ARRL 10GHz And Up 2020 as seen by AF4JF

As Ron KO0Z has just published in his posting, some of the members of the SLAMS group attended second leg of the ARRL 10GHz And Up contest today. We have not attended the first leg for various reasons, so we decided to take it light and only participate in one day of the activities. Some of our usual contacts went to the Great Lakes for this contest anyway.

As we published earlier this week, we have recently tried to use good tropo propagation to work Russ KB8U and Gedas W8BYA on 10GHz. We didn't make the QSOs, but it was close. Gedas W8BYA and Ron KO0Z copied each other S-8, but the propagation didn't last long to complete the QSO. Driven by this in our mind, we tried again and scheduled some tests with Gedas this morning. However, there was no propagation, no enhancement from Mr. Hepburn or Rain Scatter and we didn't make a QSO today. No problem, there will be more thunderstorms in the future!

We have picked a location at one of the YMCA gyms in Saint Louis, because it is close to the WB9PNU beacon and because we have worked stations from the direction to Gedas on this hill before. Following picture shows the horizon in the direction of 60 degrees:

Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS set up their stations for 10GHz and 122GHz today. Darcey (Herbert's dog) made sure everything was set up properly:

Speaking about 122GHz - Harry and Herbert both used the popular module from Australia with a radar chip on it. The modules worked well, but we will have to make some finishing touches to our stations - thermal insulation being one of them. The CW signal was a little unstable until Herbert covered the unit by Darcey's drinking bowl to lower frequency drifting. The units are GPS-disciplined by 1pps signal, but the short term stability needs to be improved. However, that didn't stop us from making our first QSO.

All this activity took place in the morning. Ron, KO0Z arrived at his location on the cliff in EM48rx shortly after 10:00 am and we made our contest QSOs on 10GHz.

Herbert and Harry moved from YMCA in EM48sq to the Community College in St. Peters (EM48qs) and later to the town of Wentzville (EM48ot) and mase several more contest QSOs on 10GHz. It was shortly after 1:00 pm when we decided to stop for the day and return home.

ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest, Saturday 17 August Round 1!

A fun day today!  I had a few glitches to overcome such as bad connections on my battery booster.  Gosh does that make a difference between making a Q and not!  From EM49sq I worked Harry, WA0CNS on CW and USB!  I worked Herbert, AF4JF on CW and Armond, KD0PXF on USB!  I later worked Zack, W9SZ from EN50rl.  I tried working Ron, W9ZIH (EN51nv), Garth W0GR (WM38ax) and Jim W9SNR from EN52xr with no luck.  The WB9PNU/b was roaring in the best I've heard it (outside of being next to it in DePaul's parking lot!) with S-9+ signals up until 9:30 am or so.

Perhaps Sunday will be even better with higher humidity levels predicted.

73 es GL,

Ron, KO0Z

 This is looking towards St. Louis from on top of Ohlman, IL Cemetery hill, EM59ji

 WB9PNU/b is roaring in!

 Looking towards the northeast towards Zack in EN50rl

 Looking East.  BTW, there is a geocache in the juniper tree on the left!

 Looking Southeast.

 Looking Southwest.

 Here is due west.  St. Louis and EM48qs is just to the left side of the picture.  81.5 miles away!

 Looking Northwest.

EM49ua my fifth grid square!

This is the distant grain silo that reflected the signals from EM49ua!

Pointing towards EM49ua

A big thank you to Dave, KB0PE and John, WB9PNU for venturing out to the Dow site, EM49ua to put it on the air Saturday 15 September.  By six am they were up and running and they were able to work Garth, W0GR both CW and USB.  This makes another new grid for Garth!  Congrats guys.  Next they were able to hear Zack, W9SZ in EM50rl, but then his signal disappeared.  Evidently Zack's transverter went out of lock and they were unable to make a two-way, which was especially annoying because this is the first time John has been able to hear Zack from this particular site.  Drats. It is now around 7:00 am I am up and running and I am hearing the WB9PNU/b 5X7.    Telemetry indicates that at 12:58Z the beacon is putting out 2.45 watts, voltage is 12.94 volts, internal temp of 70.5 degrees and external PA temp of 49 degrees.  At 12:14Z I work Dave and John on CW with 599 signals.  At 13:06Z I work Dave and John on USB!  Propagation was so good that morning that I was able to hear Dave and John off the backside of my dish.  When I was swinging it back towards them I noticed that their signal peaked when my dish was pointed at a metal grain silo!  Sure enough, upon closer inspection, the angle of inflection equaled the angle of reflection!  Too cool!