2009 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest

VE3FN -- Nov 5, 2009 19:23 ET

On 10 GHz, I use a DB6NT transverter and pre-amp. My 12 Watt power amplifier is from DL2AM and my antenna is a 2-foot dish.

This year I added a 24 GHz station based on a DB6NT transverter, LO (PLL locked), and pre-amp. The power amp is from Toshiba and it runs about 1 Watt output. The antenna is an 18” dish. I would like to give special thanks to Mike N1JEZ and Henry KT1J who kindly gave me some key components and Paul W2PED who tuned my waveguide filter. I would also like to thank Wayne VE3CZO for helping with much of the construction – especially those areas requiring steady hands.

I enter the contest simply to have fun! I enjoy working longer paths and really don't care very much about getting a high score. So while the sites from which I operate are quite good, they are “off the beaten path” thus greatly limiting the possible number of QSOs (only 18 this year). However, all of them are over fairly long paths. To illustrate, on 10 GHz, the shortest path I worked was 215 km and the longest was 490 km. The average path length worked was about 357 km.

I again operated from 4 sites in eastern Ontario and western Quebec during the contest. The first is a hilltop in FN25bl, a little north west of my Ottawa home and just inside Quebec (VE2). Everything must be carried in to this site. The second is the 2800 foot summit of Mont Tremblant, Quebec (FN26rf) and access is via a gondola lift. The third is at the top of a small hill in Numogate Ontario (FN14xw) while the fourth is from the top of a hill in Foymount Ontario (FN15ik).

Foymount was the site of a military radar station in the former Pinetree line. I understand that at over 1700 feet ASL, it is the highest populated location in Ontario. The hamlet is built on the north side of the hill and, as you might imagine, it has good shots to the north. But from the top of the hill, there are also good shots in all other directions if you move around a little.

I believe that all 5 of the QSOs we worked from Numogate FN14xw (afternoon of Sunday Aug 16) were on rain scatter – my first experience with that mode. Signals on the first QSO (KA1OJ) had the distinctive hiss that is usually associated with rain scatter. And signals peaked on the direct path.

But signals from the other four I worked (on Mount Washington) were strong (I was able to work all on SSB, including K1LPS who was running about 250 milliwatts) and lacked any hiss or distortion on the 383 km path. However, while they were beaming the direct path to me, I heard no signal from them when I listened on the direct path -- their signals peaked when I pointed my antenna about 25 degrees north of the direct path. This suggests that there was a bounce near my end. But there is no tall man-made structure in the direction I pointed. However, there were clouds.

My second personal first was that I made my first (and, so far, only) contact on 24 GHz on the second Saturday (Sept 19) when I worked N1JEZ on Mount Mansfield (FN34om) while I was operating from the summit of Mont Tremblant (FN26rf). Mike had a very good signal on SSB over the 234 km path. The first Saturday, I had tried to work N1JEZ on Mount Mansfield when I was operating from FN25bl. Even though signals on 10 GHz were very strong, the longer path (256 km) combined with high humidity killed our attempt.

I was very glad to work Dave K2DH on 10 GHz. The Rochester gang gave me my first ever contacts on 10 GHz a few years ago. I missed hearing them last year and I am very happy that K2DH operated during the second weekend. In fact, he was my only QSO that Sunday!

My thanks to VE3XK who helped me throughout the contest, and to VE3AAQ and VE3CZO who assisted on one day of the contest.

73

Ray Perrin -- VE3FN

Haze at FN25bl on first Saturday reveals high humidity	VE3FN listening on 24 GHz while VE3XK operates 144 MHz station at FN15ik
Shot towards W1 from FN15ik	Shot towards south from FN15ik
Mont Tremblant FN26rf shot to SW	Mont Tremblant FN26rf shot to south. VE3XK operating 144 MHz station.
VE3FN at Mont Tremblant FN26rf in 2007.

N0EDV -- Sep 20, 2009 22:47 ET

Photos from the second weekend as members from the Northern Lights Radio Society gather on top of the Buck Hill ski resort to operate. On Saturday (September 19th) we had 91 degrees up there! Crazy for MN at this time of year!

I had 144 QSOs during the second weekend and 25 from the first weekend, for a total of 169 QSOs. Not bad for my very first microwave contest! I built my system from a kit from Downeast Microwave and it worked flawlessly. I only missed one QSO from the rover pack (KC0P, running 200 mW, I believe, from one of their stops). My system runs at 10 mW from the transverter and drives the DEMI 2W amp.

