CSVHFS 2025 Conference, Lincoln, NE

 Debbie KC9ULA and I, KO0Z, were able to attend another outstanding Central States VHF Society conference held on July 24-27 in EN10pu, Lincoln, NE.  The weather was noticeably cooler and less humid than what we were experiencing in St. Louis.

We left St. Peters around 8 am and arrived at Lincoln around 3:40 pm.  Not a bad trip.  It was great seeing friends and making new ones. The forums were top notch and the banquet was delicious.  I had steak and shrimp and Debbie had chicken.

On Sunday, we left the hotel around 9 am and arrived in St. Peters around 4:30 pm.  

It's said a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than render a detailed narrative, I'll let my pictures tell the tale.

 

Pete N0OY's "ride"

                                                 Bill N0LNO  chatting with Steve N2CEI on rover row.

                                                  Outside Country Inn and Suites, Lincoln, NE

                                                                 Jon W0ZQ next to his dish 

                                                 Mark KG9OV/R along with Pat

                                                                          Inside Mark's rover

                                    Rod K0DAS chatting with Greg WQ0P.  Greg has a 10 GHz Horn

Mark WB0TEM  and Arliss W7XU visiting with Greg WQ0P

    

                                                                Greg and Pete at  the banquet

                                                 Debbie KC9ULA enjoying Italian cuisine

Congratulations Herbert!

 Congratulations to SLAMS member Herbert AF4JF for taking 3rd place in the CSVHFS Spring Sprints 432 Rover category.  Herbert's certificate was awarded on Saturday, July 26th at the society's conference banquet in Lincoln, NE.  Nicely done H!

 

 

 

Annual SLAMS/BARS Lunch 2024

We, the SLAMS group, have met at our favorite Chandler Hill Winery for the 8th annual lunch in a row. This is a traditional meeting that closes the year of our microwave activities, we use it to discuss the results and make plans for the next year. At least in theory. The weather wasn't really friendly today, so we only had a fewn participants. Evenn the winery was far less busy than usual

Kevin AD7OI with his wife Tammy KI7GVT, Ron KO0Z with his wife Debbie KC9ULA and myself (Herbert AF4JF) with my dog Darcey, soon to be licensed K9DOG. Darcey was too short to sit at the table, so she ate her lunch under it.

Chandler Hill Winery

KC9ULA, KO0Z, KI7GVT and AD7OI at the table

AF4JF taking selfie of himself

Darcey listening to the conversation

Some of our members expressed concerns about sitting outside in the cold .. this winery has indoor and outdoor seating. The outdoor seating is either open or covered. We usually sit in the covered section, with big heaters. The place certainly is not cold.

Covered outdoor seating

One of nearby heaters

Heater installed above our table

The food was tasty as usual. We had lots of fun discussing the usual ham radio topics. In addition to that, Kevin just received his private pilot license, we discussed that in length. Two hours flew by and we took leave. Hope to meet there again in bigger numbers next year!

Microwave Activity (MAD) Day on November 2, 2024

Once again did the SLAMS guys try to spread some radio-activity in the Saint Louis area. It was a nice, warm day with temperature in upper 60's, blue skies .. perfect for family activities. Which turned out to be a problem, at least in the Pere Marquette park where Herbert, AF4JF went with his furry companion Darcey.

The plan was to try all our microwave bands between Eagles Roost (in the Pere Marquette park) in EM48rx where Herbert AF4JF was going to set up, Ron KO0Z who picked our favorite parking lot at the Community College in Cottleville in EM48qs and Harry WA0CNS who went to his favorite High Ridge, EM48rl. The distance between Herbert and Harry was about 34 miles, distances between Herbert and Ron or Ron and Harry were about half that.

Herbert had to cross the two rivers that separate Saint Charles, MO from Grafton, IL on a ferry. That was not exactly problematic, despite the fact that Herbert's car did not fit on a ferry (too many cars) and had to wait one extra round trip of that floating vehicle. Where are all these cars going?

