KO0Z and KC9ULA's August 2024 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest Adventure

 Saturday, 17 August 2024, 9:00 am, Debbie KC9ULA and Ron KO0Z loaded up the pickup and headed to Frenchmen's Bluff at Cuivre River State Park in EM49ma which has a spectacular view to SW, W and NW.

                           Debbie KC9ULA and Toula with Ron KO0Z at EM49ma Frenchmen's Bluff
 

By 10:25 am Ron heard Greg WQ0P in EM19wf (Kansas) on CW with a 529 signal and QSB.  Greg could see KO0Z on his waterfall, but wasn't able to hear his signal.  Briefly, Greg heard Ron's signal for about 5 seconds.  Perhaps it was airplane scatter.  This was SLAMS first attempt at activating Frenchmen's bluff.   Both of them were unable to hear each other.  KO0Z also tried to work Pete NO0Y in EM18ct about 90 miles further west from Greg. On the up side, a young couple asked us if they could get in front of the dish which put them closer to the ledge.  From there, the young man proposed to the young lady and she accepted!

The weather was nice with temperatures in the upper 80s and partly cloudy skies.  No high pressure, heat dome for this leg of the contest.

From there, Ron and Debbie made their way just west of Kingdom City, EM38wf along the south service road of Interstate 70.

                              EM38xw looking west along I-70 towards WQ0P and NO0Y

                                          EM38xw looking east toward Gedas W8BYA

 After grabbing lunch at Arby's, Debbie and Ron arrived at Kingdom City EM38xw around 12:45pm.  Ron KO0Z EM38xw and Greg WQ0P EM19wf made a two-way CW QSO around 1:00 pm for a distance of 354 km (220 mile) 3 cm contact! Ron tried Pete NO0Y in EM18ct.  Still no luck.  Next Ron tried to put Gedas W8BYA, EN70, a 622 km attempt in the logbook.  No luck.  We even tried rain scatter with a T-storm over Louisville, KY.

At least EM38 provided us with a two-way contact.  From there we decided to head north via MO Route 63.  Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS were heading to Frenchmen's Bluff and planned to be QRV by 3:00 pm.  Debbie and Ron needed to find a suitable site.  They found it at Moberly airport, EM39sl.  It has a good view both east and west.

                                                         Moberly, MO airport EM39sl

Around 3:24 pm, Ron and Debbie attempted to put Herbert and Harry in their logbook.  It's only 136 km to Frenchmen's bluff, but neither party were able to hear or see one another.  Curious...  Darn the luck.  Oh well, time was beginning to run short.  We all had agreed to rendezvous at Lover's Leap EM49hq just south of Hannibal with Kevin AD7OI by 6 pm.  Consequently, Ron and Debbie packed up and left.  Regrettably, they didn't try to see if Greg was available.  They still needed to reach Macon and then take US Route 36 east to Hannibal.  About 90 minutes away.

Ron and Debbie made good time.  They arrived in Hannibal by 5:15.  They picked up a Casey's Taco Pizza and headed up to EM49hq.  By 6:00 pm they were set up.  Kevin and his wife Tammy KI7GVT Herbert and Harry were waiting for them.  

                      Ron KO0Z ready to make some Qs from EM49hq, Lover's Leap, Hannibal, MO 

     Kevin AD7OI with his 60 watt, 10 GHz dish, along with Tammy, Herbert, Harry and Debbie

 

                  Herbert AF4JF at EM49hq making an adjustment overlooking the Mississippi River

 

                                     Harry WA0CNS pointing his dish to work John K9JK

 Kevin AD7OI was able to work John K9JK from EM49hq in Illinois on SSB.  Herbert AF4JF worked John K9JK from there on CW with his 5 watts but Harry wasn't able to hear John.  Ron KO0Z's rig blew a fuse and his spare so it was his turn to be "dead in the water." from this location.  Drats.  Kevin was able to work the Minnesota rover crew WB0LJC, WA9TT, N0UK & K0HC while they were in central Iowa, but neither AF4JF or WA0CNS heard their signals.

Propagation just wasn't as favorable this leg of the contest as it was the summer before.  This year a cold front passed through the area which provided much more conducive outdoor temperatures with lower humidity but poorer microwave propagation.

As Ron KO0Z was trying to figure out his rig failure, a bystander who is into astronomy wandered by and asked him what everyone was doing.  Before long, Ron discovered his name is Bernard and he is from France.  This gave Ron an opportunity to try out his very rusty French and they had a delightful conversation in French!