Scott -- N0EDV

N1JFU -- Aug 22, 2009 14:16 ET

Dishes of N1JFU, N1JFU, W1AIM and K1LPS ontop of Mt. Washington, FN44ig.

Full article at http://n1jfu.blogspot.com/

Had a great weekend! First day was Mt. Kearsarge FN43bj, Second day was at Mt. Washington, FN44ig. Had some minor equipment problems, but managed to make some last minute field repairs. -- N1JFU

N0EDV -- Aug 18, 2009 22:46 ET

More Photos from the first weekend! -- N0EDV

W1AUV -- Aug 17, 2009 22:10 ET

First Weekend

Sunny and hot is the best way to describe the first weekend of the contest in New England. Conditions? Well, regardless of propagation I define conditions in terms of people. We had what seemed like more people than we did last year. I guess maybe good weather brings them out. I will say that I still wish we had more.

I went to Mount Greylock on Saturday. I mad a lot of contacts on the Eastern Overlook but I had to go up to the parking lot on top to work towards the north. I picked up VE2JWH in FN45bp and N1JEZ, W1GHZ and W1AIM in FN34om. Good thing I moved! After lunch I worked one more station from one of the western overlooks (WA2FGK) but after that I had to move. I picked up a few more contacts from FN32hi but missed with K2KIB from my 'hole in the trees' spot in FN32ii. We'll get that one next time Jim.

On Sunday I went to Hogback Ski Area near Wilmington VT. I bounce my signal off the roof of the building when I need to work north but Hogback has a great shot to the south. I wish it was a little better to the west though. I had an eyeball with KK1CW which was very nice. Always nice to meet another ham on a hill.

I made all the contacts I could at Hogback before heading to Mt. Equinox. I made a lot of contacts there including repeat contacts with VE2JWH and WA2FGK. I almost got VE3FN on rain scatter. I'm sorry I missed that one.

I have full sized panoramic photos that I'll stick up on my googlepages site as soon as I can finish them up. For now I have posted them here where they will likely be too small to see real details.

I am looking forward to the next weekend! Thanks to everyone who worked me. Special thanks to my to the newlyweds on Block Island AF1T and W1MKY. They make this contest fun!

Second Weekend

I took a chance on Saturday of the second weekend of the contest and went to Mohawk Mountain in CT. Conditions were pretty bad. I had a lot of trouble even trying to communicate on the liaison frequency. I managed to make a 303 km contact with N1JEZ on Mount Mansfield and a few other decent contacts.

When I arrived on Mohawk I was pleased to see W1RT. He stayed on Mohawk for a while but moved further south mid morning for a better shot to the south.

On Sunday with my buddy Alan in tow I went to Mount Wachusett. Things started off good and just got better. I wasn’t alone on the mountain: besides the gaggles of bird watchers, hikers and sight-seers, there were at least half a dozen hams including K1OR and his 5 foot dish. He and I were up against the south wall of the parking lot. I made a lot of good contacts including a 360 km with WA2FGK and a 420 km with W3SZ. I also made another near (personal) record contact: a 571 km contact with K1RZ in Damascus MD. These sure made up for the bad day on Mohawk. Conditions were very good at the end of the day but I had to head home around 5:00PM.

I would like to thanks everyone again for a great contest and for hanging in there for the tough ones. I’m looking forward to next year. 73 Tommy

-- W1AUV

<B>Mount Greylock Eastern Overlook (FN32kp)</B>	<b>Hogback Ski Area (FN32ou)</b>
Looking down the road on Equinox where I worked WA2FGK.	The dish on Mt. Equinox.
W1RT on Mohawk Mt near Goshen CT (FN31it)	Competition for my dish on Mohawk Mt. Looking Southeast from (FN31it)
K1OR on Mt. Wachusett (FN42bl)	My van and my dish on Mt. Wachusett (FN42bl)

N0EDV -- Aug 17, 2009 07:20 ET

View from my back yard (EN45fa) to EN34ir. Qso completed at 143 Km.

My first microwave contest and I sure had fun the first weekend! Longest QSO was 290.6 Km which I don't think is too bad for a 10 GHz transverter I built from the DEMI kit with 2W (external amp) out and a NF of 3.5 dB. -- N0EDV

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