.... of course, they all went to the Pere Marquette park. The parking at the park visitor center was completely full. So was the usual parking lot at the first viewing point at Eagles Roost where we usually park and operate from. Second parking at the Flagpole was crowded as well, so Herbert went to the next spot that we never used before because it was blocked by heavy foliage with no open view.

Surprise! The park people finally decided that "viewing point" has something to do with "seeing" and cut all the bushes that blocked the view. See following pictures. Even better, nobody from the other visitors expected this, so this parking was EMPTY.

This is South

Darcey supervising station setup

Herbert set up all his bands from 902MHz to 122GHz. Space in the back of the SUV is somewhat limited, so the higher bands (on tripods) were tested first and the lower bands with a logatithmic beam had to wait after the tripods were moved aside.

10GHz station in front

The topic of this MAD day was to test if we can make QSOs betweens us and Harry WA0CNS who was using his home made SDR transceiver PLUTO with Raspberry Pi front end, running only about 250mW. Not too surprising result - yes, QSOs with the PLUTO were made on 902MHz, 1296MHz, 2304MHz and 3400MHz. In addition to that also on 10368MHz using our "big" stations with 3W of power.

We were quite tired when we started the journey back home. All of us made it safely and added another chapter to the book of successful microwave activities in our area.

AF4JF waiting for the ferry to get back to Missouri and home

How the SLAMS tried to combine SPRINT Microwave with an expedition to Knob Lick in EM47tp

It was Saturday October 5 (2024), the day of both, MAD Day (stands for Microwave Activity Day) and SPRINT Microwave contest. The SLAMS group from Saint Louis decided to look for a new contest location in different than our own grid (EM48) and closer to other VHF+ stations. We have done similar explorer trip to that area 3 years ago (see our posting here) but did not find anything remarkably good at that time. Friends from the Saint Louis QRP Society (SLQS) told us about a hill they use for POTA activations and we decided to try that.

Herbert AF4JF, Harry WA0CNS, Ron KO0Z and Jim KK0U went to Knob Lick in EM47tp in the morning. We intended to try 1296MHz and 10GHz with our friends in EM64, EM65 and EM13. That's Tennessee, Alabama and Texas. The location is truly on the hill, one of the tallest in Missouri and it really looks good. Jim KK0U told us that this is an excellent place for HF activity, such as SOTA/POTA. First impression upon arrival was magnificient!

Nice find on the hilltop!

There is Texas somewhere in that direction

Fire tower on premises

There is a platform in the middle of the stairway

Jim KK0U climbed the stairs and shot this video from the accessible platform

As you can see in the video, there is 360 degrees open view above the tree level from that platform. The fence has holes big enough not to bother 10GHz signals, but probably not too good for lower bands, such as 23cm or even VHF, so we did not even try to carry the equipment (and batteries) up that high and set up on the ground instead.

Jim KK0U listening on 10GHz

Team setting up on the ground

On the other side were several guys. Next two pictures are from Blevins Gap in EM64rp

Left to right:
Jay/K4NKT (3cm)
Bob/KV4PC (23cm, 33cm)
Bob/KV4PC (3cm)
Stephen/KY4G (23cm)

Chris NV4B

We were communicating with the other groups using phones, SLACK and GroupMe chats, SMS messages ... one guy spoke for the group, so we do not even have all their names or callsigns. I have tried to work NV4B, WG8S, KV4PC, KY4G, W4RXR, K4NKT and AA5C. There were probably more and I apologize for not capturing all the callsigns.

To make this long story short - we did not make any QSOs. Not a single one. This was a microwave contest and distances were simply too long for the meager propagation that day. However, we are HAPPY with this location! We definitely will come back, probably for one of the VHF contests, with full set of bands 50MHz to 122GHz. Also, we will probably employ Q65 for microwave digi modes from there.

ARRL 10GHz And Up Contest 2024

As Ron KO0Z mentioned in his posting last month, we were planning on publishing two narratives about our biggest microwave contest of the year. I apologize for being a little late with my addition, there is not much left to say what Ron did not cover in his posting anyway.