                                          Bernard from Paris inquiring about our contest activities.

All in all, not a bad day.  It was fun.  Ron and Debbie put on 300 miles and make several radio attempts, but managed only 1 contact for the day. Now to troubleshoot KO0Z's rig.  Would we do it again.  Yes, in a heartbeat!

Field Day, SHF Style!

 When thinking about Field Day, typically hams think of the event in terms of the HF bands, 80, 40,20, 15 and 10 meters.  Some clubs include 6 and 2 meters.  This year, SLAMS decided to push the log ever so slightly into the UHF-SHF bands.  Namely, we decided to operate FD on 1.2  and 10 GHz!

Ron KO0Z operated with the St. Charles Amateur Club (SCARC) set up at Immaculate Conception Parish (ICD) soccer fields in Dardenne Prairie and Herbert AF4JF worked with the St. Louis QRP Society (SLQS) operating from Spanish Village Park near Earth City.

For approximately three months, Ron and Herbert talked about reflecting signals off the communications tower next to ICD.  We were inspired by Ben K4QF's MUD paper elaborating on 10 GHz propagation using commercial TV towers.  Although our tower is nowhere near as tall as a TV tower, approximately 250 ft as opposed to 1,000 ft, it was still worth a try!

This photo depicts Herbert AF4JF's view of the tower approximately one-third of a mile to the west, just left of the setting sun.

This view is from Ron KO0Z's perspective, approximately 200 yards away.  Herbert AF4JF would be northeast of Ron.

Both of us discovered illuminating the top half of the communications tower provided excellent results.  Moving our dishes a degree to either side of the azimuth heading towards the tower resulted of loss of signal.  SCARC members were impressed to see 3 cm propagation.  About 5 SCARC members made two-way contacts with Herbert!  Each received a "First Contact Award!"  

An even better point source turned out to be the WB9PNU/B approximately 18 miles away to the east.  We were copying it 599 off the top half of the communications tower.  Ron was unable to copy the beacon pointing his dish towards its location.  Too much vegetation.  Needless to say, SCARC members were very impressed.  So was I and Herbert.  We plan to be at opposite ends of the tower and see just how far we can copy each other's signals in the near future.  Somehow, I think the STL TV stations TV towers will be next!

The elevation profile between ICD (SCARC FD site) and the WB9PNU beacon is interesting.

After finishing up our demo and FD contacts on 10 GHz, Herbert AF4JF went back to the SLQS FD site near Earth City and Ron KO0Z went to SSM Medical offices near Kisker Road and Hwy 364 near Harvester, MO.  The distance between SSM and SLQS is approximately 9.5 miles.  Ron and Herbert exchanged 5x9 SSB signals on 1.2 GHz!  However, Ron's PTT RCA connector broke a lead and we weren't able to make a 10 GHz Q, but both of us are sure we could have made the 3 cm Q.

The elevation profile between SSM and SLQS is very interesting.  SSM is on the far left of the profile and SLQS is on the right.  The big "valley/dip" just right of center is the Missouri River.  We had two large obstructions between us.  Going right from SSM is the Caulk's Hill ridge in Harvester.  Further to the right is the Hwy 94/Hwy 364 interchange.

All in all, we had a great time adding microwave contacts to both club's FD logs!  Best of all, we experimented with Ben K4QF's MUD findings and met with success! Now, we want to experiment even more with this mode! Evidently uW tower propagation applies equally well in MO as it does in AL!  Tnx Ben!

Missouri QSO Party Results

We have published brief posting about the Missouri QSO Party contest (MOQP) about two months ago. That was mostly HF, but also some VHF activity with lots of fun!

We have done this together with the local QRP club, the Saint Louis QRP Society.

Contest results were published this week. Herbert AF4JF, Ron KO0Z and especially our new SLAMS member Tony KT0AA won in their categories! Looks like this will be one nice opportunity for VHF+ contacts in the future.

AF4JF/R operating from Cottleville, St. Charles County, MO in EM48qs

More Radio-Activity

Warmer weather that accompanies the onset of Summer in Missouri always brings, besides the air temperatures and sunshine, also some VHF+ and general ham radio activity. 

