of Qs possible despite the great patience and generosity of the Wilmott, SD group and especially Bruce and Janice who very kindly and willingly hung around to assist remotely as we attempted extensive troubleshooting in the field to fix the problem.  THANK YOU ALL!!!

Collectively we managed to eliminate many of the possible defective components but were unable to get the problem corrected.  Research done yesterday dug up an application note that DEMI published years back describing the symptoms exhibited and it is likely that the RX mixer diode pkg was zapped by stray transmit RF at some point.  Parts are on order and hopefully we’ll have the rig back to full function prior to next month’s foray!

Thank you to my roving teammates for a smashing time this weekend both on the road and at dinner on Saturday evening and again to the stellar support from all the folks in South Dakota and the Richardson Rovers for their efforts and patience.

See you next month!

Chris (and Holly!)
 
Chris Cox, N0UK
chrisc at chris.org LinkedIn.com/in/Chris-Cox-CISM