Let's start at the begin. First half of the contest, Saturday August 17 (2024). Ron KO0Z with Debbie KC9ULA went to Frenchman's Bluff while I was packing my station in the morning (I have returned from a business trip just the night before). Harry WA0CNS joined me with his 10GHz station for the day. Since we shared my car, we did not have space for higher bands this time. Ron went somewhere West along I-70 while Harry and myself tried to find the Frenchman's Bluff. Surprisingly, we succeeded and even found shorter way than last time. Nice, warm (well, hot) weather, blue skies and no rain clouds in the direction towards West where the location is open to.

Ron KO0Z arrived at Moberly airport in EM39sl while we were in EM49ma It's just 85 miles or so, but we did not hear each other - neither on mine or on Harry's station. Ron just worked NA0Y on 10GHz so we assumed that his station was working and decided to take a look at the terrain profile later at home ... and Yes, the terrain seems to be the problem. We were at the very bottom on the right hand side:

Moberly - Frenchamn's Bluff path

From here, we went to Hannibal to our favorite Lover's Leap in EM49hq to join Kevin AD7OI. Ron covered that part nicely in his narrative, so I will only add that I was not able to hear the WB0LJC group in Minnesota although Kevin worked them SSB .. well, not only his 60W station makes its own path through the atmosphere, but it also receives very good. Subject to look at during the coming winter (I intend to replace mu LNA with new one from Kuhne). I worked K9JK across reasonable distance that day.

AF4JF and WA0CNS set up in EM49hq

Lover's Leap has a new "decoration"

Kevin AD7OI explaining ham radio to bystanders

Second half of the contest was more exciting. We only went out on Sunday September 22 (2024) and only to Louisiana in EM49lk. There were no rain clouds to use and generally nobody to work. Except Bruce W9FZ and Janice KA9VVQ who came close enough to us to make a QSO. It was hard, but we made 385km contacts! This was also the first outing where Jim KK0U joined us with 10GHz station.

Aiming towards EN42px from EM49lk

Jim KK0U operating 10GHz

Ron KO0Z on his truck

ARRL 10 GHz and Up 2024 Contest SLAMS Style

 This year, we plan to include two ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest narratives.  One provided by me, Ron KO0Z and the other by my friend Herbert AF4JF.  For the first round of the contest, Saturday, August 17, 2024 we got a late start.  I wanted to activate for the first time (as far as I know) a microwave station from Frenchmen's Bluff  EM49ma at Cuivre River State Park near Troy, MO. Debbie KC9ULA and I arrived there and were on the air by 10:25 am.  I was able to hear Greg WQ0P (EM19wf) on CW and he was able to see me in his waterfall, but my signal was in his noise level.   At 10:35 Pete N0OY EM18ct tried to work me but both of us couldn't hear each other.  We gave it the "good old college try." This was approximately 278/368 mile path between us.  On a side note, KO0Z waited a few minutes to transmit to give a hiker time to propose to his fiancee.  She accepted!

             Debbie KC9ULA and Toula at Frenchmen's Bluff EM49ma with a good westerly view.

From EM49ma, Debbie and Ron traveled along I-70 to EM38xw just west of Kingdom City, MO.  Around 2:09 pm, I tried working Gedas W8BYA from this spot via rain scatter centered over Indiana but to no avail.  I was able to put Pete N0OY EM18ct in my log with a 529 signal at 1:10 pm!  A 497 km (308 miles) path!  The weather was in the 80s and humidity was nice, partly sunny skies.  

                                         My dish aimed at Pete N0OY from EM38xw along I-70
 

Our next stop was the Moberly, MO regional airport EM39sl along MO Route 63.  We attempted a Q with Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS who arrived at Frenchmen's Bluff at 3:24 pm a distance of 136 km.  This should have been a slam dunk, but we were unable to hear each other.  Go figure!

                                       The easterly view from Moberly Airport EM39sl

After this disappointing attempt, Debbie and I made tracks for Hannibal, MO EM49hq for a 6:00 pm sked with rovers Gary WB0LJC, Larry WA9TT, Chris N0UK and Holly K0HAC.  We arrived in time, however my rig developed a short and blew a few fuses.  I was dead in the water.

                                                My rig with a blown fuse.  DRATS!