Spring SPRINT 50MHz contest took place on May 11. Herbert AF4JF and Tony KT0AA went to Winfield area to test antennas - Tony used a nice loop and Herbert tested his dual-hamstick dipole. Both antennas were horizontally polarized. Comparing by asking several stations about our signal strengths gave us the expected answer - the loop antenna was a little better than the dipole.

AF4JF and KT0AA in Foley, MO (EM49oa)

The June ARRL VHF Contest kept us busy for two days in June, Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th. Ron KO0Z, Harry WA0CNS and Herbert AF4JF spent Saturday making VHF contacts from EM48 and EM49 grids in the Winfield area. As always, we combined the Sunday VHF activity with one of the local hamfests on the Illinois side of the river (the Egyptian Hamfest in Granite City), lunch at the famous Uncle Linny's restaurant and VHF operation from Edwardsville EM58.

AF4JF in Foley EM49oa

AF4JF and WA0CNS in Granite City EM48wq

AF4JF in Edwardsville EM58as

WA0CNS setting up in Edwardsville EM58as

SPRINT Microwave

The SLAMS group was planning on combining the Microwave SPRINT contest with MAD Day (Microwave Activity Day) and with Pere Marquette park activation (POTA). Our plans have changed last minute and we ended up just testing our microwave equipment after months of winter storage.

Herbert AF4JF set up at the Community College near Cottleville, Missouri. Ron KO0Z on Kisker Road behind the close SSM medical facility and Harry WA0CNS went to his favorite place on High Ridge, MO. Ron worked me (Herbert) from Kisker Road and then moved to my location to work Harry. We used 1296MHz and 10GHz, QSOs were made on both bands. Harry WA0CNS used his multi-band SDR transceiver he built from SDR ADALM PLUTO and Raspberry Pi with a touch screen with about 200mW output power on 23cm. That was enough to work both of us on SSB although we were both running > 10W. Distance between us and Harry was 33 km (21 miles, EM48qs to EM48rl) and there is NO line of sight between these locations but we always make the 10GHz contact anyway.

AF4JF in EM48qs

Elevation profile between EM48qs and EM48rl (right side)

SPRINT 432 again

VHF+ SPRINT contests return twice every year in 5 sections - 50, 144. 222. 432 and microwave. We of the local SLAMS group around Saint Louis only participated from our homes in the 144 and 222MHz sections this year, mostly due to bad weather (you do not want to be on the hilltop during severe thunderstorm). However, the weather last night was perfect for VHF+ activity, so we went outdoors again.

When I said "we", I meant a combination of SLAMS and SLQS (Saint Louis QRP Society) members. Also, the participating stations were members of either one or both of these groups. There was no other band activity in our area - a problem we see in every contest now.

Tony KT0AA and Herbert AF4JF went to Winfield (North of St. Charles, Missouri) to the EM48-EM49 grid line. There is a nice hill with a huge railroad communications tower where we usually go for this kind of activity. Worked couple of stations, Including Harry WA0CNS and Tom W0MFQ. Tom was testing his 144MHz Yagi antenna, which was the reason why we took the 2m KLM beam on AF4JF's car to 70cm contest. Everything worked exceptionally fine and we made QSOs on both band, 144 and 432MHz, even with antennas for opposite polarization.

Several pictures to document the rover setups:

WA0CNS in EM48

AF4JF in EM49

Missouri QSO Party and Solar Eclipse QSO Party

Both QSO parties were mostly HF events, but since we made several VHF/UHF contacts, they belong on this blog too. 

MOQP took place on Saturday and Sunday, April 6 and 7, 2024. The SEQP followed just one day later, on April 8, the day of the 2024 solar eclipse (click on the links to see rules). Some SLAMS members attended these events together with members of the Saint Louis QRP Society (SLQS). Definitely very interesting events!

Herbert AF4JF attended the MOQP as a Rover (mobile station per MOQP rules) from Saint Charles County in EM48 on Saturday and Lincoln County in EM49 on Sunday. Used a mobile Tarheel antenna 80-6m, 18ft. vertical and horizontal loops for VHF/UHF.

AF4JF in Saint Charles, 1st day MOQP

My dog Darcey in Saint Charles, 1st day MOQP

Darcey in Lincoln County, 2nd day MOQP

AF4JF in Lincoln County, 2nd day MOQP
(the big tower belongs to Railroad, not to me)

SEQP from a public park in EM48

Another view of the AF4JF station in EM48 during SEQP

Everything considered, these were great events! We will include more VHF+ activities next time.