                                                  Kevin AD7OI, et.al. and a EM49hq sunset

                                            Herbert AF4JF making contacts from EM49hq

                          

                       Harry WA0CNS adjusting his rig at EM49hq overlooking the mighty Mississippi River

                                                  Leg #2 Saturday, September 21, 2024

For me the second weekend of the contest wasn't shaping up too well.  Most of the uW ops were up north along Lake Michigan.  Herbert AF4JF just got back home from a week long business trip.  Harry WA0CNS wasn't available for the weekend.  Simply put there wasn't anyone to work.  Or so it seemed.  A brand new microwaver and experienced HF contester Jim Smith KK0U was willing to try out the contest with our SLAMS loaner 10 GHz rig.  I met with Jim on Friday evening at the Kisker Road SSM Medical building and I showed him how to tune in the WB9PNU beacon, how to  employ panning, elevation and building reflection. Jim took to this like a duck to water!  He wasn't available Saturday, but he was open for Sunday.

Weather forecast wise, Saturday was the pick day.  Rain was expected Sunday AM and all through the day and into Monday.  Saturday, September 21st, the skies were sunny with a few clouds but there was rain scatter to my east.  Gedas gave me a phone call and persuaded me to give it a try.  Although it was somewhat of a long shot, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?  I set up in three different spots in EM48:  A levy just north of MidRivers Mall EM48qs, St. Roberts church also EM48qs (the trees have grown since I was there last) and finally at Kisker Road SSM Medical building where Jim and I were the night earlier.  At 4:30 pm, Gedas EN70jt could see my signal on his panadapter and he was able to hear my weak signal just above his noise floor.  Me, on the other hand, could not hear him.  Darn, another one-way contact. It was worth the effort.  Maybe Sunday will prove to be better but I wasn't hopeful.  The forecast called for rain and lots of it.

Around 3:00 am Sunday, September 22 I awoke to thunder.  Sure enough, it was raining.  Herbert called me at 4:45 am and we decided it didn't make too much sense to drive to Hannibal to try to work Gary WB0LJC in the rain.  Gary was impacted as well and he changed his plans.  Bruce W9FZ and his wife Janice KA9VVQ in southern WI were also rain impacted. I suggested to Herbert we take a wait and see approach  

As luck would have it, a dry slot developed and Herbert, Jim and myself made our way to Louisiana, MO EM49lk.  We arrived in rain but the dry slot appeared and we tried to work Gedas W8BYA to no avail.  The T-storms that woke us up, now to our east between us and Gedas, weakened.  No joy this time.  In the meantime, both Herbert and I wanted Jim KK0U to make his very first 10 GHz QSO.  So, I scurried across the Mississippi River to Illinois and EM49ll and a marina just over a km away.

                                    EM49ll in Illinois looking west towards KK0U and AF4JF in EM49lk

                             AF4JF looking east from EM49lk towards the EM49ll marina

 At 1:55 pm, I made both a CW and SSB contact with Jim and Herbert.  This was Jim's first 10 GHz QSO and his first interstate MO-IL contact!  After the QSOs, I packed up my gear and headed back to the Missouri side of the Mississippi to our EM49lk location.

 Around 2:20 pm, from EN42sv, Bruce W9FZ and his wife Janice KA9VVQ made a 385 km (239 miles) QSO with Jim KK0U and Herbert AF4JF! I wasn't able to hear them with my rig.  Bruce and Janice moved to EN42px and again made a two-way with Herbert and Jim!  

  

                                           

                                                     My view from the Illinois marina in EM49ll.

                                          Jim KK0U ready for 10 GHz DX from EM49lk!

                                     Herbert AF4JF tapping out CW for a successful QSO from EM49lk

                                        

           Ron KO0Z looking across the Mississippi at the lowest altitude rainbow he's ever seen!

                      

                                           Ron KO0Z looking towards Bruce and Janice in WI EM42px

All in all, the second leg of the contest was salvaged and I had a very fun time.Welcome to Jim KK0U our newest SLAMS member!  A big shout-out to all the participating ops.  THANK YOU!